It's not winning that counts, it's how you play the game.
The SFU team at the Nanogram division of the 2007 RoboCup ran into trouble with their plastic-based "Whirling Dervish" entry to the worlds smallest soccer competition. It seems the robot -- less than one-sixth the size of an amoeba -- didn't have the weight to move smoothly across the "field."
Complications notwithstanding, the nanogram soccer competition is succeeding admirably at its goals: raising nanotechnology's profile in a fun and exciting way, and providing proof of principal for more demanding future nanotechnology applications off the soccer field.
Showing posts with label nanorobotics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label nanorobotics. Show all posts
Monday, July 9, 2007
Thursday, July 5, 2007
The Nanotech BC Blog: Very Small Soccer
Under-20 is one thing; under a micron is something else. I've never been too interested in FIFA, but I'll be cheering for the Simon Fraser University team competing in the nanogram division of the 2007 RoboCup. Even the Vancouver Sun is following the game!
PhD Students Daniel Sameoto, See-Ho Tsang and Ian Foulds have developed a soccer team so small you need a scanning electron microscope to follow the action. Soccer might not be the first thing you think of when you hear "nanotechnology", but success on the playing field could be the first step to more significant applications in medicine, electronics and a wide range of other fields.
Go Canada!
PhD Students Daniel Sameoto, See-Ho Tsang and Ian Foulds have developed a soccer team so small you need a scanning electron microscope to follow the action. Soccer might not be the first thing you think of when you hear "nanotechnology", but success on the playing field could be the first step to more significant applications in medicine, electronics and a wide range of other fields.
Go Canada!
Wednesday, July 4, 2007
The Nanotech BC Blog: 3 Views of the Nanotech Mountain
Long View:
Nanoscale memory devices made of quantum dots and viruses -- could lead to disease treating nanorobots.
Short View:
Simple magnet can control the color of a liquid through affecting nano-particles of iron oxide -- could lead to new display screens and electronic paper and ink.
Panoramic View:
NanoArt -- science, technology, photography and sculpture; beautiful snapshots of the nanoworld.
Nanoscale memory devices made of quantum dots and viruses -- could lead to disease treating nanorobots.
Short View:
Simple magnet can control the color of a liquid through affecting nano-particles of iron oxide -- could lead to new display screens and electronic paper and ink.
Panoramic View:
NanoArt -- science, technology, photography and sculpture; beautiful snapshots of the nanoworld.
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
The Nanotech BC Blog: Who Needs Nanobots?
Christine Peterson at Nanodot makes a good point about unrealistic expectations in nanotechnology by bringing up a 2000 prediction that full clinical application of "fleets of microscopic robots" would be underway by 2003.
The funny thing about predictions is that though they're often wrong about means, they can sometimes be surprisingly accurate about ends. The purpose of fleets of circulatory robots is the medical treatment of cancer, heart disease and other serious illnesses. The lack of advanced nanorobotics isn't stopping researchers from using nanotech to attack those diseases in different ways.
PhysOrg.com has an article on how attaching polymeric nanoparticles to red blood cells turns the body's own blood into an ideal delivery system for medicine. This is a brilliant example of how synergising with the body's natural systems can allow us to elegantly do things that we're not yet capable of any other way.
There's nothing wrong with working towards a vision of nanorobotics, but it's important to be able to appreciate the danger of getting fixated on a hypothetical "ideal" technology and missing simpler and sometimes better solutions.
The funny thing about predictions is that though they're often wrong about means, they can sometimes be surprisingly accurate about ends. The purpose of fleets of circulatory robots is the medical treatment of cancer, heart disease and other serious illnesses. The lack of advanced nanorobotics isn't stopping researchers from using nanotech to attack those diseases in different ways.
PhysOrg.com has an article on how attaching polymeric nanoparticles to red blood cells turns the body's own blood into an ideal delivery system for medicine. This is a brilliant example of how synergising with the body's natural systems can allow us to elegantly do things that we're not yet capable of any other way.
There's nothing wrong with working towards a vision of nanorobotics, but it's important to be able to appreciate the danger of getting fixated on a hypothetical "ideal" technology and missing simpler and sometimes better solutions.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)