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Gaming the Future: The Book!

Category: news

Investors comment on nanotech as industry

from the at-least-nano-has-a-business-model dept.
"Nanotech Offers Some There, There" by Ann Thayer (Chemical & Engineering News, 11/26/01, not easy to access) discusses the nanotech industry and current investor interest. Galway Partners' Chris Anzalone: "I believe there will be a nanotech boom over the next three to five years. The difference [from dot.coms], of course, is that there will be more there, there." Merrill Lynch's John Roy: "Where there's smoke, there's fire. Nanotechnology is closer than we think, and we need to be watching this. Although no one knows how big this will be, we do know that it never will match the hype." (Might Mr. Roy someday wish he'd left off that last comment?) A chart shows that venture capital is already about double US federal spending on "nanotechnology".

New academic Centers with nano orientation

from the put-Nano-in-your-name-&-get-funded dept.
"New Hubs for Nano" by Alexandra Stikeman (Technology Review, Dec 2001) lists six new academic Centers for various flavors of nanotechnology. Some of them sound intriguing, e.g. RPI's Center for Directed Assembly of Nanostructures, whose director is quoted: "Lots of people can now make nanoscale building blocks. The question is how do you assemble them to create new materials and novel devices that you can control and manipulate." Time will tell whether they live up to these sexy nano-names.

MIT Media Lab to explore digital matter tools

According to a press release (27 November 2001), the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded $13.75 million to the the MIT Media Laboratory to create a Center for Bits and Atoms to explore how the content of information relates to its physical representation, from atomic nuclei to global networks. From the release:

"The center will bring nanofabrication, chemistry and biology labs together with rapid mechanical prototyping, electronic instrumentation and high-bay assembly workspaces. This integrated suite of resources is being developed to enable its researchers to shape simultaneously the information in a system and its physical embodiment, from microscopic to macroscopic scales. The NSF funding will help support research, education and outreach programs, as well as technological infrastructure. "

And:

"Among the challenges to be tackled will be developing "personal fabricators" to bring the malleability that personal computers provide for the digital world into the physical world; providing bidirectional molecular interfaces between computers and living systems; and bringing advanced information technologies to bear on some of the most intractable problems in global development and security."

Creation of cloned human embryos announced

The announcement by Worcester, Massachusetts-based Advanced Cell Technology that its researchers had created cloned human embryos has set of a new round in the debates over cloning technology. ACT claims its work, reported in the 25 November 2001 issue of the Journal of Regenerative Medicine, is not aimed a producing fully-developed cloned humans, but at producing stem cells that can be used for generating individualized new tissues for therapeutic use. However, ACT also announced in a report in the 22 November 2001 issue of Science that its proprietary cloning technology has been used to produce healthy and normal adult animals (in this case, cattle).

Some additional background may be found in these articles from Reuters News Service on ACTís announcement, the renewed debate, and the companyís goals for therapeutic cloning.

Panel discussion on GNR technologies held in Washington, D.C.

A number of items on the KurzweilAI.net website present comments made by inventor-author Ray Kurzweil during a panel discussion on whether humans are an endangered species held in Washington, D.C. on 19 December 2001. Kurzweil proposed a major new national program to develop defensive strategies, technologies, and ethical standards to address the dangers of emerging genetic, nanotechnology and robotics (GNR) technologies. The panel also included Bill Joy of Sun Microsystems, environmentalist Bill McKibben, and theologian Ann Foerst. Responding to calls for a halt or relinquishment of development of GNR technologies, Kurzweil said, "I believe that implementing such a choice would require a Brave New World type of totalitarian government in which the government uses technology to ban the further development of technology," said Kurzweil. An outright ban "would be destructive, morally indefensible, and in any event would not address the dangers."

Kurzweilís comments were reported in a news item on the KurzweilAI.net website. In addition to a brief news item on the panel, you can read a briefing paper on the issues that have been raised in the debate on how to deal with GNR technologies, as well as a set of questions posed to Kurzweil during panel discussion and his responses.

A recent nanotechnology seminar in Iran

A.M. Soltaani submitted this brief summary of a recent nanotech seminar in Iran: "Iran centre for industrial research and development affiliated to Industrial development and renovation organization in Iran, and Nanotechnology Policy Studies Committee affiliated to Presidential Technology Cooperation office have [held] a seminar on nanotechnology opportunities for Iranian industry in Teheran on Tuesday. Please see for more: http://www.tco.gov.ir/nano/English/events/Idro.htm"

[Editor's note: This item was submitted on Wednesday, 21 November 2001, so "Tuesday" presumably refers to 20 November, or perhaps 13 November 2001; no date is given on the linked web page. See also the recent post on nanotech in Iran.]

Chinese Nanotech Funding Comparable to U.S.

RobertBradbury writes "Nature is reporting here that the Chinese Academy of Sciences has prompted the government into funding the construction of a new National Nanoscience Center in Beijing. The center is estimated to cost 250-500 million renminbi (yaun) (~8.3 renminbi/$). The overall Chinese funding for nanoscience is 2.5 billion renminbi for the next 5 years ($60 million/yr). If one considers the according to the CIA World Fact Book, the Chinese GDP per person is an order of magnitude less than that of the U.S. and according to this article, salries for skilled scientific workers range from $120-360/month (academic) to $960/month (commercial), that would suggest that labor costs in China are approximately an order of magnitude below those in the U.S. So the Chinese nanotechnology research effort may well be comparable in terms of the number of researchers funded to the U.S. National Nanotechnology Initiative!"

Biotechnology research and bioterrorism

RobertBradbury writes "This week Nature is highlighting the problem of public knowledge and data access and bioterrorism in "The end of innocence?". George Poste, chair of the U.S. Dept. of Defense task force on bioterrorism, goes so far in "Biologists urged to address risk of data aiding bioweapon design" as to suggest access to biological data should be regulated and the publication of manuscripts associated with "risky" projects might be denied. This isn't a new discussion, Nature pointed out on May 17, in "A call to arms" the problem of the pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies resisting the inspections that would put some teeth into the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention treaty. The firms fear inspections because of the potential theft of commercial secrets while the proponents object that the 2 week advance notice would allow too much time to hide any covert activities.

Some biologists, such as Claire Fraser, the Director of TIGR, realize the problem is serious and in an October Nature Genetics article, Genomics and future biological weapons: the need for preventive action by the biomedical community, concluded, "In short, the biomedical community must play its proper part in the generation of a true web of deterrence that will render biological warfare or terrorism an obviously futile as well as a morally unacceptable act".

The threat of bioterrorism is here now (see this CNN Report), long before we have to worry about nanoterrorism. Is secrecy the answer? Can inspections work? What about countries that fail to sign the treaties? Or is our only hope to develop robust defenses (vaccines, anti-toxins, rapid response capabilities, etc.) that would allow us to keep one step ahead in the bioterrorist arms race?"

Nanotech investment report from UK

from the advice-on-your-money dept.
Evolution Capital Ltd, a "technology-focussed investment bank based in London", has published a 28-page Executive Summary of their 300-page report "Nanotechnology: Commercial Opportunity" to be published in full later this month (Nov. 2001). Excerpts: "Nanotechnology, unlike other enabling technologies, has the potential to impact on all industrial sectors…The promise of quantum computing, nanoelectronics, bottom-up Nanofabrication and Nano Electro Mechanical Systems (NEMS) may become commercial realities within 20 years." Nothing on their website about the report that I could find.

TNI announces venture-oriented conference

According to a press release (14 November 2001), the partners in the Texas Nanotechnology Initiative (TNI) will host a conference on "NanoVentures 2002: the path to the commercialization of nanotechnology" from 6 to 8 March 2002. The conference will provide two full days of speakers and panels focusing on the current state of nanotechnology and related opportunities for investment.

TNI and its co-hosts, Austin Ventures, STARTech Foundation, and Vortex Partners, and conference partners Jackson Walker, L.L.P. and Zyvex Corporation will present sessions on the areas of Molecular Electronics, Materials, Optical/Wireless, NanoStorage, Biotech, and Fabrication and Assembly. In addition to members of the venture finance community, participants will include technology companies, lawyers, and government and university representatives specializing in nanotechnology ventures. The conference will also introduce attendees to a network of service providers and investors who are currently working in nanotechnology.

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