Nano Nano

The New York Times' Bits blog has a provocative little piece by Barnaby Feder on the silence of religious leaders regarding nanotechnology, picking up on an article by Chris Toumey in Nature Nanotechnology:
"The fact is that the most interesting spiritual questions raised by nanotechnology stem from the most speculative applications. Mr. Toumey indirectly concedes the point right from the beginning of his commentary, which starts with a scene from“Halo,” a short science fiction story by Charles Stross in which a Muslim scholar is wondering whether bacon assembled from scratch by a molecular assembler is forbidden food like all pork products. And what if the Koran and other sacred teachings have been downloaded onto a computer that is then programmed to analyze and act on them like a good Muslim? Is it Islamic? What are its sacred rights and duties?"

Lots to Read...

The New York Times' Sunday Book Review features books about Islam, and includes an essay by Tariq Ramadan on Reading the Qur'an (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/06/books/review/Ramadan-t.html?ref=books). Lots to read in 2008.