not so original, maybe, since drexler covered all this, but it's a discussion that should probably be brought to the front if anything's gonna get done...

Ray Kurzweil - The Future - CIO Magazine Fall 2003

] Last year Yihau Gao and Yoshio Bando at the National
] Institute for Materials Science in Tsukuba found that the
] height of a column of liquid gallium in a nanotube varies
] linearly with temperature.

sounds like they need to find a way to read the thermometer easily (i.e. not requiring an SEM), but still neat.

nanotechweb.org - News - Nanothermometers feel the heat (October 2003)

] Adding sulphur to the NanoKids' feet enables them to
] stand up - albeit only on gold. The two elements bind
] strongly, allowing some ten trillion NanoKids to line up
] on a metal platform the size of a postage stamp.

nano in education.. neat.

NanoKids made in lab: Man-shaped molecules help students learn chemistry.

neat! get your learn on...

nanotechweb.org - Tim Harper - Freeing up nanotechnology information (October 2003)

] what if there were a way to turn a liquid into a tough
] solid at ordinary temperatures with a mere zap of
] electricity -- and then have that solid become liquid
] again, instantaneously, simply by shutting off the
] current?

some neato potential here... similar to the shocks in new Vettes, but electrorheologocal rather than magnetorheological.

Zap of Electricity Creates Fluid Situation for Liquid (washingtonpost.com)

lots of neat stuff in this article, but this is especially cool :

] DuPont Textiles & Interiors and Outlast Technologies are
] rolling out Phase Change Materials (PCMs) that respond to
] your changing body temperature. The fabric coating
] consists of the materials encapsulated into microscopic
] spheres. As you body warms up, the PCM me

STAIN-RESISTANT PANTS ARE SO ‘LAST WEEK’; TRY THE ODOR-FREE SOCKS

cool

Antibiotic Laced Nanoballs Could Improve Infection Treatment

pretty soon they'll be used for everything

Nanotubes Surprise Again: Ideal Photon Emission