11th Foresight Conference on Molecular Nanotechnology
October 10 to 12, 2003
San Francisco Airport Marriott,
Burlingame, CA USA
Rapid advances in our ability to image, manipulate, and probe the properties of matter at the atomic scale—together with emerging insights into structure, function and self-assembly in biological systems—is bringing to fruition the tremendous promise of nanotechnology first recognized by Richard Feynman over 40 years ago. In the next decade, current research into the science and technology of nanostructures is expected to have a major impact on fields ranging from consumer electronics to space exploration and medicine.
MORE: http://www.foresight...ferences/MNT11/
Keynote Speakers
Fraser Stoddart, University of California at Los Angeles
Meccano on the NanoScale: A Blueprint for Making Some of the World's Tiniest Machines
Tobin J. Marks, Northwestern University
Self-Assembly of Nanophotonic Materials and Device Structures
About Foresight:
The Foresight Institute is a non-profit, educational organization founded to help society prepare for nanotechnology. The goal of this organization is that nanotechnology be developed safely and beneficially.
Eric Drexler is founder of the Foresight Institue and author of Engines of Creation, one of the first (1986) and very accessable nanotechnology books.
In the mid 1980s, he introduced the term 'nanotechnology' to describe the Feynman vision of nanomachines building products with atomic precision. Advanced nanotechnologies will make possible many dreams (and nightmares) first articulated in the literature of science fiction.
Drexler Quote:
Imagine someone who is now thirty years old. In another thirty years, biotechnology will have advanced greatly, yet that thirty year old will only be sixty. Statistical tables which assume no advances in medicine say that a thirty year old U.S. citizen can now expect to live almost fifty more years-that is, well into the 2030s. Fairly routine advances (of sorts demonstrated in animals) seem likely to add years, perhaps decades, to life by 2030.
The mere beginnings of cell repair technology might extend life by several decades. In short, the medicine of 2010, 2020, and 2030 seems likely to extend our thirty-year-old's life into the 2040s and 2050s. By then, if not before, medical advances may permit rejuvenation. Thus, those under thirty (and perhaps substantially older) can look forward-at least tentatively-to medicine’s overtaking their aging process and delivering them safely to an era of cell repair, vigor, and indefinite lifespan.
http://www.foresight..._Chapter_8.html
