Meeting notice: 04-21-98 7:30 NE43-773 (545 Tech Sq.) Suggested topic: Nanotechnology and Art Nanotechnology is usually understood as a manufacturing technology and manufacturing (on the analogy with agriculture) is likely to account for a very small fraction of the economic activity of societies in the 21st century. Does it follow that NT will be an economically peripheral activity? Perhaps. However, NT can also be seen as a tool and medium for artists, and in fifty years art is likely to occupy an even larger role than it does today. In time nanotech might come to be seen primarily as a means of artistic expression, though with interesting ancillary uses such as making planes and buildings, etc. Given this, it might be appropriate both to ask artists what can be done around the themes of nanotech today, and to monitor developments in the relevant realms of 3-D digital art: interactive graphics and sculptors exploring 3-D printing. NanoNews Combinatorial chemistry enables technicians to screen thousands of catalysts simultaneously and in a fraction of the time it used to take. Potentially the method will be "extremely general," one expert predicts. http://www.eurekalert.org/releases/better-catalyst.html ........................... A new method of searching the web has produced highly focused lists of sites on many topics, often comparable to lists carefully compiled by web search experts. http://www.news.cornell.edu/releases/April98/websearch.bs.html ........................... The world's first bionic photosynthetic energy system. http://www.asu.edu/asunews/Releases/Photo.html .......................... Wear-resistant Diamond Coating Thickly Coats Metals, Plastics, Also Stands Alone. http://www.eurekalert.org/releases/snl-wrdccbssts.html .......................... Nanofabrication and biology merge to produce a simple but effective means to detect specific strains of bacteria. http://www.news.cornell.edu/releases/April98/E-coli.bpf.html ........................... Archive of previous meeting announcements: http://world.std.com/~fhapgood/nsgpage.html. Warning: This warning label appears only at discrete points in space and time. hapgood@pobox.com