Nano, Nano...
Is Grey Goo a Problem, Will Nanobots take over the World and
What the Hell is Nanotechnology?

Mr. B. has been busy giving four introductory lectures on nanotechnology in an evening class through the BigU Compleat Scholar Program. It is a non-credit program for people who are interested in a wide variety of things. One of the students is a high school sophomore and another is a retired professor of English. It is great fun to interact with people who are there in Feynman's words to experience "the pleasure of finding things out."

I am a little reluctant to make the course material freely available because I have not been totally conscientious about citing the sources of stuff I've pulled off the internet. I've made two cds so far for the class that have the disclaimer about only being for personal use and educational purposes. If anyone is dying to have the stuff, contact me off line. It is not too difficult to locate me, just look at the links at the end of the blog.

I will also post in the future a completely "clean" introductory lecture on my lab website and let people know here when it is available. In the past I have been a little sceptical about nanotechnology because of some of the obvious hype, but I am starting to be a believer about the wonderful potential this area has for our future. With the past screw-ups on new technology, it seems that the EPA and a lot of other people are trying to do this one right.

The last lecture is next Wednesday evening. These are actually double lectures - taking two hours total with a little break. But I hope to get the last one done over the weekend so that I can spend full time in the lab this summer starting on Monday. I have one of the best groups of students ever and am looking forward to doing good science with them.

Optimistically,

Mr. Bonzo