Meeting notice: The 03.Nov.04 meeting will be held at 7:30 P.M. at the 
Royal East (782 Main St., Cambridge), a block down from the corner of Main 
St. and Mass Ave.  If you're new and can't recognize us, ask the manager. 
He'll probably know where we are. More details below.


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Note: NSG will be moving from our old list hosting service at the 
end of this month.  If you are interested in continuing to 
receive these notices, either send blank email to nsg-
subscribe@polymathy.org or (if subscribing from an address 
different that the one you want notices sent to) fill out the 
form at http://polymathy.org/mailman/listinfo/nsg_polymathy.org.

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Suggested topic:  Chris Phoenix' extremely interesting paper 
"Design of a Primitive Nanofactory".

Abstract:  Molecular manufacturing requires more than 
mechanochemistry.  A single nanoscale fabricator cannot build 
macro-scale products. This paper describes the mechanisms, 
structures, and processes of a prototypical macro-scale, 
programmable nanofactory composed of many small fabricators. 
Power requirements, control of mechanochemistry, reliability in 
the face of radiation damage, convergent assembly processes and 
joint mechanisms, and product design are discussed in detail, 
establishing that the design should be capable of duplicating 
itself.  Nanofactory parameters are derived from plausible 
fabricator parameters.  The pre-design of a nanofactory and many 
products appears to be within today's capabilities. 
Bootstrapping issues are discussed briefly, indicating that 
nanofactory development might occur quite soon after fabricator 
development.  Given an assembler, a nanofactory appears feasible 
and worthwhile, and should be accounted for in assembler policy 
discussions. 

Closing paragraph: This paper has analyzed a simple, scalable 
design leading to a functional meter-scale nanofactory and 
suggesting the possibility of rapid bootstrapping from primitive 
mechanochemical diamondoid fabricators.  The particular design 
described here appears likely to be practicable and accessible to 
present-day engineering practice.  Little attempt was made in 
this design to save mass, time, or energy; it is possible that 
with further engineering effort, the first nanofactory might be 
significantly more efficient in each of these categories.  The 
design is highly scalable, with only one basic architecture 
change at the few-micron scale, and can be bootstrapped from a 
single fabricator.  Most of the design can be simulated in 
detail, and most of the techniques and mechanisms tested by 
experiment, before the fabricator becomes available.  This 
indicates the possibility of rapid development from a basic 
mechanochemical fabricator to a flood of advanced products. 


More at http://www.jetpress.org/volume13/Nanofactory.htm.




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Breakthrough of the week:

http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/nr/2003/hexflex.html


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In twenty years half the population of Europe will have visited 
the moon.

				-- Jules Verne, 1865

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Announcement Archive: 
http://www.pobox.com/~fhapgood/nsgpage.html.

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Legend:

"NSG" expands to Nanotechnology Study Group.  The Group meets on 
the first and third Tuesdays of each month at the above address, 
which refers to a restaurant located in Cambridge, Massachusetts.  

The NSG mailing list carries announcements of these meetings and 
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post to it and must post from the address from which you 
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Comments, petitions, and suggestions re list management to: 
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