Re: Back from China

From: J. R. Molloy (jr@shasta.com)
Date: Tue Jan 01 2002 - 07:19:15 MST


From: "Greg Burch" <gregburch@gregburch.net>
> I'm pleased to report that China is
> exemplifying -- in most respects -- an explosion of extropian values

Yes, and they're really interested in nanotech.
Here's a news item about it:

CHINA, EMBOLDENED BY BREAKTHROUGHS,
SETS OUT TO BECOME NANOTECH POWER
http://www.smalltimes.com/document_display.cfm?document_id=2736
In laboratories across China, researchers at universities are intensely
studying the potential of nanotubes and nanowires - some reporting
breakthroughs that have escaped the West. The scientists, most of whom have
interdisciplinary backgrounds in chemistry, physics and engineering, are first
seeing how far they can stretch their imaginations before they translate their
discoveries into practical applications. China plans to intensify research in
the field, aiming to prove that the country has the potential to become a
powerhouse in nanotechnology.
Chinese scientists at Beijing's Tsinghua University announced last month that
they have significantly increased the rate at which carbon nanotubes can be
produced. The scientists say they have developed a new approach that produces
carbon nanotubes 15 kilograms per hour, 60 times faster than the speed at
which scientists had been producing them.
About a year ago, scientists at the Hong Kong University of Science and
Technology created the world's smallest single-walled carbon nanotube, with a
diameter of 0.4 nanometers.
A few years ago, Hong Kong's City University began experimenting with silicon
nanowires and in 1998 they patented their own oxide-assisted growth method, a
technique that can grow the material in bulk quantities.
The Center for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology at the Chinese Academy of
Sciences in Beijing opened last year. The center joins more than a dozen
institutes and universities in the hinterlands of China to collaborate on
research.

--- --- --- --- ---

Useless hypotheses, etc.:
 consciousness, phlogiston, philosophy, vitalism, mind, free will, qualia,
analog computing, cultural relativism, GAC, Cyc, Eliza, cryonics, individual
uniqueness, ego, human values, scientific relinquishment, malevolent AI,
non-sensory experience, SETI

We move into a better future in proportion as science displaces superstition.



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