March 2009

What Nanotechnology Can Do for Your Average Donut

by Andrew Maynard March 30, 2009

A guest blog by Dr. Frans Kampers, director of the Wageningen biotechnology center for food and health innovation (BioNT) at the Wageningen University and Research Center in the Netherlands. Using nanotechnology to make food better—it seems like a good idea, but does it have its downsides?  Questions over the safety and wisdom of using nanotech [...]

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New carbon nanotube study raises the health impact stakes

by Andrew Maynard March 26, 2009

I’m looking at an electron microscope image of a carbon nanotube – as I cannot show it here, you’ll have to imagine it.  It shows a long, straight, multi-walled carbon nanotube, around 100 nanometers wide and 10 micrometers long.  There is nothing particularly unusual about this.  What is unusual is that the image also shows [...]

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Confessions of a “media hog”

by Andrew Maynard March 26, 2009

There are some things they don’t cover in media training, like giving interviews while suffering from stomach flu, talking to reporters thousands of miles away while on a dodgy cell phone connection, or speaking intelligently while your three-year-old niece runs rings around your legs.  It’s probably because they come under the “so bloody stupid no [...]

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New life, old bottles: The video

by Andrew Maynard March 25, 2009

A five-minute primer on the promise and challenge of first-generation synthetic biology As an addendum to the previous post on synthetic biology, the following interview from the Wilson Center provides a great overview of what synthetic biology is all about, and the potential challenges of ensuring its safe development and use: Get the Flash Player [...]

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Are we ready for synthetic biology?

by Andrew Maynard March 25, 2009

A new report looks at the challenges of regulating first generation products of synthetic biology. At the J. Craig Venter Institute, scientists are on the verge of creating a living organism from “dead” chemicals, by rebooting a microbe with a new—and completely artificially constructed—genome. At the University of California Berkeley, researchers are modifying microbes to [...]

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Inspiring the next generation of technologists

by Andrew Maynard March 24, 2009

An interview with Dr. Kristen Kulinowski, Director of the International Council On Nanotechnology Today is Ada Lovelace Day—a day when people around the world are drawing attention to women who excel in technology.  Some weeks back I pledged, along with many others (Over 1500 at last count), to blog about one of my “tech heroines.”  [...]

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Blogging the demise of science journalism

by Andrew Maynard March 20, 2009

This week’s edition of Nature includes a thought provoking piece by Geoff Brumfiel on the decline of mainstream science journalism and the rise of science blogging.  The big question: Can one replace the other?  It’s a sobering read: Blumfiel paints a picture of old media in crisis—science coverage in the mainstream media is being cut [...]

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Science, technology and the three “C’s:” Communication, Coupling and Control

by Andrew Maynard March 19, 2009

Part 1 of a series on rethinking science and technology for the 21st century We live in a crowded, science and technology-dependent word.  And things aren’t getting any better!  The global population is currently around 6.8 billion.  Over the next four years it’s projected to grow to over 7 billion.  And by 2050, the US [...]

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Working safely with carbon nanotubes

by Andrew Maynard March 17, 2009

So you want to make or use carbon nanotubes, but you are worried about handling then safely.  What do you do?  The good news is that the UK Health and Safety Executive has just published an information sheet that addresses just this question.  Risk management of carbon nanotubes is (according to the blurb) “specifically about [...]

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Rethinking science and technology for the 21st century

by Andrew Maynard March 13, 2009

Like it or not, society is dependent on science and technology.  The only way we can cram 6 billion people plus onto the earth and use resources at the rate we do, is through the support of scientific discovery and technology innovation.  Take our technology-based infrastructure away and civilization as we know it would collapse. [...]

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Deconstructing the “Fry Event Horizon”

by Andrew Maynard March 6, 2009

I’ve been intending writing about Ray Kurzweil and the technological singularity for some time now.  This isn’t that blog—it is a Friday evening after all, at the end of a long week.  But it is connected with some of the ideas behind the singularity. Instead, I’m going to write about the “Fry Event Horizon”—a phenomenon [...]

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Nanotechnology risk research, ten years on

by Andrew Maynard March 2, 2009

Ten years ago to the month, one of the first research reports detailing the challenges of ensuring the safe use of engineered nanomaterials was delivered to the UK Health and Safety Executive.  The report wasn’t for general release, and you’ll be hard pressed to find a copy of it in the public domain.  But as [...]

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