Principles of convergence in nature and society and their application: from nanoscale, digits, and logic steps to global progress.

Knowledge, technology, and society as well as natural systems are increasingly coherent and complex, and new systems are continuously formed at their interfaces. Convergence is a problem-solving strategy to holistically understand, create, and transform a system for reaching a common goal, such as advancing an emerging technology in society. The systems may be either in natural, scientific, technological, economic, or societal settings. Convergence offers a unifying strategy applicable to all systems that can be modeled as evolving neural-like networks. The paper presents an overview of the convergence science including underlying theories, principles, and methods and illustrates its implementation in key areas of application. The convergence approach begins with deep integration of previously separated fields, communities, and modes of thinking, to form and improve a new system, from where solutions divergence to previously unattainable applications and outcomes. The worldwide science and technology (S&T) landscape is changing at the beginning of the twenty-first century because of convergence. First, there is the affirmation of three transdisciplinary general-purpose technologies-nanotechnology, digital technology, and artificial intelligence (AI). A second main characteristics is the deep integration of five foundational science and technology fields (NBICA: nanoscale, modern biology, information, cognition, and artificial intelligence) from their basic elements-atoms, genes, bits, neurons, and logic steps and their collective action-to address global challenges and opportunities. The affirmation of nanotechnology at the confluence of disciplines toward systematic control of matter at the nanoscale has been an enabling inspiration and foundation for other S&T fields, emerging industries, and convergence solutions in society. Several future opportunities for implementation of convergence principles are the global S&T system, realizing sustainable society, advancing human capabilities, and conflict resolution.

Trends in worldwide nanotechnology patent applications: 1991 to 2008.

Nanotechnology patent applications published during 1991-2008 have been examined using the "title-abstract" keyword search on esp@cenet "worldwide" database. The longitudinal evolution of the number of patent applications, their topics, and their respective patent families have been evaluated for 15 national patent offices covering 98% of the total global activity. The patent offices of the United States (USA), People's Republic of China (PRC), Japan, and South Korea have published the largest number of nanotechnology patent applications, and experienced significant but different growth rates after 2000. In most repositories, the largest numbers of nanotechnology patent applications originated from their own countries/regions, indicating a significant "home advantage." The top applicant institutions are from different sectors in different countries (e.g., from industry in the US and Canada patent offices, and from academe or government agencies at the PRC office). As compared to 2000, the year before the establishment of the US National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI), numerous new invention topics appeared in 2008, in all 15 patent repositories. This is more pronounced in the USA and PRC. Patent families have increased among the 15 patent offices, particularly after 2005. Overlapping patent applications increased from none in 1991 to about 4% in 2000 and to about 27% in 2008. The largest share of equivalent nanotechnology patent applications (1,258) between two repositories was identified between the US and Japan patent offices.

Nano Mapper: an Internet knowledge mapping system for nanotechnology development.

Nanotechnology research has experienced rapid growth in recent years. Advances in information technology enable efficient investigation of publications, their contents, and relationships for large sets of nanotechnology-related documents in order to assess the status of the field. This paper presents the development of a new knowledge mapping system, called Nano Mapper (http://nanomapper.eller.arizona.edu), which integrates the analysis of nanotechnology patents and research grants into a Web-based platform. The Nano Mapper system currently contains nanotechnology-related patents for 1976-2006 from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), European Patent Office (EPO), and Japan Patent Office (JPO), as well as grant documents from the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) for the same time period. The system provides complex search functionalities, and makes available a set of analysis and visualization tools (statistics, trend graphs, citation networks, and content maps) that can be applied to different levels of analytical units (countries, institutions, technical fields) and for different time intervals. The paper shows important nanotechnology patenting activities at USPTO for 2005-2006 identified through the Nano Mapper system.

Trends for nanotechnology development in China, Russia, and India.

China, Russia, and India are playing an increasingly important role in global nanotechnology research and development (R&D). This paper comparatively inspects the paper and patent publications by these three countries in the Thomson Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI) database and United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) database (1976-2007). Bibliographic, content map, and citation network analyses are used to evaluate country productivity, dominant research topics, and knowledge diffusion patterns. Significant and consistent growth in nanotechnology papers are noted in the three countries. Between 2000 and 2007, the average annual growth rate was 31.43% in China, 11.88% in Russia, and 33.51% in India. During the same time, the growth patterns were less consistent in patent publications: the corresponding average rates are 31.13, 10.41, and 5.96%. The three countries' paper impact measured by the average number of citations has been lower than the world average. However, from 2000 to 2007, it experienced rapid increases of about 12.8 times in China, 8 times in India, and 1.6 times in Russia. The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), and the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) were the most productive institutions in paper publication, with 12,334, 6,773, and 1,831 papers, respectively. The three countries emphasized some common research topics such as "Quantum dots," "Carbon nanotubes," "Atomic force microscopy," and "Scanning electron microscopy," while Russia and India reported more research on nano-devices as compared with China. CAS, RAS, and IIT played key roles in the respective domestic knowledge diffusion.

Reality of rapid convergence.

A major series of conferences, workshops, and research projects has established the crucial importance of convergence across all fields of science and technology. Central to this unification at the present time are the NBIC fields: nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technology and new technologies based on cognitive science. This book provides an overview of this crucial phase change in human culture, beginning with four chapters offering an overview, followed by four chapters about nanobioconvergence, two about the ways in which information infrastructure can promote convergence, four chapters on cognitive technologies, and four addressing the social and ethical implications of this profound revolution.

Progress in governance of converging technologies integrated from the nanoscale.

It is expected that convergence of nanotechnology, modern biology, the digital revolution, and cognitive sciences will bring about tremendous improvements in transformative tools, generate new products and services, enable human personal abilities and social achievements, and in time reshape societal relationships. This article focuses on the progress made in governance of such converging, emerging technologies that are integrated with more traditional technologies. The proposed framework for governance calls for several key functions: supporting the transformative impact; advancing responsible development that includes health, safety, and ethical concerns; encouraging national and global partnerships; and commitment to long-term planning with effects on human development. Principles of good governance include participation of all those involved or affected by the new technologies, transparency, participant responsibility, and effective strategic planning. Introduction and management of converging technologies must be done with respect for immediate concerns (such as information technology privacy, access to medical advancements, and addressing toxicity of new nanomaterials) and longer-term concerns (such as human development and concern for human integrity, dignity, and welfare). Four levels of governance of converging technologies have been identified: (a) adapting existing regulations and organizations; (b) establishing new programs, regulations, and organizations specifically to handle converging technologies; (c) national policies and institutional capacity building; and (d) international agreements and partnerships.

Science and technology integration for increased human potential and societal outcomes.

Unifying science based on the material unity of nature at the nanoscale provides a new foundation for knowledge, innovation, and integration of technology. Revolutionary and synergistic advances at the interfaces between previously separated fields of science, engineering and areas of relevance are ready to create nano-bio-info-cogno (NBIC) transforming tools. Developments in systems approach, mathematics, and computation in conjunction with NBIC allow us to understand the natural world and scientific research as closely coupled, complex, hierarchical entities. At this unique moment of scientific and technical achievement, improvement of human performance at individual and group levels, as well as development of suitable revolutionary products, becomes possible and these are primary goals for converging new technologies. NBIC addresses long-term advances in key areas of human activity, including working, learning, aging, group interaction, organizations, and human evolution ((Roco and Bainbridge, 2003)). Fundamentally new tools, technologies, and products will be integrated into individual and social human architecture. This introductory chapter of the Annals outlines research and education trends, funding activities, and the potential of development of revolutionary products and services.

Nanotechnology: convergence with modern biology and medicine.

The worldwide emergence of nanoscale science and engineering was marked by the announcement of the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) in January 2000. Recent research on biosystems at the nanoscale has created one of the most dynamic science and technology domains at the confluence of physical sciences, molecular engineering, biology, biotechnology and medicine. This domain includes better understanding of living and thinking systems, revolutionary biotechnology processes, the synthesis of new drugs and their targeted delivery, regenerative medicine, neuromorphic engineering and developing a sustainable environment. Nanobiosystems research is a priority in many countries and its relevance within nanotechnology is expected to increase in the future.