Category: Media Mentions

Glenn Reynolds, a professor of law at the University of Tennessee and a Foresight Board member, comments on the recent attention from both policy makers and the media to the potential opportunities and dangers of nanotechnology in an article on the TechCentral Station website ("Donít Be Afraid. Donít Be Very Afraid: Nanotechnology Worries Are Overblown", 6 December 2001). His conclusion:
"Overall, the best defense against the abuse of nanotechnology by terrorists, rogue governments, or anyone else is a combination: reasonable regulations to foster responsibility and safety, governments willing to police abuses by terrorists or other governments, and a world order in which such acts are discouraged in general. Weíre quite a distance from these factors, but fortunately we have at least a couple of decades to get there. Itís time to start working."

Reynolds' comments about facing the potential dangers of nanotechnology without undue fear and loathing were also reported in a piece on the Wired website ("Don't Fear Science You Can't See"). Reynolds also had a similar discussion in Ad Astra, the magazine of the National Space Society ("Space, Nanotechnology and Techno-Worries", Jan/Feb 2001; available as an Adobe Acrobat PDF file).
"Rather than too much technology," he writes, "perhaps the problem is that we have too little. In the early days of nanotechnology, dangerous technologies may enjoy an advantage. Once the technology matures, it is likely that dangerous uses can be contained. The real danger of the sort of limits Joy proposes is that they may retard the development of constructive technologies, thus actually lengthening the window of vulnerability." Reynolds concludes that Bill Joy may have done a service by drawing greater attention to both the dangers and the opportunities of nanotechnology, but: "If the debate is to accomplish anything, however, it will have to proceed on a more informed level."

from the The-buzz dept.
A spate of news items about nanotechnology has emerged in the wake of the Nanotech Planet conference held last week in Boston. Some items of interest:

• An article on the Wired ("Nanotech, but Not in a Nanosecond") website that reiterates the cautionary statements regarding investment-oriented nanohype made by HPís Stanley Williams and others.
• Another Wired item ("Don't Fear Science You Can't See") features some level-headed comments by Foresight Senior Associate and Board member Glenn Reynolds (who spoke at the conference) and others on negative reactions to the other kind of nanohype ñ fears of runaway self-replicating nanobots and the like.
• An article on the Small Times ("European nanotech depends too much on government handouts, expert says", by M. Kelley, 30 November 2001) website presents comments by Ramon Compano, a member of the European Commissionís Program for Future and Emerging Technologies, who claims European nanotech ventures receive far more support from public investment and research grants than the private sector.
• Small Times also ran an article that reported the comments of venture capitalists and investors who were speakers and in the audience at the conference: "While bullish on nanotechís promise in general and confident that it will lure its share of investment dollars, the speakers also warned that the sector is a long way from practical success."
• A similar item appeared on the The Deal.com website ("VCs see slow start to nanotech investing", by Charles Sisk, 30 November 2001): "Despite predictions that the market for nanotechnology . . . will take off in the next 15 years, most ideas are still too under-developed to warrant funding, venture capitalists and other investors said."

An article on the Small Times website ("HP Official: 'Ignorance and greed' could spoil nanotech's credibility", by Jeff Karoub) reports an address to the Nanotech Planetís Fall 2001 Conference and Expo in Boston on 29 November 2001, by R. Stanley Williams, a leading nanotechnology researcher and director of Hewlett-Packardís Quantum Science Research. According to the article, Williams said a major challenge facing the immature nanotechnology field is not the science, but the combination of misleading media reports and venture capitalists looking for the next big thing in the wake of the dot-com collapse.
"Ignorance and greed meeting in the marketplace is a recipe for disaster," Williams told attendees from business, government and academia. "As a consequence, the field will lose credibility and momentum."

Williams also noted that even though most nanotech-related research in the United States is funded by the federal government, that funding represents only a tiny fraction of the federal research and development budget, and is unlikely to see any large increases. He said most nanotech research concepts currently go unfunded.

from the chemists-at-work dept.
The November issue of Todayís Chemist At Work, a publication of the American Chemical Society, trumpets a pair of feature articles on nanotechnology. One article ("Manipulating molecules", by Hank Simon) provides an extensive overview of the development of the system that combined virtual reality and an atomic force microscope to create a nanoManipulator. The system was developed at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH) and is being marketed as a commercial product by a spinoff firm, 3rdTech.
A second feature article discusses organic conductive polymers in really flat panel displays (which you might roll up in your pocket), but the nanotech connection is tenuous at best.
There is also a very short news item on private investment in nano-materials and nanotech firms.

An article in the Daily Collegian (" Nanotechnology department gets recognized", by Catherine Turner, 26 November 2001), the campus newspaper of the University of Massachusetts campus in Amherst, provides information on recent funding for nano-scale research projects there.

from the World-Watch dept.
An article in the Taipei Times ("Nanotechnology's promise hailed", by Chiu Yu-Tzu, 16 November 2001) in Taiwan reports on comments made by Liu Jong-min, general director of the Industrial Technology Research Institute's (ITRI) material research laboratories, at a recent international conference on nanotechnology held in Taipei. Liu said that Taiwan's manufacturing industry was one of the nation's great strengths, but that the shortage of highly-trained professionals in the nanotechnology field was worrisome. ITRI is the lead agency for Taiwanís program to establish a Center for Applied Nanotechnology Institute, as reported here on 18 July 2001.

Meanwhile, on the mainland, at a conclave of Hong Kong-based academics and researchers, concern was expressed over the lack of government funding for nanotechnology-related research efforts. This according to a report from the South China Morning Post (20 November 2001) was reprinted on the Small Times website.

from the World-Watch dept.
A lengthy article on the SmallTimes website ("Sweden is spreading the word about its small tech initiative", by Jayne Fried, 15 November 2001) provides a good overview of nanoscale science research and development work there.

from the World-Watch dept.
According to a press release (14 November 2001), the national government of Canada and the provincial government of Alberta, as well as the University of Alberta (U of A) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to build the new National Research Council (NRC) National Institute for Nanotechnology (NINT) at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Alberta. This agreement formalizes the plan for the NINT announced in August 2001.
"Canada has the opportunity to be a world leader in this emerging high technology field," said Anne McLellan, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada at the signing ceremony. "This national institute will be a centrepiece of Canada's emerging nanotechnology sector by successfully integrating and leveraging the strengths of the NRC, U of A and the Province of Alberta in this field."

For an excellent overview of the worldwide acceleration of nanotechnology research activities, with an emphasis on Canadaís efforts and a Canadian perspective, a lengthy article appeared in the Montreal Gazette ("Montreal looms large on nanotechnology scale", by Doug Sweet, 3 November 2001).