kurt@happy.csg.uiuc.edu (Kurt) (03/16/90)
In article <Mar.14.13.39.10.1990.12561@athos.rutgers.edu> alan@oz.nm.paradyne.com (Alan Lovejoy) writes: > >Write to the Foresight Institute requesting information. And subscribe to >"Foresight Update," their semi-annual newsletter. Their address is: > >Box 61058, Palo Alto, CA 94306 (415) 948-5830 > >They can probably suggest a very extensive bibliography and complete set >of published references on nanotechnology. > My experience with contacting the Foresight Institute has not been very good. They have very little information available (at least they didn't have much last time I contacted them) and unless the "complete set of published references" is very new, they are unable to furnish such a document (they had no such list last fall when I called them). They do have a set of five or six of Drexler's papers, some of which are fairly difficult to obtain. Also, the last published issue of their newsletter "Foresight Update" is number 5, dated March 1, 1989. Since "Foresight Update" is supposed to be posted to this newsgroup (No. 5 was) and No. 6 has yet to be posted, I can only assume that since March of last year nothing has been produced. [No, the current issue of Update is #7. I have a couple of issues in electronic form which I haven't converted yet (it's a lot of work to do manually and I put it off while looking for software. Does anyone have a program for the Sun that will convert Ready/Set/Go MAC files?) ... Anyway, my apologies for the delay. --JoSH] Obviously things could have changed for the better since last fall. I hope they have since FI should be at the forefront in making information about nanotechnology available. One of the primary problems could be money. They may not be able to hire the necessary staff. I have no idea what kind of grants they receive but sources for the necessary funding no doubt exist. If the Santa Fe Institute (they research complex systems, e.g. cellular automata, chaos, genetic algorithms, etc.) can get $1.5 Million (1988) in donations, the FI should able to get sufficient funding. I thing the rest of the readers of this newsgroup would appreciate it if persons with a copy of the "extensive bibliography and complete set of published references" would post them. I have an introductory list of nanotechnology references that I posted last year. If anyone wants me to send them a copy, let me know. BTW, in an article in the LA Reader last November, they mention a documentary on nanotechenolgy by the producer of "Cosmos." Supposedly it was to run in England and then (this year) on the Discovery Channel in the US. Does anyone know when or if this program will be shown? kurt
KPURCELL@liverpool.ac.uk (Kevin 'fractal' Purcell) (03/21/90)
On Thu, 15 Mar 90 15:18:33 EST Kurt (kurt@edu.uiuc.csg.happy) said: >BTW, in an article in the LA Reader last November, they mention a >documentary on nanotechenolgy by the producer of "Cosmos." Supposedly >it was to run in England and then (this year) on the Discovery Channel >in the US. Does anyone know when or if this program will be shown? > >kurt This show was shown in the UK last year (I have a copy on VHS PAL 625-line). Its not really worth the effort -- if you've read the book you won't get anything more form the program. Rather a poor "yuppiefied" gee-whiz program, not a patch on the good Horizon/Nova programs. BTW, I don't thing the production group is the same as the Cosmos crew (that was a lot better than this). Bit of a shame -- I thought it was going to be a good program too! _________________________________________________________________________ Kevin 'fractal' Purcell ...................... kpurcell @ liverpool.ac.uk Surface Science Centre, Liverpool University, Liverpool L69 3BX "My karma just reversed over your dogma"