Rent a Nanotechnology Lab

SeanAhern writes "If you're an aspiring young nanotechnologist with an idea for a new product, you'll be happy to hear that the DOE has created five facilities called Nanoscale Science Research Centers, that you can rent. These Research Centers are located in National Labs scattered around the country: Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois; Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York State; Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California; Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Oak Ridge, Tennessee; and Sandia National Laboratory in New Mexico."

Who want want to work in a lab like that..

Who want want to work in a lab like that, they would never get in the door.
If you are going to rent out labs, they should be at least, 3 times bigger.

not a bad idea really

when you consider the cost of the equipment you'd have to have in the lab, and the lab itself really, there's a huge overhead. We've seen so many things recently where non-intuitive applications of nanotech are suggesting huge benefits, now everyone can afford a shot in the lab to play with an idea and see if it's worth investing in.

Re:not a bad idea really

Now the residents of /. can finally develop tiny sharks with tiny lasers on their heads.

Zoolander Quote

[Upon seeing the model of the "Derek Zoolander Center For Children Who Can't Read Good And Wanna Learn To Do Other Stuff Good Too"]

"What is this, a center for ants? How can we be expected to teach children to learn how to read if they can't even fit inside

Sweet, Where's Kurzweil.

Awesome, now I can finally create the fabled Grey Goo [wikipedia.org]!

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Grey goo is highly unrealistic. I foresee an unholy alliance of nanotechnology and AI research producing killing swarms as in Crichton's Prey [amazon.com] . After all, both Kurzweil and Crichton are airport paperback novels, so they each produce entertaining notions

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Try Philip K. Dick's "Second Variety" (a short story though, not a novel). But ignore that part about the Soviets taking over and the rogue Americans on the moon, just focus on the replicating killing machines.

Red tape waiting to happen

Brilliant idea... except for the red tape.

Let's be honest, a good number of people will want access to the lab (poorer university students, nanotech hobbyists, etc), and there will be a number of people who think they have a brilliant idea for nanotech that they want to try out. I'm sure there is a certain minimum amount of time each project would take anyway.

So, someone needs to decide who gets access to the space. Since it is government funded, will there be public review of who gets access? Will there need to be proposals? Is there a certain minimum amount of time devoted to "open-nanotech" research (for the good of the world at large)? Or will larger universities hog all the time?

I love the idea, and hope it would scale to other technology fields, I just worry about the gatekeepers.

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Universities can afford their own lab. I see this as a way for medium size companies to get to peek their heads inside the world of nanotech and see if there's an angle they can follow up for real benefits.

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Large ones can, yes.

What about the small community college with a kid that has a ton of potential and is gifted in the area? Some schools have a "build your major" concept for students who fit their criteria. Say 1 skilled student per state even, who has t

Re:Red tape waiting to happen

Since it is government funded, will there be public review of who gets access?

I am guessing your "Real ID" will barely get you through the front gate.

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Whelp, there goes my plan to build nano-sharks with fricken nano-lasers on their fricken heads to clean out my arteries...

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A first-come-first-serve approach would probably work pretty well; it's not like everyone and their grandmothers will be running to these labs to do research. Something like $500/month would be a nice barrier to entry, at least making the 'poorer universit

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Do you think it's targeted towards university students and hobbyists? I wouldn't think so (since it would be a huge waste of our tax money) but perhaps I am wrong.

Re:Red tape waiting to happen

When I applied for beam time at one of these facilities (Argonne in Illinois through the standard review process, not in these new nanotech-for-hire labs) about six months ago, I competed with fifty-nine other proposals. Three of the proposals were given beam time for that beam cycle, and there are only three cycles per year.

When a new beamline opened up at Berkeley National Labs recently it was first-come-first-serve for the first few months, when it was sort of a secret. After a couple months of running sort of in secret, without any public announcement of the new equipment, there was a sudden explosion of awareness (probably someone blabbed about it) and within a very short period it was booked for the rest of the year, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

In summary, first-come-first-serve wouldn't work unless there were five hundred of these facilities. University research groups alone could take up all the time available even if the price were $10k/week, and there would be two universities willing to pay but unable to get time for every one that did.

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Excellent point, you will have to write a proposal, I'm sure. Also see the little teaser at the bottom:
"If your research is non-proprietary and could help to solve a nano measurement problem that supports the production of nanobased applications you may b

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wouldn't it work in the same way they rent out other parts of the labs? like particle accelerators and x-ray diffraction? The highest bidder gets it or you send a proposal and they either approve or deny it.

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The NNIN [nnin.org] is about four years old. There is certainly a review process. My understanding is each facility has their own process, in part because each facility has their own areas of expertise. So you put in an application to a facility and a board of fac

Asbestos lawsuits redux?

One thing I remember reading on /. was the potential carcinogenic effects of these substances, similar to asbestos. Where are these materials stored? Where/how are they disposed of? Surely the people creating these things make lots of proto-efforts; is the

JC, This is Tracer Tong.

I got another lead on some Universal Constructors we can use. There are four sites to choose from.

Re:At Last!

Don't forget to stand there in your wide lab coat and cackle, "Fools, I'll destroy them all!"

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PROTIP: beware of heroes, nanites, liquid nitrogen, time paradoxes, killer bees, betrayal and nanites.

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Well, you can perfect your superduper bioweapon but since it's a DOE facility you'll just get arrested and the US Government will end up selling your invention to terrorists ... ... oh wait that never happens!

Re:At Last!

Dear DOE;

We wish to rent your lab for a short time. Money is no object.

Sincerely

Tom Cruise

P.S. We have nothing bad in mind.

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I prefer the old "They'll rue the day..." line myself, but hey whatever works for ya!