Foresight Institute [About the Foresight Institute]
Publications Index

Foresight Update 15 (page 4)

A publication of the Foresight Institute

Table of Contents - Foresight Update 15

Thanks

Special thanks go to Dr. James Dinkelacker for his work as Foresight's Executive Director. Dr. Dinkelacker's achievements at Foresight are too numerous to list here; Foresight members have seen their effects add up since Jamie was convinced to relocate to Palo Alto in 1991. See the article in this issue on Dr. Dinkelacker's move to AMIX and Foresight's Board of Advisors.

Enthusiastic thanks go to volunteer Carol Shaw as her term as bookkeeper comes to a close. Her work in computerizing the Foresight financial records has been invaluable and will be greatly appreciated into the indefinite future by her successors.

Conference chairman Eric Drexler and conference organizer Chris Peterson extend special thanks to the many volunteers who helped make the First General Conference on Nanotechnology a success: Jamie Dinkelacker, Dave Krieger, Tom McKendree, Chip Morningstar, Norma Peterson, Dave Wilson, and many others who joined in as needed. Thanks also to the speakers and sponsors (see article in this issue), who gave so generously of their time and funds, respectively. The firm of Niehaus Ryan Haller Public Relations, especially Ron Pernick and senior partner Ed Niehaus, performed wonderfully in enabling our message to reach the public through education of the press. In recognition of their long hours, thanks go to staff members Jane Nikkel of Foresight and Kathleen Shatter of IMM.

In connection with the meeting, a prize in molecular nanotechnology was proposed and initial funds were pledged by Foresight members Marc Arnold and Ted Kaehler. Work on establishing the prize is in progress by volunteers Vic Kley and Ted Kaehler and will be reported in a later issue.

Vigorous thanks go to members who send in relevant articles and news, including but not limited to: Jim Conyngham, Clifton Cooper, Dave Forrest, Rupert Hazle, Julian Hoogstra, Jeff LaPorte, Thomas McCarthy, Tom McKendree, David Montane, Ed Regis, Mark Reiners, Marta Sandberg, Bryan Shelby, A. Tsoularis, Jack Veach. Please keep these coming; the subject of nanotechnology is so broad that only a cooperative effort can succeed in the information-gathering task.

On a lighter note, member Jim Till sent along some shirts commemorating the recent conference, for distribution to the volunteers as thank-you gifts. These were greatly enjoyed.

Table of Contents - Foresight Update 15

Send Fax, Email Info

We at the Foresight Institute would like to communicate much more frequently with our membership. The paper newsletter is fine for some purposes, but it is costly to produce and mail, and uses up more trees than we'd like. There's a better way to do frequent communication: fax and electronic mail. To use these means we need your fax number and/or email address. Unless you've already sent these in, please do so now.

If you're outside the U.S., try to put your fax number into a format we can use: for example, often a zero before the city code needs to be deleted. Your email address needs to be in Internet format; it should look roughly similar to ours (foresight@cup.portal.com) including an @ sign, and ending in com, gov, edu, org, or a country code such as us, ca, uk, etc.

[Editor's note: Foresight's current email address is inform@foresight.org.]

Even after some communications have moved into fax or online, Foresight's paper publications will continue in parallel.

Table of Contents - Foresight Update 15

Write to Foresight

One of Foresight's main goals is to communicate the concepts of nanotechnology and molecular manufacturing to members of various groups, from scientists to students. You can help us refine these explanations: How do the people you know generally react to these ideas? Please write us and describe your experiences explaining nanotechnology to others. Which ideas are easy to get across and which are difficult? Which examples and explanations are most effective? How do these depend on the listener's background? Please describe any problems you've encountered. And, last, please tell us a bit about yourself. Send to Foresight Institute, Attn: Conversations, PO Box 61058, Palo Alto, CA 94306; or email to foresight@cup.portal.com.

[Editor's note: Foresight's current email address is inform@foresight.org.]

Table of Contents - Foresight Update 15

Foresight Notes

Nanosystems study group

The first Nanosystems study group has been formed at Stanford, organized by Ted Kaehler and chaired by Prof. Bob Solovay of U.C. Berkeley. For more information, send email to kaehler2@applelink.apple.com or call 408-974-6241.

Molecular CAD at PARC

Geoff Leach is visiting Xerox PARC, working with Ralph Merkle for six months while on a sabbatical from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. Geoff has a background in computational geometry and graphical software and is working on molecular CAD tools. The focus of his sabbatical is an interactive graphical crystal editor. This tool should permit the easy design of a range of molecules whose structure is a variation of some crystal structure. This includes molecular bearings, tubes, shafts, and a broad range of other mechanical devices.

Help Foresight

Our operations and membership are expanding. Your institute could benefit greatly from donations of office space in the Palo Alto area, a plain-paper fax machine, or Macintosh equipment. Also, as our fundraising efforts increase, we could benefit from learning about potential corporate members: companies that need to keep abreast of nanotechnology. For more information, contact Foresight and request corporate member information.

First Foresight Workshop

The Foresight Institute hosted "Introduction to Nanotechnology: a Foresight Institute Briefing" this past July 11th at the Stern Center in Palo Alto. It was attended by over 50 old and new members. A range of presentations across the technical and social spectrum were given: Members expressed a high level of satisfaction with the briefing and requested that others be held in the future.

Editor's note: Dr. Jamie Dinkelacker chaired the workshop. He extends special thanks to Jane Nikkel and Chip Morningstar for their coordination and volunteer efforts.

Table of Contents - Foresight Update 15

Recent Events

Ralph Merkle has lectured on nanotechnology and/or the related topic of reversible computation at Stanford Linear Accelerator, Xerox PARC, Physics of Computation Workshop, IBM Yorktown, Interval Research, among others. He was also interviewed on NPR's "Talk of the Nation" program.

Eric Drexler has lectured at the W. Alton Jones Foundation, the Pentagon, and brought a nanotechnology perspective to an Office of Technology Assessment Workshop on international security issues.

Markus Krummenacker lectured on nanotechnology at the University of Zurich. Gregory Fahy spoke on medical nanotechnology at the US Pharmacopeial Convention in September. Kathleen Shatter lectured on nanotechnology at an environmental conference in Corsica in August.

Due to lack of space in this issue, coverage of media articles will be postponed. Briefly, nanotechnology has been discussed in a myriad publications including Time, Science News, San Francisco Chronicle, San Jose Mercury News, and Los Angeles Daily Journal.

Table of Contents - Foresight Update 15

Two Foresight Nanotechnology Conference Proceedings

Proceedings volumes are now available for Foresight's first two technical conferences, the first from MIT Press and the second from the journal Nanotechnology, published by the Institute of Physics.

Nanotechnology: Research and Perspectives, ed. BC Crandall and James Lewis, MIT Press, 1992, 390 pp., hardcover $39.95.

Proceedings from the First Foresight Conference on Nanotechnology--the first international technical conference held on the topic--were issued in December 1992. Edited by BC Crandall and James Lewis, the volume is heavily illustrated, and gives a good overview of the various fields contributing to molecular nanotechnology development. MIT Press editor Terry Ehling reports that the book is doing well in early sales. Foresight plans to make this book available by mail order; meanwhile it can be ordered using Visa or MasterCard from MIT Press at telephone 800-356-0343 or fax 617-625-6660.

[Editor's note: See Foresight Book Order Form.]

Papers included are:

Toward Molecular Control: Second Foresight Conference on Molecular Nanotechnology

Fifteen papers from this conference comprise a double issue of the journal Nanotechnology, published by the Institute of Physics. To order this double issue, write or fax to: IOP Publishing Ltd., Customer Service, Techno House, Redcliffe Way, Bristol BS1 6NX, England; fax 44-272-294-318. Request the two issues (Volume 2, numbers 3 and 4) in the bound-together version if still available. The cost is $134 or £69, payable by Visa, check, or bank transfer.

Papers included are:
Table of Contents - Foresight Update 15

New Advisors Named

Dr. James Dinkelacker, formerly Executive Director of Foresight and now Vice President of Marketing at the American Information Exchange, has joined the Foresight Board of Advisors. Chris Peterson explained, "While Jamie's day-to-day input will be missed, Foresight will have his ongoing advice and assistance in management, communications, marketing, and research. We wish him success at AMIX and in all his future projects, and we look forward to his ongoing participation in the Foresight effort."

Four new members have been added to the Advisory Board of the Institute for Molecular Manufacturing: Kathleen Shatter, IMM's Executive Director, explains: "With IMM's expanding goals, we needed to bring on additional talent that can help make this new research institute happen. Each of our new advisors brings a new and valuable perspective to the project of growing IMM."

Table of Contents - Foresight Update 15

Foresight thanks Dave Kilbridge for converting Update 15 to html for this web page.

From Foresight Update 15, originally published 15 February 1993.
On to next page


For ongoing nanotechnology
information, Register for a		Free Electronic Membership
To help prepare
for nanotechnology		Make a Donation to Support Foresight
To play a key role
in Foresight's efforts		Become a Senior Associate

| Index of Foresight Publications | About the Foresight Institute | Foresight Institute Home Page |
Foresight materials on the Web are ©1986-1997 Foresight Institute. All rights reserved.
Last updated 31March97. The URL of this document is: http://www.foresight.org/Updates/Update15/Update15.4.html
Send requests for information about Foresight Institute activities and membership to inform@foresight.org.
Send comments and questions about material on this web site and reports of errors to webmaster@foresight.org.