Robocops ready to take on terrorists

Real-life Robocops, robots armed with lethal weaponry and a programmed-in determination to eliminate foes, could become a key element in global counter-terrorist and military operations within a decade, a leading security expert predicted today

John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.Org in Virginia, commented on plans announced this week by a US company, iRobot Corp, to arm its track-wheeled PackBot robot with a Taser X26 stun gun.

Source: Guardian.

Bright future for nanosized light source

A bio-friendly nano-sized light source capable of emitting coherent light across the visible spectrum, has been invented by a team of researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and the University of California at Berkeley. Among the many potential applications of this nano-sized light source, once the technology is refined, are single cell endoscopy and other forms of subwavelength bio-imaging, integrated circuitry for nanophotonic technology, and new advanced methods of cyber cryptography.

Source: EurekAlert.

New, invisible nano-fibers conduct electricity, repel dirt

Tiny plastic fibers could be the key to some diverse technologies in the future — including self-cleaning surfaces, transparent electronics, and biomedical tools that manipulate strands of DNA.

Source: Ohio State University.

‘Molecular surgery’ snips off a single atom

A single hydrogen atom has been snipped off a molecule and then added back on again, marking the first time a single chemical bond has been broken and reforged in a controlled, reversible way.

The researchers used a scanning tunnelling microscope (STM) for their cutting tool, which works by manoeuvring a sharp metal tip close to an object, applying a small voltage, and measuring the trickle of electrons that flow between the two.

The team first used their STM to locate a methylaminocarbyne (CNHCH₃) molecule that was fixed to a platinum surface.

Then they turned up the voltage, increasing the flow of electrons. That was enough to break one bond – between the molecule’s nitrogen and hydrogen atom – but not to disturb any of the other bonds, leaving a molecule of methylisocyanide (CNCH₃).

Source: New Scientist.

Visions of the future

Check out some new scenarios from the recent scenario process at the Economic & Social Research Council. See the Guardian blog.

Craig Venter succeeds in ‘genome transplant’

Call it bacterial alchemy: using a “genome transplant”, researchers have turned one species of bacterium into another. The transformation is the latest feat from US genomics pioneer Craig Venter, and marks another step towards his goal of creating a synthetic life-form.

Read the entire article at New Scientist.

See also “Blood cells can raft nanoparticles around the body”, New Scientist.

Russia-NATO: a marriage of convenience?

Read my comprehensive news summary of the missile shield problematique on the Lifeboat Foundation blog (“The Missile Shield and the Race for Space Awareness“).

Despite all the difficulties of cooperation between former rivals, “the impression that the Russia-NATO Council is called upon to be concerned only with Russia is a wrong one. Also wrong is the impression that it [the Council] is winding down,” Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in Berlin in February. Sergei Ivanov, then deputy prime minister and defense minister, said that “Russia and NATO intend to work out a long-term plan to coordinate their efforts for a period of ten years.” The NATO leadership also believes that the fight against terrorism, stopping the spread of weapons of mass destruction, and the settlement of regional conflicts are the foundation of cooperation between Russia and the alliance. The two sides are particularly happy with the success of a series of joint counterterrorist exercises.NATO-Russia cooperation on a theater missile defense system was written into the Rome Declaration as a separate paragraph. A year later, in 2003, NATO’s then Secretary General George Robertson described the program as a “flagship” project. At that time, participants in the Russia-NATO Council meeting agreed on the first phase of a coordination program to develop a non-strategic missile defense system. Since then, the two sides have ignored the other’s moves in this area until the United States this year announced a plan to establish the third positioning region for its national anti-missile shield in Poland and the Czech Republic. Following Russia’s determined objections, the Americans began offering it a role in their anti-missile shield which it was obliged simply to refuse. For example, the Americans offered to use Russian missiles as targets for their anti-missiles or to deploy elements of a U.S. missile defense system in Russia.

Source: RIA Novosti.

See also “US sticks to European missile shield plan” at EPICOS via EUobserver.

Atom trap is a step towards a quantum computer

A device that can hold hundreds of atoms in a 3D array, and image each one individually, has been developed by scientists in the US. The machine is an important stepping stone towards the development of a quantum computer, they say.

Read entire article at New Scientist.

The Ideal Gene Delivery Vector: Chromallocytes, Cell Repair Nanorobots for Chromosome Replacement Therapy

The ultimate goal of nanomedicine is to perform nanorobotic therapeutic procedures on specified individual cells comprising the human body.  This paper reports the first theoretical scaling analysis and mission design for a cell repair nanorobot.  One conceptually simple form of basic cell repair is chromosome replacement therapy (CRT), in which the entire chromatin content of the nucleus in a living cell is extracted and promptly replaced with a new set of prefabricated chromosomes which have been artificially manufactured as defect-free copies of the originals.

Read the entire article at Journal of Evolution and Technology.

See also the “Singularity Warfare: A Bibliometric Survey of Militarized Transhumanism“

David Brin Predicts the Future

David Brin works out of his home office in San Diego County, but he spends much of his day in invisible worlds—ones hidden from us because we can’t perceive them or because they don’t even exist yet. For the past three decades, the Hugo Award–winning author has been mapping out his vision of the future in dozens of works, both nonfiction and sci-fi. His 1998 book, The Transparent Society, explores how technological innovations force us to choose between privacy and security, foreshadowing the era of YouTube and ubiquitous surveillance cameras. His 1990 novel, Earth, anticipates so many of today’s trends—from the World Wide Web to global warming—that there is a Web site devoted entirely to its prognostications.

Via Discover.