Warning! Nanos!

Posted on by scott

Those of you who’ve read Specials may remember a certain scene involving extremely dangerous nano-scale weapons (also known as “nanos”). Although weaponized nanos don’t exist yet, nanotech is real, and the potential for dangerous nanos abounds.

In this context, “nanotechnology” means any widget that’s between 1 to 100 nanometers across. A nanometer is a billionth of a meter, so we’re talking down at the level of molecules and even atoms. At present, most nanos are used in fairly boring ways: sunscreen, paint, varnish. But in the near future, nanotech will no doubt be used in computing, mechanical design, and (because it’s what we upright monkeys are best at) killing each other.

Luckily, the good people at Etc Group have started a competition for a Nano Warning symbol, like the biohazard trefoil or other hazard symbols. So when anyone stumble across a defunct nano weapon like Shay and Tally did in Specials, they’ll know not to mess with it.

Here are my three faves so far:

nanohazard.jpg

I like the spider-y one, because it plays on atavistic fears of small crawly things. The broken hexagon refers to the carbon structures that most nanos use. The magnifying glass with a ! will probably look quaint 300 hundred years from now, but it amuses me.

Click here to see the rest and vote for your favorites. The molecular structure you save may be your own.

(Via BoingBoing)

187 thoughts on “Warning! Nanos!”

  4. gosh i no exactally who im gonna shoot no actually im torn between my stupid reading teacher and my stupid music teacher. on one hand my readin teacher is always stupid, on the other gosh i have too learn a whole new set of lines 4 the musical now b/c of the music teachers stupidity, i hope none of the stupidness rubs off on me

  5. Okay Courtney-wa I’m just glad I’m not the one you’re gonna shoot.And gray is such a boring color.Why do we have to turn into gray goo?Why not turquoise or some other happy fun colored goo?(HaHaHa!)Gosh we got this new kid in my History class and he’s like 50 feet tall.Okay maybe that’s exagerrating, but he is really tall compared to my barely and probably less than five foot tall self.Shortness sucks, very unfawesome.
    See Ya!

  6. Don’t you just hate how gray can be spelled g-r-a-y and g-r-e-y?
    Why don’t they just make up their minds on the right spelling? Then again who are THEY?The dictionary publishers?What Ev.
    See Ya!

  7. gawd… i have been out of it lately… not going online, not checking scotts site, not updateing my blog, not doing my SS project (need to do that!), and not being able to sleep. can someone help me?¿?¿?¿?¿?¿?¿?¿

  9. my fave is on page 13the one in the bottom middle
    it is sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
    funny!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    hehehehehe
    hahahaha

  10. OMG
    i sooooooooooooo messed up the page sorry i did not know it would do that
    any way so ya hahahehehe
    who wants to know what my new fave song is
    i will tell you anyway it is

    drum roll please!!
    plprlplplplplplplplplplrplplrplplplplplplrplplplplprlplplplplrplprlplrplplplplrplrplprlplprlrprrlplplpplrrrrr

    FACE DOWN !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  13. BTW THE THINGY IS NOT A BAD WORD JUST A DEMO
    ALSO

    P.S.
    TO DAY WAS EMO DAY AND TOMARROW IS GOTH DAY SOOOOOO

    HAPPY GOTH DAY ❗
    OR SHOULD I SAY ?
    HAVE A BAD GOTH DAY ❗

  19. Very interesting holidays, but now I’m going to bed or else I won’t wake up for school tomorrow.
    See Ya!

  20. You guys/girls/people are soooo wierd!
    I reread Romeo and Juliet last year and it totally sucked.
    Why do all cool people have to die in Shakespeare tragedies!!
    I started to think Mercutio was awsome(it kinda helped that the movie version we saw had him totally HOT) and then he up and dies!!

    Anyways I’m totally bored here( I’m on in the school computer lab, its the only thing left to do during exams!!)

    Anyone out there?

  21. I wonder why Scott hasn’t posted any thing.
    Its been days!!!
    Man I am so freaking BORED!!

    Hey has any one read Airborne by Kenneth Oppel?
    I started reading it last night and so far its pretty cool.

  22. Darn I forgot I was all alone out here in cyberspace.

    Where is everybody?!?!?!?!
    Maybe youre in a different time zone or something.

    Does anybody inhabit AMERICA!!
    More specifically the eastern seaboard!!!

  23. OK this is soo pathetic

    Thats it, I gonna go check out some other sites. This place is such a ghost town today!!!!!

  26. In THE BAR CODE TATOO, they use nanotechnology as a weapon. But, anyways, the nanotech in Uglie is like.. I dunno… twenty thousand times COOOOOOOLER! But those signs rock hard core. I like the spidery one!

  31. oh i read Night last year…it was soooo sad…but it was a very very good book… i need to read Dawn.

    have you read To Kill a Mockingbird? it was really really fawesome.

    o and fyi if you get a book list and are forced to pick one of them on it and East of Eden happens to be on it do not pick it….it is evil and will haunt you eternally…………..haha. jk. that just sounded fun to say. but seriously it’s not a very good book stay away from it. and it’s very inappropriate for school…which makes it nearly impossible to do a book presentation on. trust me, i’ve tried.

    Ψσ͔˥Ljÿ{Lj̕̕♠6ѪꪪΨ….wow that was fun. i just pressed a bunch of random alt-#’s…i couldn’t find the upside down ? though inless this funky sign Ψ that looks all weird kinda like the head of a pitchfork or something turns into an upside down ? once i press the submit button…hmm…lets find out.

  36. lucky you. lol we had one of those days a month or so ago. it snowed here last night and they didn’t call it…which was totally sad-making. but on the happy side tomorrows only a half day b/c some speech and debate thing.

  37. Im gonna make a book. Its going to be called:

    The Official Guide To Why Boys Totally Suck
    By All The Girls Who Have Had Problems With Guys

    That would include all. Uh, and if you want to know what happened this time (i no, im FILLED with drama) it was about my ‘friend’ again.

    So he gives me a not in class that says “I though you were my friend”. And im going, what is tht suppose to mean. so after class im like “What are you talking about?” Hes like “Ask Deigo” so here i go, all the way down to ask Diego what he said to him. I ask Diego “What did you say him? He says we made some bet?” And he goes “I dont no what your talking about. Hes been acting weird lately.” So i turn abck around to go tell him and i say “Diego said that he doesnt no what your talking about.” and hes like “Well ask him again” By this point, i am dissing these people in my head and slamming books down against the floor. Im turning the dial rapidly on my locker and lunging it open.
    Im in a really bad mood and my friend is standing next to me as i walk to my car. Im like yelling at her, not him, her “What does he think he is, my brother? you dont no how many time shes has a proublem with what i do! i read it bothers him! i joke it bothers him! i say nothing to no one and it still bothers him! I bet me breathing bothers him! does he no im not perfect!”
    “Hey i have to-”
    “And the worst of it is that i dont even want to be his friend anymore! Im tired of him! I just ant to ignore him for the rest of my life!”
    “Hey, im leaving!” so she leaves and i mummble to myself. Yep, that was my evening.

  43. That sucks Bran-la.I hope it turns out okay. On a more jealous note: That is soooo unfair that you guys can get on here at school.I was on the computer during English class and I try to go to Scott’s sight and this thing pops up saying that it has been blocked by the school for inappropriate content. I mean seriously! They block like everything! Very unhappy-making. Anyway, I would totally read that book Bran-la.HeHeHe. Oh yeah. Me happy again, cuz tomorrow I get to leave right after lunch cuz I’m going to Winter Camp with my Church and so I get to miss Algebra, P.E., and Science.YaY!!!
    See Ya!

  45. I know seriously! Very Rude indeed!HeHeHe!!!
    I Love Exclamation Points!If I had to write an Ode to Exclamation Points it would look like this:

    !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!…
    I wonder what grade I would get for that lovely poem?
    HaHaHa!!! So fabulously random,I LOVE it!
    See Ya!

  47. i just now finshed my speech and apperently Annie Cannon was a 19th century (idc if i speeled that right) astronomere……………. i had never know that…….. but w/e

    in other news

    they blooked scotts site at my school too….. they wont even let us use google……… and ask….. we can only use wikapedia….. and that info is never true…….

    and in other other news

    i came up with an IM abreveation (they need to abbreviate { i no i can’t spell} abbreviation). here it is

    insted of IDK- i don’t know

    it is IDC- i don’t care

    and last but not least ID- i don’t _______ (add what u want in there)

    so?????????????????????

    me is bored……………..

    SoPhIe-La
    WoRd 😉

  49. See, i have been one of those several people who have got to no a lot of guys and became very good friends with them. I could name several people (all of which i usually ended up crushing on some how or another) but the problem is that sometimes having guys as your friends is not a good thing. I must now go sit and wait till he gets on AIM so i can yell at him! What fun!

    And yes, this is what i do in my spare time, get frustrated and yell at innocent friends.

  50. at my school they don’t let us use wikapedia (well mostly just advise us not to) but youtube is blocked. but they let us use mostly everything else. i don’t ever get a chance to go on here at school though.

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