Category: Investment/Entrepreneuring

from the for-your-holiday-amusement dept.
Yahoo's PR News reports that "Nano-Tex, LLC announced today that it has agreed to license Galey & Lord (NYSE: GNL – news) and Burlington PerformanceWear (NYSE: BUR – news) to utilize the molecular technology of Nano-Tex in fabric production… 'Nano-Care and Nano-Dry are the first introductions in a family of products being developed by Nano-Tex, bringing ease of care and superior performance to everyday fabrics. Research on other products is progressing well. The nanotechnology platform can be applied to a wide variety of fabric types to create multiple performance features. By changing the fabric at the molecular level, Nano-Tex creates new opportunities in the marketplace with differentiated products based on cutting-edge nanotechnology. We believe that our ability to bring this technology to everyday fabrics will set a new standard for fabric performance in the future.' Nano-Tex, LLC is a research company founded on the principles of nanotechnology creating new or improved textile properties through molecular engineering." CP: I don't know about the fabric, but the marketing is state of the art.

from the better-insured-than-sorry dept.
Recognizing that some nanotech risks are not dissimilar to biotech risks, McManamey, Brettler & Associates — biotech insurance specialists — have issued a press release that makes clear their willingness to take on the insuring of nanotechnology-based businesses. While it's true that buying insurance doesn't by itself decrease risk, it does set up a financial incentive for all involved to identify and then work to reduce potential safety problems. Makes sense to us.

from the the-other-name-Acme-Widgets-is-better dept.
They aren't the first, but they are early — here's a story from Yahoo News : Acme Widgets Research & Development, LLC, a Florida-based high-tech incubator, today announced the formation of Novastar Technologies, Inc., a technology commercialization firm, as its wholly owned subsidiary… “Novastar provides a turnkey approach for all services needed to develop, patent, and commercially exploit new technologies with large markets.''… To date Novastar has received private financing and has hired a New York City investment banking firm to pursue additional financing of between $15 to $25 million through a private equity offering. Proceeds from previous funding have been used to acquire emerging technology and its attendant intellectual property protection. A portion of future funds will also be used to construct a state-of-the-art R&D center and a pilot plant for the early stage development of commercially viable new technologies. Novastar focuses on exciting emerging technology markets that include…Nanotechnology

from the biotech-today-nanotech-tomorrow dept.
A story in the San Francisco Chronicle reports on a new Ernst & Young "State of the Industry" report on biotech and some nanotech ($50). From the news story: "Biotech is also shaping up as a template for futuristic fields like nanotechnology, the effort to build machines of sub-microscopic size. Much of the E&Y report is organized as a series of conversations between visionaries including Eric Drexler, a leading proponent of nanotechnology, and Stuart Kauffman, a co-founder of the Santa Fe Institute and a guru of complexity theory. At one point in the report, Drexler and Kauffman suggest that nanomachines will have to be 'self-organizing systems,' governed by some inner logic…Of course, such pie-in-the-sky stuff always sounds more persuasive coming from an industry that's flush."

from the can-they-really-trademark-"Bucky"? dept.
Bryan Hall writes "A recent press release from Carbon Nanotechnologies, Inc. discusses an advancement in the commercialization of carbon nanotechnology… “With the formation of CNI, we are seeding a new industry based on carbon,'' said Dr. Smalley. “Carbon is the most versatile of all elements. It is the very basis for life. Now we have a unique new form of carbon that has the potential to propel the 21st century in some fundamentally new directions. We are looking at a whole new field of chemistry with spectacular properties that can unlock a new future for a wide variety of industries.'' Read More for the full post.

from the nanobusiness-in-the-news dept.
Foresight advisor and Zyvex researcher Ralph Merkle points out an Oct 5 column on nanotechnology on the site of business magazine Red Herring: For decades, skeptics have dismissed molecular nanotechnology as the dream of crackpots, fools, and technology visionaries. The skeptics were wrong…in the last two years, there have been new discoveries that may revolutionize the fields of medicine, microprocessors, and synthetic materials. Discoveries such as Northwestern University's new nanolithography techniques used for designing transistors smaller than a molecule, Cornell University's work on how to turn a living cell into a motor, or NASA's progress on the development of carbon nanotubes — super-strong, lightweight materials for use in future spacecraft. Nanotechnology, it seems, is progressing from the science fiction of books like Neal Stephenson's Diamond Age to science fact. Most of the piece is on the company Zyvex, which is working on both bottom-up and top-down approaches.

from the OK-so-it's-only-nano-in-one-dimension dept.
A press release announces: "Lightyear Technologies Inc. announced today that it has made a major breakthrough in nanotechnology, the science of building products at a molecular level…the company is the first in the world capable of producing nanotechnology products in commercial quantities…The material, first developed at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, is just a single molecule thick, and is capable of building itself into many useful products…Lightyear so far is concentrating its efforts on energy and environmental uses…Lightyear is now concentrating on working with companies developing applications that could revolutionize water purification and energy storage, possibly making electric vehicles much more practical."