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ACS Adds Nanotech Division
Phase Shifter writes, " The Materials subdivision within the American Chemical Society's Industrial & Engineering Chemistry division has now become the Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology subdivision.
This means that ACS members researching into nanotech now have their own forum for information exchange, where previously it was scattered among several different divisions. Hopefully we'll be seeing faster progress in the field as a result.
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Sure, you guys don't think this is news, but you're forgetting something.
;)
In nanotech, it's the little differences that count.
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I do have lots of respect for Mr. Haldeman. His is the kind of person whose integrity and his dignity will never be compromized by anything.
MR. Haldeman is a Vietnam vet, and he has experienced many unspeakable things back then. Instead of feeling pissed off, (lots of vietnam vet are living the life of being pissed off all the time), Mr. Haldeman channeled his anger, his frustration, his feeling of helplessness and loneliness into strength, and he wrote many heart-wrenching stories to remind the world of our potentially destructive manner.
I respect Mr. Haldeman not because only his writing - which are very good, btw, his stories are of the highest quality, highly recommended - but I respect him because Mr. Haldeman can cut through his hatreds and his prejudices and in his stories, again and again, the hero fought hard against all the injustice, all the craziness, all the mind-boggling stupidities, to achieve the ultimate aim for a human being - to be honest to oneself, and to cling onto one's moral value and never let up one's dignity and integrity.
The message from Mr. Haldeman is clear - that all of us are capable of doing great harm to others, and if we want to become true human beings, we must fight and defeat our prima violent urge, and we must all strive to be a person who, in the end of the day, will come out all the better.
Thank you for bringing up Mr. Joe Haldeman.
Thanks again for this chance for me to say the things I have wanted to say for a long, long time !
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
If you read Joe Haldeman's latest book "Forever Peace" (Hugo and Neublar) you'd find out and in what ways nanotechology could be expoloited for the beifit of one country in a war against an inferior nation.
I also recommend "Forever War" also by Joe Haldeman, another Hugo and Neublar winner.. Though both books are not related, they are excellent reads. I would usually cring at war books, but Haldmean's sci-fi war fiction would grip you and transport you to the horrors of a real war (narrated from a real veteran).
As a matter of fact, "Forever War" impacted me more than "StarShip Troopers".
Enjoy.
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It's also good to see interest in "molecular-scale biomedical engineering", though this far along in the human genome project it's a bit of a no-brainer. Nevertheless, it's one of the areas where nanotech offers the greatest long-term promise, and it represents another point for long-term thinking on the part of the ACS.
WWJD for a Klondike Bar?
Tom Swiss | the infamous tms | my blog
You cannot wash away blood with blood
Ok, it's nano related, so Hemos posted it. But, who are these guys? Can't say I've heard of the ACS... (not that that's neccessarily a signifigant statement about anything but my own ignorance)
Intolerant people should be shot.
Umm in the 17th,18th & 19th centurys the Brits had bags of food, bags of Energy and decided to invade pretty much every one on planet earth. The French and Spanish tried the same, in this century Germany started two world wars and they had energy and food. The US went to war in Vietnam and Nato went to Iraq.
The military always find a reason to go to war, and a reason to fund scientific research. The first use of most technologies are for the military.
An Eye for an Eye will make the whole world blind - Gandhi
It just won't happen, humans won't just use any technology wisely, just look at what script kiddies have done with computers!
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Obviously we will have to find a way to use nanotech for good to combat the people who use it for evil. But we first reach a useable level of nanotech it will be easier to make weapons of mass distruction than it will be to make things to protect ourself's against the weapons. On the internet when a root exploit is found and used against people maybe a few sites go down and crackers steal some passwords and creditcard #'s, then 24 hours later we fix the bug and people update the software and the world keeps rolling along. Now when someone makes a nanotech weapon that kills hundreds of millions of people and 24 hours later we build some nanotech that combats it those hundred million people are dead and 100 of those weapons will wipe out the human race.
So in closing nanotech is cool and all but we all should be very afraid and cautious of it.
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God I hope they're not close, and that I'm wrong that it will see use as a weapon. But they will inevitably be the first to have it at their disposal. Besides, I was joking at that point anyway..
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So what do I major in? I was thinking I would take Engineering Physics. Is that the right route? Does anybody have any idea/clues/suggestions?
There's no reason for a sig here.
First saleable use of technology:
Aircraft: Military scouting/surveillance
Nitroglycerine: Military munitions.
Computers: Military codebreaking, artillery trajectory computation.
Penicillin: Treating war wounds
Space-capable rockets: Ballistic missiles.
Submarine: Military spy vehicle, war machine
I think the Troll King has a valid point. Any new technology is optioned for and funded by the military first, regardless of the infinite number of peaceful uses. I'd expect one of the 'black budget' projects to actually get something akin to nanites working.
Project A1017, codename Alephnul. Covert infiltration, surveillance, and elimination of Known Foreign Hostiles through use of self-replicating micro-miniature nanostructures.
.sig: Now legally binding!
As a chemistry major at Rice University and a student affiliate of the American Chemical Society, I can tell you that we aren't up to anything sneaky. I swear on the little periodic table that I carry in my wallet!
As far as the different divisions go (American, European, etc.), the society strives to promote active fellowship between members by having regional and national meetings to share ideas and promote chemistry. Among the student affiliate chapters, one of the main goals is generating support and interest in chemical education from the elementary level to the college level.
Those of you in the San Francisco area might want to visit the ACS National Convention being held there the week of March 26th. You're likely to find more information on this new nano division there.
For more official information as to what the ACS is all about, visit this site.
From the ACS page:
Quite a breadth of fields represented here, and a list that illustrates an important point about nanotechnology -- by its very nature, you're combining a lot of areas of expertise. Right now, most of the work is arguably in the area of chemistry, but in the next few years you're going to have chemists, physicsts, mechanical/electrical/some new field? engineers, and even computer scientists working in the area. In the end, we're going to need to combine more people than just the physicsts.
Along these lines, I like what some universities are doing: check out Rice's Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology and Cornell's National Nanofabrication Facility for examples of institutes that have been set up specifically to bring together the various disciplines needed to tackle this problem.
Oh, and a note to Technos -- as much money as even the military black budget has to throw around, we're nowhere near developing weapons-grade nanotech. If you want self-replicating weaponry, biological warfare remains your only "good" option.
Quantum mechanics: the dreams that stuff is made of.