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The paper aims to provide a technical review of recent developments in microrobots, together with a less detailed consideration of nanorobotics.

Following a brief introduction, this paper describes a number of recently reported microrobot development activities. It then briefly considers the emerging field of nanorobotics.

Microrobots are the topic of a major research effort and many different technological approaches are under study. Critical issues are power and locomotion and magnetic methods are attracting much attention. Nanorobots are at a far earlier stage of development and most are based on DNA‐based molecular technology. Key applications for both classes of device are anticipated in microassembly, healthcare and nanotechnology.

This paper provides a timely review of recent microrobot and nanorobot development activities.

This paper aims to provide an insight into recent miniaturised robot developments and applications.

Following an introduction, this article discusses the technology and applications of miniature robots and considers swarm robotics, assembly robots, flying robots and their uses in healthcare. It concludes with a brief consideration of the emerging field of nanorobotics.

This shows that all manners of miniaturised terrestrial, airborne and aquatic robots are being developed, but size and weight restraints pose considerable technological challenges, such as power sources, navigation, actuation and control. Prototypes have been developed for military, assembly, medical, environmental and other applications, as well as for furthering the understanding of swarm behaviour. In the longer term, microrobots and nanorobots offer prospects to revolutionise many aspects of healthcare, such as cancer treatment.

This study provides details of a wide-ranging selection of miniaturised robot developments.

To begin, therefore by establishing certain parameters to both delimit and evoke the discussion, one might first note before side-stepping the well-recognised ethical issues that announce themselves within these early ethnological texts (see for instance Hsu, 1979). The ‘pith-helmet’ terminology and exoticised intentionality, borne with such unselfconscious assurance, can in fact serve to effect complacency on the part of the contemporary ethnographer – were they to believe that one could completely escape such tendencies. In fact, Western thought has always displayed just these acquisitive geometries in its surveying, arraying and apprehending of the world.¹ Obviously, therefore, this is not to criticise in a naive or petulant manner a fundamental comportment of the Western intellectual tradition, which clearly structures this and every enquiry couched within its terrain. Nor is it to suggest that certain keywords (‘colonialism’ for example) might somehow name this tendency without repeating its form, or that earnest mantras concerning ‘emancipation’ or ‘respect for alterity’ immediately authorise its continuation. For one to deal responsibly with the ensuing philosophical and ethical motifs would require a measured and careful analysis beyond the remit of the present discussion. Nonetheless, the basic geometry of this disposition is assumed for ethnography in the analysis that follows. Ethnography, that is to say, is actively oriented towards an object, here referred to variously as ‘lived experience’ or ethnos, and is always to some measure engaged in the apprehension and transmission of that object.

The purpose of this paper is to propagate a goal‐driven engineering process – an engine of invention, innovation, and growth – to be the soul of management for organizations to recover from the malaise that arose from illusions of creating capital wealth through deceptive paradigms where individual gains took precedence over the needs of a healthy human enterprise.

The paper is a result of ideas generated from author's world travels. Moving around in the world exposing oneself to organisms, to danger, one discovers serendipity and learns as much from other cultures as one can. Although some of life's lessons are learned in the carpe diem (e.g. not putting hands in the fire), others become apparent only after the fact (after the fire is put out!). Mind travel is as important as physical travel. Mind travel allows us to pay for an experience once and then have it again and again at no additional charge, learning new lessons with each repetition of physical or mental travel.

Biomedical engineering, nanotechnology, megacomputing, and nanorobots will dominate the future of human race and hence an anticipated need for effective management of emerging technologies and related human resources. In support of the synthesis of management and engineering, behavioral‐based outcome‐based education in the Washington Accord criteria are shown to integrate development of management and entrepreneurial skills as part of the engineering training.

The paper examines the American and Asian values of life, liberty and pursuit of happiness by integrative process of physical, social/emotional, mind, and above all spiritual upbringings as human life evolves from the cradle to the grave.

The context of this chapter is the use of data and advanced data analytics in a commercial setting. Privacy is considered as protection from vulnerability, whereby vulnerability is understood as the state of being exposed to the possibility of being harmed, either physically or emotionally, or in fundamental rights other than privacy. Therefore, privacy's policy instruments, in particular data protection law, could be seen as a means to reduce the risk of harm resulting from data use. Such harm is probabilistic and often uncertain, which, however, does not exclude analyzing costs and benefits of regulatory data protection policies. When balancing privacy protections and opportunities for knowledge gain, regulatory policy could be viewed as superior, when it expands the range of possible trade-offs between vulnerability protection and gaining socially beneficial knowledge.

The purpose of this paper is to compare the stability of the three nanocarriers created by DNA origami method with different positions and numbers of crossovers

Nanocarriers are attractive components among a variety of nanostructures created by DNA origami and can have numerous applications in mechanical and medical engineering. For this reason, the current study compares three nanotubes with different positions and numbers of crossovers created by DNA origami method that can be utilized as nanocarriers. To investigate the structures, the DNA nanocarriers are studied at the human body temperature 310 K. Molecular dynamics simulations are used for this study. For a quantitative analysis of DNA nanocarriers, the areas of three hexagons at three different sites in each of the nanotubes are investigated. The results indicate that the number and position of crossovers are among the significant factors in the structure stability of nanocarriers. The analyses also revealed that although adding crossovers in locations with fewer crossovers increase structural stability, the position of crossovers can have different effects on the stability. DNA origami-based nanocarriers can be implemented in drug delivery, allow the nanocargoes to pass various surfaces and act as filters for passing cargoes of different dimensions and chemical structures.

The results indicate that the number and position of crossovers are among the significant factors in the structure stability of nanocarriers

In this paper, the stability of DNA origami nanocarriers with different positions and numbers of crossovers was investigated.

This paper aims to report a prototype of a reliable method for rapid, sensitive bacterial detection by using a low-cost zinc oxide nanorods (ZnONRs)-based electrochemical sensor.

The ZnONRs have been grown on the surface of a disposable, miniaturized working electrode (WE) using the low-temperature hydrothermal technique. Scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersion spectroscopy have been performed to characterize the distribution as well as the chemical composition of the ZnONRs on the surface, respectively. Moreover, the cyclic voltammetry test has been implemented to assess the effect of the ZnONRs on the signal conductivity between −1 V and 1 V with a scan rate of 0.01 V/s. Likewise, the effect of using different bacterial concentrations in phosphate-buffered saline has been investigated.

The morphological characterization has shown a highly distributed ZnONR on the WE with uneven alignment. Also, the achieved response time was about 12 minutes and the lower limit of detection was approximately 103 CFU abbreviation for Colony Forming Unit/mL.

This paper illustrates an outcome of an experimental work on a ZnONRs-based electrochemical biosensor for direct detection of bacteria.

Many emerging technologies are being developed in an accelerating pace and are key drivers of future change. In foresight studies, usually their positive impact on the quality of life is considered or their negative environmental effects. This paper seeks to draw attention to an overlooked “dark side” of new technologies: their potential abuse by terrorists or organized crime. Recent cybercrime events are examples of abuse that perhaps could have been minimized if appropriate foresight studies were performed years ago. This was the aim of the recently completed EU-funded project FESTOS.

Several foresight methodologies were employed. Following a horizon scanning for potentially threatening technologies, a Delphi-type expert survey helped to evaluate critical threat characteristics of selected 33 technologies: the likelihood that each technology will actually come to pose a security threat (in different time frames), the easiness of its malicious use, the severity of the threat, and the most threatened societal spheres.

The results enabled ranking the technologies by their “abuse potential” and “threat intensity”. Certain emerging technologies (or their combinations), regarded as “weak signals”, inspired ideas for potential “wild cards”. In a subsequent workshop, which employed a variant of the “futures wheel” method, four wild-card “scenario sketches” were constructed. These were later developed to full narrative scenarios.

The entire process enables the introduction of security foresight into policy planning in a long-range perspective. The foresight results were followed by the evaluation of policy implications and coping with the knowledge control dilemma. The paper illustrates how a mix of foresight methods can help in a continuous analysis of new and threats posed by emerging technologies, thus raising awareness of decision makers and mitigating the risk of unforeseen surprises.