Category: Media Mentions

from the money-talks dept.
According to an article in the Taipei Times ("Business leaders learn about nanotechnology", by Chiu Yu-tzu, 22 January 2002), business representatives meeting in southern Taiwan on 21 January said that full support from the government and research organizations would be crucial to future industrial transformation, including nanotechnology.

More than 500 representatives of diverse industries attended a panel discussion held by the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) in Kaohsiung to hear the latest information about nanotechnology research. According to the report, "Representatives said that they sensed signs of an economic recovery, but what they needed urgently was full support from both the government and research organizations to promote nanotechnology, which is innovative and will soon be closely linked to daily life. "

Highlighting the accelerating pace of nanotechnology activity in Taiwan, the meeting closely follows the dedication of a new national Center for Nanotechnology and rapid progress toward the development of an integrated nanotech development program (see Nanodot posts from 22 January, 10 January, and 7 January 2002).

from the World-Watch dept.
An article in the Taipei Times ("Nanotechnology Research Center opens in Hsinchu", by Chiu Yu-Tzu, 17 January 2002) reports that the the Hsinchu-based Industrial Technology Research Institute's (ITRI) Nanotechnology Research Center was formally launched on 16 January 2002. According to the article, the center is expected to spend at least NT$10 billion (about US$286 million) in funds allocated by the Ministry of Economic Affairs, from now until 2007.

At the opening ceremony, National Science Council Vice Chairman Wu Maw-kuen said that the draft of the national program had been passed by the NSC on 15 January and a comprehensive project would be available in March or April. "Next year, Taiwan's national nanotechnology program will be formally launched. We believe that the center at the ITRI will play an important role in integrating diverse researches in both the industry and universities," Wu said. The estimated expense for promoting the national program through 2007 will be about NT$19.2 billion (about US$548 million). A Nanodot post from 7 January 2002 provides additional background on the work to develop a national nanotechnology program in Taiwan.

A brief item about the opening of the center from the Asia Pulse news service appeared on the Small Times website.

An article in the Dallas Business Journal ("Chicken Little is still alive and squawking: New technologies give rise to echoes of old fears", by Bartlett Cleland, 18 January 2002) says "The past 200 years have brought an age of wonder with constant life-changing inventions and mind-stretching advances. But every step forward has had its accompanying Luddites — the skeptics, the fearful and opportunists who express their outrage at progress. Today, their latest fear is nanotechnology."

Cleland, who is director of the Center for Technology Freedom at the Insititute for Policy Innovation in Lewisville, Texas, writes "already the fear-mongers are lining up to proclaim that nanotechnology will bring about the end of all humanity — a familiar refrain from those who fear the future. Much as Chicken Little did, these folks scream that the sky is falling even before they know the facts."

As has been argued elsewhere, Cleland says it is no solution to abandon or relinquish technological research and development: "Technology's track record is one of progress, not destruction. . . . This is not to say that technology is essentially good, but neither is it evil. It is the users of technology who decide whether it is used for good or for evil. . . . The future worth fearing is one where the good guys don't get there first, and the "bad guys" better understand, control and access superior technology. Restraints on the development of technology by the civilized world only give the upper hand to those who are not going to obey the law anyway."

Cleland concludes: "Many will try to regulate the advancement of nanotechnology for their own ends or because of their fears. But policy makers should resist the temptation to regulate nanotechnology. . . . Nanotechnology holds great promise for many areas of life. Those who fear the future will continue to whip up fear and concern rather than to engage in logical and productive analysis. Because to fear the future rather than to shape it correctly is a sure means to a disastrous outcome."

from the World-Watch dept.
An intriguing article in the January 2002 issue of Mechanical Engineering magazine ("A bid to take the lead", by Y. Eugene Pak), a publication of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), reviews the strategic direction of South Korean plans to become a world leader in nanotechnology by 2010. Pak, a researcher in the MEMS laboratory at the Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology in Kiheung, Korea, near Seoul, notes that "Korea has put forth an ambitious plan that will prepare itself to achieve world-class competitiveness in nanotechnology within the next 10 years." According to Pak, "A panel of experts from government, industry, and academia has drafted a strategic plan for commercialization of nano-technologies. The strategy is a three-tier plan to establish needed infrastructure and human resources by 2005, to commercialize nanotechnology from 2005 onward, and finally to become one of the world's leaders by 2010."

Pak describes many nanotechnology-related research projects in government, university, and industrial laboratories covering nanomagnetic and ferroelectric thin-film processing, carbon nanotubes for molecular electronic devices, quantum dots, quantum computing, nanolithography, single-electron transistors, scanning probe microscope-based surface physics, and nano-electromechanical systems (NEMS). He also notes the Korean Ministry of Health and Welfare has drafted a 10-year plan to carry out research in nanobiotechnology, including nanoscale diagnostic devices, nanoscale treatment systems, and nanobiomimetics.

The formulation of South Koreaís ambitious nanotechnology program was covered here on Nanodot on 25 May, 31 July, and 2 August 2001.

Note: If the above link to the ME article is broken, try this link to the back issues archive (this link may be inactive until the issue is archived).

The Fall (October-December) 2001 issue of Interface, a technical trade publication of the Electrochemical Society, is devoted to the theme of "Smaller is better: emerging nanoscience". [Note: all of the following links lead to Adobe Acrobat PDF files, not web pages.]

The issue is introduced by a piece by guest editor Joseph T. Hupp ("Emerging Nanoscience and Functional Artificial Nanoarchitectures"), a professor of chemistry at Northwestern University and a researcher at Northwesternís Center for Nanofabrication and Molecular Self-Assembly. Calling nanoscience and nanotechnology vibrant areas of research and development, Hupp writes, "The excitement, and the private and public investment to back it, comes from nothing less than the promise of revolutionary advances in medicine, communications, and other areas of contemporary technology." He also notes that ìNanotechnology becomes viable, of course, only when desired nanoscale objects can be intentionally and reproducibly made,î and goes on to describe "top-down" and "bottom-up" approaches to nanotech, clearly favoring the latter: ìNew materials and new architectures — devised in a bottom-up, molecular fashion — can be engines for the invention of new and better nanoscience and the development of new and better nanotechnology."

The issue contains three technical articles that describe nanostructured materials and functions:

• Assembly of Metal Nanoparticle Arrays Using Molecular Bridges, by D. Feldheim
• Functional Nanostructured Molecular Materials, by J. T. Hupp and S. T. Nguyen
• Selectively Permeable Dendrimers as Molecular Gates, by G. P. Perez and R. M. Crooks

from the Rocky-Mountain-high? dept.
An article in the Denver Business Journal ("The very small could make Colorado very big", by Lyn Berry-Helmlinger, 11 January 2002) presents a glowing report on the prospects for nanotechnology in Colorado, relying largely on upbeat comments from representatives of the NanoBusiness Alliance:

Griffith Kundahl, a NanoBusiness Alliance member and attorney with Denver-based McNamara Law Firm PC whose practice includes a focus on technology, said there's little doubt that nanotech will play a key role in Colorado. "It's emerging as we speak," he said.

"Why not Colorado?" asked Mark Modzelewski, executive director of the NanoBusiness Alliance. "Colorado does have capital and people who are used to investing in technology; it has all those skill sets and a government that's very receptive to technology businesses. If anything, I'd be stunned if Colorado wasn't a leader when all is said and done."

The November/December issue of Micro Magazine, a trade for the semiconductor manufacturing community, has an article on nanotechnology ("When Micro Meets Nano: Small things considered", by John Conroy). Not surprisingly, the article focuses more on short-term possibilities for molecular-scale transistors, carbon nanotubes, and atomic layer deposition of interest to the microelectronics and semiconductor industry. It also presents some mildly pessimistic comments on the possibility for more advanced nanorobotics from Susan Sinnott, a researcher in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the Unviersity of Florida and co-chair of the Ninth Foresight Conference on Molecular Nanotechnology in November 2001.

from the World-Watch dept.
An article on the Small Times website ("French megaproject for microtech hopes to cultivate new companies", by Genevieve Oger, 14 January 2002) provides a useful overview of the purpose and activities of Minatec, a new micro- and nano-technology education, research and business incubation center being developed in Grenoble, France. According to the article, when the facility is completed some time in 2003, the Minatec center "will be $160.3 million worth of buildings and clean rooms to house up to 3,500 researchers, entrepreneurs and students working on micro and nano projects. The site will hold two engineering schools, joint laboratories for still-developing startups and research and development teams from large companies. . . . Its supporters hope that in time it will turn the region into a European "Silicon Valley" for micro and nano." As the article also notes, "Right now, Minatec is mostly about microtechnology, rather than nanotechnology. The center wants to attract more nanotech activity, but has yet to generate the same kind of interest and momentum it has spawned in microtechnology circles."

The initiative to create Minatec was previously covered here on Nanodot on 28 November and 1 August 2001.

In its 4 January 2002 issue, Business Week magazine profiles a number of "Gurus of Tomorrowís Tech". The researchers profiled include Kaushik Bhattacharya at CalTech ("Materials Made to Order"), a specialist in active materials, some of which employ nanoscale components; and Len Adleman at USC ("Tapping DNA Power for Computers"), who is a leading researcher in the use of DNA molecules for computing.

The Fall 2001 issue of Research Review magazine, a publication from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBL), is devoted to the theme "The Coming of the Nano-Age: Shaping the World Atom by Atom". Along with a general introductory piece, the issue features a half-dozen articles that focus primarily on instrumentation, tools, and materials with interesting nanoscale properties.