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Prey has some.. issues... in the "actually related to reality" department.

Anyone who has read Prey and has a modicum of knowledge on how nanomachines actually work, however, knows that Michael Crichton doesn't know a scanning electron microscope from his own elbow. Obligatory link.

According to some 'abductees' who had the presence of mind to question the exobiologists that are studying our species, At least some of our close stellar neighbors are already trading with each other; and they had expeditions to on the way to new places. Space is large! Space is dangerous! And one does not get there the first time at too great a speed. However, once the way has evidently been charted it becomes safer to the point of mundanity. Point is, the above 'scholar' conducted his study at a time when those who took the reasonable belief that our galaxy literally teams with life were often commiteed (pun intended) to the local crazy houses. Now scientists know that life exists everywhere in the universe, even in the cold of space. As others can travel the void in reasonable enough time scales for trade to be practical in ones own lifetimes, maybe even scales of days or months, so shall we also discover given time. The time may be shorter than one thinks.
    Take the space elevator. It is now here!! Check the following link: http://www.nanotech-now.com/news.cgi?story_id=28463 Now we have the material! Time to build! The Chinese are!

I can't believe anybody would cite Crichton as some kind of authority on science and policy. He's an opportunistic pulp fiction writer at best and a disingenuous propagandist at worst. Biotechnologists have had to defend their work from the unreal dangers portrayed in Jurassic Park. Nanotechnologists have had to defend their careers from the falsehoods of Prey. Non-xenophobes were stuck defending the Japanese in Rising Sun. And now, climatologists are forced to defend their science from the spin and outright lies in State of Fear. Crichton is a one man show in overhyped doom-mongering and crap pseudoscience. Serious people ignore him.

http://www.nanotech-now.com/news.cgi?story_id=1373 8

I dont like all the protection schemes that they are putting on BR and HD-DVD.

We need a storage technology that allows the consumer to download 1 copy legally to their storage of choice without industry interference.

New data storage beyond Blu-Ray and HD-DVD.

http://www.nanotech-now.com/news.cgi?story_id=1373 8

GIT talks about AFM for imageing. I dont thing dragging a contact needle styllis across molecules is going to be reliable or fast.

Maybe they should visit this website and get some fresh ideas.

http://www.nanotech-now.com/news.cgi?story_id=1373 8

With less cookies and better pictures at Nanotechnology Now

This might be a little off-topic, but hey, this is slashdot. We need to have an interesting link on funny stories once in a while.

Feynmann's text on nanotechnology - viewed with a microscope.

This link has been posted a billion times on slashdot already, but here it is again. 10 billion dollars for the first elevator, and roughly 3 billion apiece for the next ones. I have a feeling that construction on the space elevator will begin in the beginning of the next decade, though I'm not sure who will build it. According to this survey nanotubes are already produced in quantities of hundreds of tons, with production in all four regions with space-launch capability. Most likely we'll see two competing elevator projects, with the chinese and NASA-ESA as the competitors.

The book describes magnetic core which was pretty well obsolete in 1971.

And ironically, magnetic memory comes back with nanotech. What's even more ironic, is that hard disks, which haven't changed much, WILL become obsolete in the future.

The science is atrociously bad. Here's a full critique of its horror. The only thing frightening is that this is the same man who wrote "Jurassic Park" and "The Andromeda Strain." (Of course, it isn't that surprisingly bad if you've read "Sphere" or "Congo.")

The only nanotech babble that I seen that beats "Prey" is Michio Kaku's loony rant on how mankind "must escape the universe." Just skip straight to the bottom a read about nanobots that are "molecule sized" and capable of moving near the speed of light. This man is a physicist? Sheesh.

Michael Crichton is just a pessimest. There should be rosey alternate endings to Prey

The fuel source itself is not very newsworthy. It was around in early 2000 as well (named the Millenium Cell. Of course, it does not explode unlike the CNG powered ones. Recently (1-2 month) back we had a blaze up near our office when a Truck rear-ended a gas powered car (it's very common these days) and the gas tank ruptured, exploded and threw the car's rear door about 3 feet into truck's engine (breaking through 1/2 inch metal sheet). Thankfully only the driver was in the car and he was saved by the rear seat from the explosion.

This is not a viable alternative. But, Hey .. it was done because some guy said "We CAN". And that's reason enough :)

definition of qubit: The quantum computing analog to a bit. Qubits exhibit superposition. Thus, unlike normal bits, qubits can be both 1 and 0 at the same time.
thankyou NTN

If any of their designers wore Eddia Bauer khakis he was using nanotechnology

Or of any of their designers uses many of revlon's cosmetics she was using nanotechnology. (Revlon is one of the biggest paten holders in nanotech)

And if they drank a beer with a plastic thingy holding the cans together from Nanocor, they were using technology.

Nanotechnology is not some mystical thingy like necromancy. It's an enormous industry today. There are more high-tech developments in nanotech than there are in software (which has matured to the point that it's mostly manufacturing) today. It'd be very hard for them not to be using nanotechcnology.

Isn't prey the novel were the guy actully has to run from the nanites that he sees chasing him?

If not there are plenty of other errors.

" Nanotechnology Now" magazine recently interviewed twelve people (including myself) who are involved with the emerging world of nanotechnology. They've now published the results of the interviews in Issue 2 of their "NanoNews" newsletter. All twelve of the participants' responses are available in that publication, which you can find through http://www.nanotech-now.com/newsletter/. Issue 2 specifically is available at no cost as part of their free trial subscription.

The participants include (with partial affiliations shown here):

* Sen. George Allen, U.S. Senator (R.-Va.)
* Morten Bogedal, CEO, Nordic Nanotech
* A.S. Daar, Professor of Public Health Sciences and of Surgery, University of Toronto
* Neil Gordon, Partner, Nanotechnology, with Sygertech
* Tim Harper, Founder & President, CMP Cientifica
* Jeffrey Harrow, Principal and Technologist, The Harrow Group
* Lerwen Liu, President, ABACUS Partners
* Cathy Murphy, Guy F. Lipscomb Professor of Chemistry, Univ. of S. Carolina
* Vic Pena, Co-founder & CEO, nanoTitan Inc.
* Ottilia Saxl, Ion European Board & Founding Director, The Institute of Nanotechnology
* Bo Varga, Principal and Strategic Consultant, The Strategic Synergy Group
* Dennis Wilson, Chief Technology Officer, Chairman of the Board, and Founder, Nanotechnologies, Inc.

However, if you don't wish to register on their site, you'll find the questions plus my answers (one-twelfth of the content) below, in this "Harrow Technology Report" Special Report.

The following twelve interview questions were developed by "Nanotechnology Now" Editor Rocky Rawstern, Chris Phoenix of the Center for Responsible Nanotechnology (CRN), and Tim Harper of Cientifica. "

" Nanotechnology Now" magazine recently interviewed twelve people (including myself) who are involved with the emerging world of nanotechnology. They've now published the results of the interviews in Issue 2 of their "NanoNews" newsletter. All twelve of the participants' responses are available in that publication, which you can find through http://www.nanotech-now.com/newsletter/. Issue 2 specifically is available at no cost as part of their free trial subscription.

The participants include (with partial affiliations shown here):

* Sen. George Allen, U.S. Senator (R.-Va.)
* Morten Bogedal, CEO, Nordic Nanotech
* A.S. Daar, Professor of Public Health Sciences and of Surgery, University of Toronto
* Neil Gordon, Partner, Nanotechnology, with Sygertech
* Tim Harper, Founder & President, CMP Cientifica
* Jeffrey Harrow, Principal and Technologist, The Harrow Group
* Lerwen Liu, President, ABACUS Partners
* Cathy Murphy, Guy F. Lipscomb Professor of Chemistry, Univ. of S. Carolina
* Vic Pena, Co-founder & CEO, nanoTitan Inc.
* Ottilia Saxl, Ion European Board & Founding Director, The Institute of Nanotechnology
* Bo Varga, Principal and Strategic Consultant, The Strategic Synergy Group
* Dennis Wilson, Chief Technology Officer, Chairman of the Board, and Founder, Nanotechnologies, Inc.

However, if you don't wish to register on their site, you'll find the questions plus my answers (one-twelfth of the content) below, in this "Harrow Technology Report" Special Report.

The following twelve interview questions were developed by "Nanotechnology Now" Editor Rocky Rawstern, Chris Phoenix of the Center for Responsible Nanotechnology (CRN), and Tim Harper of Cientifica. "

... last one to turn to grey goo please turn off the lights.

Or green goo.

Too tired to (attempt to) make any more jokes. Check here and I'm sure you can come up with some of your own.

1. A list of nanotechnology companies in general

2. In Canada, alot is being spent on R&D for nanotechnology: Nanotechnology R&D Initiatives in Canada

3. And they are crazy about it in Asia (many PDF reports)

Since the topic of SPAM was recently at hand, I wonder long it will be before we start getting: "***enlarge your penis*** Rapid PENIS ENLARGEMENT through the use of amazing NANOTECHNOLOGY advances "***enlarge your penis*** "

Basically, he doesn't know science, the story isn't even realistic, and the horror scenes are all derivative. Evolution doesn't work the way he says it does.

The review contains spoilers, but trust me, you won't miss anything.

Chris