/* *************************************************************************** ** *************************************************************************** ** The Non-Sequitur Express ** Published every 10.3 days or so by Phillip Thorne ** Volume 2, Issue 32: Friday, 08 December 2000 ** http://nsx.underbase.org/ ** ** "...the profuseness of their publications often made him wish that reading ** could be got through more quickly and writing made less easy, perhaps with ** a universal rule that all books be hand-carved in granite with a pin." ** *************************************************************************** ** ************************************************************************ */ OBSERVATIONS & C: Ergonomic keyboards, Google, small tools, precision. ERRATA & O+A+A: Missing disclaimers, not-abstracts. CONFERENCE DIGEST: 8th Foresight Conference, Talks 12,14-15,17-18 of 33 UPCOMING: "Inside the Space Station", thru 18-dec. plus Legalese, acknowledgements and opt-in/out instructions. /* *************************************************************************** ** OBSERVATIONS & COGITATIONS ** ************************************************************************ */ Feeling a need for some carpal prophylaxis, a month ago I acquired a Microsoft Natural ergonomic keyboard and indeed, its contours are more comfortable than the standard slab. It hasn't eliminated *all* wrist discomfort, however, so yesterday I commenced a Google search (actually my second in two years, but I'd left those bookmarks at home) and rediscovered Kinesis, Adesso, and the Typing Injuries FAQ. Today in the mail arrived a catalog featuring all those models. Hey, coincidence happens. Watch for a detailed keyboard survey in a subsequent issue. I continue to be impressed by the quality of results returned by the Google search engine -- and not merely because my Earthlink site tops the list for "phillip thorne". That list includes four copies of my 1994 transcript of "The Transformers: The Movie", several archived Usenet postings on nanotech, multiple issues of NSX, a classical guitarist, and many dead people. I'm not responsible for the last two... for their genealogical interest, not their deaths! Sheesh. Unlike the _Options by Infogrip_ catalog above, _Micro-Mark: the Small Tool Specialists_ is one of many unsolicited arrivals spawned by an order to Edmund Scientifics. It's replete with mininature tools for toymakers, shipbuilders, plastic modelers and model railroaders: tools to grip, grasp, grind; deburr, drill, duplicate; measure, mark and magnify. Some of these devices would be very useful in re-establishing a technic civilization after the fall of automated manufacturing (see Vernor Vinge's talk in 2.31). See: www.infogrip.com and www.micromark.com. Come to think of it, how did clever people ever go from the cubit to the micron? I think the screw micrometer played a role, but I really don't know. Perhaps there exist unobvious solid-state tricks to bypass such increments; a lasing crystal that emits only a single useful wavelength regardless of input voltage, or an electrical circuit that preferentially phase-locks. (In _A Fire Upon the Deep_, Vinge dubs such renaissance- route-plotting "applied history of technology".) The content in a 20- to 40-minute oral scientific presentation is surprisingly large, and despite my attempts at brevity, the past two issues have been rather heavier than usual. Hence today's masthead quote, from the Christopher H. Bidmead's 1983 novelization of the "Doctor Who" episode "Castrovalva" (the one named after an M.C.Escher print). /* *************************************************************************** ** ERRATA & OMISSIONS, ADDENDA & ADMISSIONS ** ************************************************************************ */ In 2.31 "Convention Digest", I forgot to include my standard disclaimer of transcriptional inaccuracy. The entries in the "Conference Digests" in 2.30 and 2.31 might be digests, or synopses, or reviews, but (by the format found in scientific journals) they're not abstracts. Language is fuzzy only in selected places. /* *************************************************************************** ** CONFERENCE DIGEST ** 8th Foresight Conference on Molecular Nanotechnology ** 2-5 November 2000, Bethesda, Maryland ** Platform presentations 12,14-15,17-18 ** ** 12, R.Colton: BARC: a magnetoresistive biosensor ** 14, H.Hess: Molecular shuttles: building a monorail on the nanoscale ** 15, W.Goddard: BioNanotechnology: de novo simulation and design ** 17, J.Tour: Constructing a computer from molecular components ** 18, J.Ellenborgen: Molecular-scale circuit analysis and novel approaches ** to nanomanipulation ** ************************************************************************ */ Once again, I make no specific claims as to the suitability of the synopses for any particular application. They should not be used in any real-time system, in nuclear power plants or air-traffic control. Misrepresentations are entirely the fault of an imprecise spoken language and the fundamentally uncertain nature of biological intelligence. ********************************************************************* Talk 12 Richard Colton, US Naval Research Laboratory BARC: a magnetoresistive biosensor Understandability: 2/5 Motivation: to create a multi-analyte pathogen sensor that detects the signature molecules of bacteria and viri; specific, field-deployable and fast (30 minutes prep plus 15-180 minutes detection); for medical and biowarfare applications. The device senses by force discrimination, based on the established method of an AFM detecting the interaction between a single ligand and receptor. By replacing the single AFM tip with a suspension of functionalized paramagnetic beads (~1-um diam, ~0.5-pN force), massive parallelism is achieved. The signature molecules are adsorbed to a surface, then the beads stick to the molecules. The magnetic force relayed to the surface is proportional to the number of adsorbed beads. After force discrimination, there are 3 possible detection methods: an array of piezoresistive cantilevers (FABs), optical microscopy (FDB), or a magnetoresistive bead array counter (BARC). Specifically: a gold surface is coated with a carpet of single-stranded 30-base-long thiolated DNA, which in turn is covered with a nonfouling coating of PEG 5000 (polyethylene glycol). The surface is suspended above silicon nitride GMR (giant magnetoresistance) sensors. The beads are coated with streptavidin. The current device is an 8-analyte DNA hybridization assay, using 5-um sensors, achieving ~100G rms at 200Hz. It has 68 contacts, servicing 66 GMR sensors plus 2 grounds, and is made with a 5-mask fab. It's mounted beneath a diffuser flow cell. The signal is compared against a protected reference sensor, in a Wheatstone configuration with lock-in detection. There's no front-end as yet, but there are many ways to quickly collect airborne pathogens and then extract their DNA. To do: build a successor with 64 sensor regions (8 times as many), each 2- um (small), with a total active area of ~5e4-um2 (10 times as much). Build a multi-analyte assay. ********************************************************************* Talk 14 Henry Hess, Univ of Washington Molecular shuttles: building a monorail on the nanoscale Understandability: 4/5 Kinesin is an ATP-powered cellular motor molecule that travels along tubulin microtubules at 800nm/s. Its behavior is typically studied via an INVERTED MOTILITY ASSAY, in which the motors are adhered to a glass plate, and the tubules move. To guide them, PTFE (teflon) is rubbed against the glass to make parallel grooves. (Animation: time-elapse footage of tubules crawling to-n-fro, with a few rogues caught on surface defects, running in circles.) To build a monorail, cargo must be attached to the tubules. Hess's group uses the common biotin-streptavidin technique. The tubules are BIOTINYLATED, and magnetic beads are coated with STREPTAVIDIN. Motion is controlled by changing the ATP concentration (denoted [ATP]): increasing it with CAGED ATP, and decreasing it with HEXOKINASE. To do: place an artificial photosynthetic system on a liposome/vesicle, to provide a local supply of ATP, controllable by an external light source. Problem: ATPase happens to prefer a high [ADP] while kinesin doesn't, but nature's own solution can be applied: ADENYLATE KINESE catalyzes ADP+ADP- >ATP+AMP, to balance [ADP] and [ATP] as they're used by synthases and kinesin, respectively. Question: can specific paths be carved with STL? Only certain types of path, because the tubules are stiff. ********************************************************************* Talk 15 William A. Goddard III, Caltech Beckman Inst BioNanotechnology: de novo simulation and design www.wag.caltech.edu See: Talk 30 Understandability: 3/5 Motivation: to simulate useful devices made with new techniques in organic chemistry. Optimum development of such devices requires cooperation between experiment and theory. The first device they simulated was the DNA switch designed by N.Seeman's group at NYU, which uses the propensity of a DNA double helix to convert between its B and Z forms in the presence of magnesium chloride. #2, the same group's Holliday junction array. #3, at NYU, S.Wilson's group used mice to create antibodies to fullerenes: C60 C70 C84 and nanotubes. These could be used for filtration/separation, and the simulations explored how their specificity could be altered by modifying the residues forming the binding site. Biosynthetic strategies for nanoscale assemblies include: fasteners, containers, sensors, power supplies, and templates that form regular arrays. Some strategies use non-natural/novel amino acid analogs. #4, they've simulated new RNA synthetases, the class of enzymes that attach amino acids to the appropriate tRNAs, before sending them to the ribosome. Odor sensors could use 7TMR-GPCR (7-transmembrane, G-protein-coupled receptor). What's needed is a transducer, in which the binding event generates a detectable signal. Possibly a bistable system, so that a change in the helices produces an electric charge detectable by chemFET. This has been explored (#5) using the MembStruk modeling protocol to predict structure, and MPSim to perform coarse-grain optimization. ********************************************************************* Talk 17 James Tour, Rice Univ Constructing a computer from molecular components www.jmtour.com Understandability: 3/5 Motivation: to substitute a small number of molecules for each silicon transistor; to increase packing density, bypass the limits of layered SiO2, and reduce fab cost. Synthesis of the conductor chains is performed on a polymer support, and is exponential: two rings join into a 2-mer, two of those become a 4-mer, then 8- and 16-mers. Every component needs "alligator clip" end groups for interconnection. While conventional silicon DRAM holds a charge for only 1e-5 to 1e-4 seconds (ie it's "volatile"), the group's nitroaniline DRAM cell holds it for 600s, and nitrobenzene for 900s. Simulated: the Nanocell, a randomly-networked collection of nanoparts trained to perform a logic function (OR, AND, a full half-adder, &c). It's a 1-um2 cell with I/O pins on all four sides, filled with metallic nanoparts joined by functional groups. The network is self-assembled, but not for any specific purpose; it must be trained, using a genetic algorithm whose fitness function is the desired truth table. The final result resembles a percolation network, and its massive connectivity provides fault tolerance; knock out a few connections, and charge still flows through the remainder. Projected: If a processor consists of 1e6 cells and each takes 1s to train, the array will require 12 days (better than a 2-month IC fab pipeline). But that time can be reduced with exponential training: the first cell trains the next, &c. To do: Find a better alligator group that isn't so dominated by parasitics. Finish preparing a 4-year timeline to submit to DARPA. Expect to build the first chips in 1 year. ********************************************************************* Talk 18 James Ellenborgen, MITRE Nanosystems Group Molecular-scale circuit analysis and novel approaches to nanomanipulation www.mitre.org/technology/nanotech Understandability: 3/5 Motivation: (1) to rapidly simulate molecular circuits by including only a few quantum effects. (2) to manipulate parts in massive parallelism with patterned granular motion. Due to quantum effects, Kirchoff's Laws must be revamped; nanocircuits may perform better than microcircuits, with sharper switching behavior. Resistances are added as follows: Macroscale: 1/R_tot = 1/R1 + 1/R2. Nanoscale: 1/R_tot = 1/R1 + 1/R2 + 2/sqrt(R1*R2). Examples: Used MolSPICE to analyze a 100-nm^2 adder circuit built of demonstrated molecules. Designed an XOR gate with diodes, rectifiers and molecular RTDs (resonant tunnelling diodes). NanoPGM, or "millions of magic nanofingers", could manipulate many parts in parallel. PGM (patterned granular motion) is a phenomenon whereby standing waves (stationary peaks) can be created in a mass of millimeter- scale granules, given appropriate agitation. Simulations by a MITRE intern indicate the same can be done with buckyballs, and have shown how to create any desired pattern. Status: experimental apparatus has been built for manipulating nonstick-coated particles of size 5-10-um (1e-1 precedent). To do: develop a detailed understanding of forces on agitated nanoparts, and scale down to ~100-nm (1e-3 precedent). /* *************************************************************************** ** UPCOMING ** Series, Seasons, Episodes, Movies, Books ** ************************************************************************ */ HEADS UP... This weekend, sun-10-dec-20:00, the Discovery Channel premieres its hour-long "Inside the Space Station" special. Don't worry if you miss it; it's repeated six times in the subsequent two weeks. "Andromeda", "Invisible Man" and "Voyager" are in repeats for a while, but there's another new ep of "Earth: Final Conflict" before it goes into estivation. "Dungeons and Dragons" opens in theatres this weekend. Remember, Gary Gygax (along with Deep Blue, Stephen Hawking and Nichelle Nichols) are members of Al Gore's Vice Presidential Action Team. ANIMATION... r PRLR The Cobra Strikes 1016 fox z 1209-0800 r ActM Double Vision 106 fox z 1209-0830 r Digi Enter Flamedramon 201 fox z 1209-0900 * Digi If I Had a Tail Hammer 224 fox z 1209-0930 r TFBM 202 fox z 1209-1000 * Digi Spirit Needle 225 fox z 1209-1030 r SMU Worlds Apart, pt.2 109 fox z 1209-1100 * Nasc Rumble 206 fox z 1209-1130 * BBy Betrayal 43 wb z 1209-0800 * Chan Jade Monkey 11 wb z 1209-0900 r Ccap The New Rival 6 wb z 1209-0930 * XMnE Speed and Spyke 5 wb z 1209-1030 * SShk Sons of the Fathers 8 wb z 1209-1100 * MxSt Trapped 206 wb z 1209-1130 ANIMATED SERIES: ActM Action Man, BBy Batman Beyond, DBZ Dragon Ball Z, Ccap Cardcaptors, Chan Jackie Chan Adventures, Digi Digimon, GWg Gundam Wing, MxSt Max Steel, Nasc NASCAR Racers, Sim The Simpsons, SShk Static Shock, TFBM Transformers Beast Machines, XMnE X-Men: Evolution. PRIMETIME ETC. PROGRAMMING... r Cle The Watch v1224 17 z 1209-1400 r JAT A Horse of a Different Color 1322 17 z 1209-1430 * EFC Dream Stalker 410 17 z 1209-1700 r SG1 Into the Fire 301 29 z 1209-1700 s 1217-0400 r And Under the Night 101 17 z 1209-1800 r Inv The Other Invisible Man 111 48 z 1209-2000 mov Lawnmower Man 2: Beyond Cyberspace 14 57 z 1209-2000 2:00 Vgr Distant Origin 165 57 z 1209-2300 Fut (pr'emp'd by NFL postgame) fox s 1210-1900 r Inv Tiresias 104 sfc s 1210-1900 r Inv Liberty and Larceny 105 sfc s 1210-2000 * Inside the Space Station dsc s 1210-2000 mov StarGate (1994) 13 usa s 1210-2030 2:30 * XF Redrum 803 fox s 1210-2100 r Inside the Space Station dsc s 1210-2100 m 1211-0100 r Inv It Hurts When You Do This 110 sfc s 1210-2100 r Inv Beholder 114 sfc s 1210-2200 Ros (Pr'emp'd by ""Teens Get Real"" wb m 1211-2100 r Buf Real Me 502 wb t 1212-2000 * DkA Blah Blah Woof Woof 109 fox t 1212-2100 r Ang Judgment 201 wb t 1212-2100 r 7D Stairway to Heaven 301 upn w 1213-2000 r Vgr Fury 241 upn w 1213-2100 s 1217-0000 mov Battle Arena Toshinden plx r 1214-2000 1:00 r mov Olive, the Other Reindeer (1999) g fox r 1214-2100 1:00 * Chm Sleuthing With the Enemy wb r 1214-2100 r Fre The Chase 102 upn f 1215 2000 * Lv9 Eat Flaming Death 108 upn f 1215 2100 SG1 Point of No Return 411 sho f 1215 2200 r Inv Reunion 112 sfc f 1215 2000 f 1215 2300 * Cle Baby Boom v1220 17 z 1216-1400 r JAT Shark Bait 119 17 z 1216-1430 r EFC Forge of Creation 401 17 z 1216-1700 r SG1 Seth 46 29 z 1216-1700 s 1224-0400 Vgr Displaced 166 57 z 1216-2300 r And An Affirming Flame 102 17 z 1216-0000 mov B5: The Gathering (1993) sfc s 1217-1900 2:00 * XF Via Negativa 807 fox s 1217-2100 r Inside the Space Station dsc s 1217-1800 mov B5: A Call to Arms (1999) sfc s 1217-2100 2:00 mov Space Ghost: Coast to Coast Christmas pg ton m 1218-0000 1:00 r Lex Woz 215 sfc m 1218-0130 r Inside the Space Station dsc m 1218-2100 t 1219-0100 CHANNELS: cbs kyw-3-cbs, wpvi-6-abc, wcau-10-nbc, whyy-12-pbs, wphl-17-wb, fox wtxf-29-fox, wybe-35-pbs, wgtw-48-ind, wpsg-57-upn, wfmz-69-ind; dsc Discovery Channel, plx MoviePLEX, sfc Sci-Fi Channel, sho Showtime, tnt TNT, ton Cartoon Network, usa USA. COMMONLY LISTED SERIES: 7D 7 Days, Ang Angel, Buf Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Chm Charmed, Cle Cleopatra 2525, DkA Dark Angel, EFC Earth: Final Conflict, Fre Freedom, Fut Futurama, JAT Jack of All Trades, Lv9 Level 9, PJs The PJs, Ros Roswell, SG1 StarGate SG-1, Sim Simpsons, Vgr Star Trek: Voyager, XF The X-Files. UNCOMMON SERIES: B5 Babylon 5, BCJ Brisco County Junior, DS9 Star Trek: Deep Space 9, Fky FreakyLinks, Fsc Farscape, Inv The Invisible Man, Lex Lexx, Sld Sliders, TNG Star Trek: The Next Generation, Who Doctor Who. STRIPPED PROGRAMMING... Star Trek: The Next Generation Weeknights (Tue-Fri) 21:00 1 hour, TV-PG, WFMZ-69 The Most Toys 170 f 1208 Sarek 171 t 1212 Menage a Troi 172 w 1213 Transfigurations 173 r 1214 The Best of Both Worlds, pt.1 174 f 1215 The Best of Both Worlds, pt.2 175 t 1219 Babylon 5: The Widescreen Edition Weeknights (Mon-Fri) 19:00 1 hour, TV-PG, The Sci-Fi Channel Dust to Dust 306 f 1208 Exogenesis 307 m 1211 Messages from Earth 308 t 1212 Point of No Return 309 w 1213 Severed Dreams 310 r 1214 Ceremonies of Light and Dark 311 m 1218 Sic Transit Vir 313 t 1219 The Simpsons Weeknights (Mon-Fri) 18:30 and 19:00 30min, TV-PG, wtxf-29-fox Sundays 20:00, FOX network Sim The Wizard of Evergreen Terrace 5f21 29 f 1208-1830 * Sim The Great Money Caper 1203 fox s 1210-2000 Sim Bart Gets an F 7f03 29 m 1211-1800 Sim One Fish, Two Fish, Blowfish, Blue/ 7f11 29 m 1211-1830 Sim Bart the Mother 5f22 29 t 1212-1800 Sim Bart's Dog Gets an F 7f14 29 t 1212-1830 Sim Treehouse of Horror II 8f02 29 w 1213-1830 Sim The Crepes of Wrath 7g13 29 w 1213-1900 Sim Homer's Barbershop Quartet 9f21 29 r 1214-1830 Sim Bart the Murderer 8f03 29 r 1214-1900 Sim Like Father, Like Clown 8f05 29 f 1215-1830 Sim Lisa's Pony 8f06 29 f 1215-1900 Sim The Grift of the Magi 1107 29 s 1217-1900 * Sim Skinner's Sense of Snow 1206 fox s 1217-2000 Sim A Streetcar Named Marge 8f18 29 m 1218-1830 Sim Cape Feare 9f22 29 m 1218-1900 Sim Principal Charming 7f15 29 t 1219-1830 /** ************************************************************************ ** Legalese ** Acknowledgments ** Opt-in/out Instructions ** *********************************************************************** */ The set of creative works herein reviewed and analyzed, including the subset {books, movies, TV shows, toys}, are the property of their respective copyright holders. No infringement or endorsement is expressed, implied or intended. The original reviews and analyses are themselves copyright 2000 by Phillip Thorne. In this issue, certain data (not otherwise acknowledged) have been obtained and aggregated from: Excite TV tv.excite.com The Lurker's Guide to Babylon 5 midwinter.com/lurk/lurker.html TV Guide tvguide.com If you're receiving this newsletter, you've probably intentionally subscribed to it, or possibly you're interested in special conference/ convention/tradeshow coverage. In any case, to cancel your subscription, send an email message to nsx@underbase.org with the words "UNSUBSCRIBE NON-SEQUITUR" in the subject line and/or body. Capitalization and punctuation don't matter, since there's absolutely no automation behind the subscription process. Still. /* *************************************************************************** ** *************************************************************************** ** The Non-Sequitur Express ** http://nsx.underbase.org/ ** Volume 2, Issue 32: Friday, 08 December 2000 ** Copyright 1999-2000 Phillip Thorne, nsx@underbase.org ** *************************************************************************** ** ************************************************************************ */