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Nanotechnology: the Good, the Bad, the Hyperbole

Posted by michael on from the grey-goo dept.

pillageplunder writes "A very informative interview with Kristen Kulinowski who is an executive Director at the Federally funded Center for Biological and Environmental Nanotechnology at Rice University. A good well balanced read."

4 of 141 comments (clear)

  1. Grey goo by bcmm · · Score: 5, Informative

    We've had a lot of rubbish about nanotech here in the UK, including the belief that a flesh-eating grey goo will take over the world. Honestly, our tabloid papers will report anything...

    --
    # cat /dev/mem | strings | grep -i llama
    Damn, my RAM is full of llamas.
  2. Re:DNA Robot Walks by fugspit · · Score: 4, Informative
    Or for a summarised version, You can the the always enjoyable Register version

    Shocking stuff, A robot with strands of DNA for legs!

    While you're there you can also read about nano trees. The creators speculate that the technology could lead to "three-dimensionally interconnected computing structures analogous to the brain".

  3. Some more info by grungebox · · Score: 4, Informative
    I'm going into EE at Rice for grad school in the fall, planning to specialize in nanoengineering. Rice is one of the few schools I know of (actually, the only one) that has a center to analyze social effects of nanoscience. Anyways, some other Rice links:

    Smalley's Group (he and Curl discovered Buckyballs)
    Halas's Nanophotonics Group
    CNST at Rice
    Vicki Colvin's Intro to Nanoscience

    Sorry, I couldn't find any sites about how nanoscience is going to kill us all :)

  4. Re:Nanotech is already here... by datababe72 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Sorry... I'm trained as a protein biochemist, and I can't help but comment on your post, which is basically correct, but may lead some people to think that viruses can self-replicate and self-assemble outside of the cell.

    The reason the viral coat proteins self-assemble is that this is the most thermodynamically favorable state for these proteins in the aqueous environment in which the virus is replicating... i.e., the cell. The proteins have evolved such that their specific amino acid compositions make the assembled state most favorable. I suppose this is a valid analogy to what some nanotechnology research is tryin gto accomplish.

    However, the proteins don't copy themselves and then self-assemble. The proteins are translated from the genetic material of the virus (DNA or RNA), and then the proteins self-assemble. The machinery that does this translation is most often provided by the host cell.

    This is practically identical to how the cell itself replicates, although on a smaller scale. The genetic material is translated into proteins that can do the work required to make a new cell (copy the DNA, synthesize or import the lipids needed for the membrane, synthesize the proteins needed, and so on).

    Sometimes, there are even special proteins called chaperones that help other proteins adopt their "correct" structure. I do not actually know of a case where this happens for viral proteins, but it wouldn't surprise me if one exists.

    So... yes, once all the parts are produced, many viruses can self-assemble outside of a cell, as long as the conditions (pH, salt concentration, etc) are such that this is what is thermodynamically most favorable. But to get replication, you need the cell.