I purchased the October 2008 issue of Esquire magazine (as per my last blog posting where you can also find a link to Andrew Maynard’s posting about the issue) available from my local store. Unfortunately, they don’t stock the super duper version which has the first ever e-ink cover since a limited number of those were printed and made  available only in the US. On the upside, the non super duper e-ink version (identical in every other aspect) offers a description of the process (parts of it) on p. 73.

Apparently, the magazine’s project had its genesis seven years ago in a visit to a start up company called E Ink. The company had developed a technology now found in cell-phone screens and electronic readers (e.g. Kindle). It’s a kind of ink-based electronic display. At the time, technology that would allow them to create an “e paper” thin and flexible enough to function as a magazine cover was not in place but that all changed last year.

One of E Ink’s partners, the Nicobar Group (based in Shanghai) had developed circuitry that was promising but there was a problem (along with other problems) with power requirements. The cover had to last at least 90 days. They solved the problem by refrigerating the circuit boards as long as possible throughout the process. (If you have a super duper issue, you should be able to extend its life past 90 days by refrigerating it.)

Each cover had its circuit board set by hand then the company doing the binding (RR Donnelly) had to find a way to protect the circuitry from the impact of its binding machines.

There’s more detail in the magazine (although not as much as I would like) which celebrates Esquire’s 75th anniversary not only with a new type of technology but also with profiles of 75 people the editors think will influence the 21st Century.

I should note that science fiction got there first (as far as I know) with Neal Stephenson’s nanotechnology-influenced novel Diamond Age which describes a world with e-paper newspapers and books.

One bit of news from Alberta, the provincial government announced funding scholarships for graduate students who are studying nanotechnology. Details here.