josh@cs.rutgers.edu (04/20/91)
+---------------------------------------------------------------------+ | The following material is reprinted *with permission* from the | | Foresight Update No 11, 4/15/91. | | Copyright (c) 1991 The Foresight Institute. All rights reserved. | +---------------------------------------------------------------------+ Japan Pursues Nanotechnology US Begins Assessment by Chris Peterson Research agencies in Japan are taking steps to develop nanotechnology, which "seems destined to become Japan's next priority target for industrial research," according to the international scientific journal Nature (February 7). Japan's Science and Technology AgencyQa competitor to the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI)Qis moving fastest. Already STA has funded several relevant projects through its innovative Exploratory Research for Advanced Technology (ERATO) program, as described in earlier issues of Update. Now the focus is sharpening: Nature reports that in February STA sponsored "an unusual little gathering of biologists, physicists, and chemists in Kyoto to discuss atomic-level design of functional structures." While a similar meeting was held in the U.S. over a year earlier--the First Foresight Conference on Nanotechnology at Stanford University in October 1989--its orientation was primarily academic, and it had no government backing. MITI seems to be concentrating on making smaller electronics, such as quantum dot and quantum wire devices, as part of a $40 million project within its "basic technologies for future industries" (Jiseidai) program. MITI may still be focusing on the top-down approach to miniaturization, using improved semiconductor techniques, rather than the bottom-up approach STA seems to be favoring, which aims for positional control of chemical reactions. If so, a most interesting race could develop, in which ForesightUs bet is on the bottom-up approach as the only way to gain flexible control at the molecular level. Meanwhile the U.S. government has begun its first tentative steps toward an examination of the potential of nanotechnology and molecular manufacturing. The Congressional Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) now has a staff member conducting a study of the future of miniaturization. While primarily focused on microelectronics and micromachines, the project has been expanded to include some consideration of molecular approaches. As part of the study, a workshop was held at OTA on February 19; of fifteen invited participants, two represented the molecular perspective: Eric Drexler of the Foresight Institute and Richard Potember of Johns Hopkins University. The OTA study is a first step in the long process of consensus building that may be needed before a significant amount of U.S. federal research funds is earmarked for work toward nanotechnology. Enabling science and technology work is being done already in academic, industry, and government labs, but without the clear, long-range goals seen in Japan. +---------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Copyright (c) 1991 The Foresight Institute. All rights reserved. | | The Foresight Institute is a non-profit organization: Donations | | are tax-deductible in the United States as permitted by law. | | To receive the Update and Background publications in paper form, | | send a donation of twenty-five dollars or more to: | | The Foresight Institute, Department U | | P.O. Box 61058 | | Palo Alto, CA 94306 USA | +---------------------------------------------------------------------+