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. <-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-> 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. <-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-> 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. <-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-> Breakthrough of the week: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/nr/2003/hexflex.html <-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-> In twenty years half the population of Europe will have visited the moon. -- Jules Verne, 1865 <-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-> Announcement Archive: http://www.pobox.com/~fhapgood/nsgpage.html. <-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-> 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 little else. If you wish to subscribe to this list (perhaps having received a sample via a forward) send the string 'subscribe nsg' to majordomo@world.std.com. Unsubs follow the same model. Discussion should be sent to nsg- d@world.std.com, which must be subscribed to separately. You must be subscribed to nsg-d to post to it and must post from the address from which you subscribed (An anti- spam thing). Comments, petitions, and suggestions re list management to: nsg@pobox.com.