Support R&D, Create Wealth!

On January 18, 2010, in Asia, Economy 2.0, Nanotech, by Tim

When it comes to spending decent sums on R&D and translating that into a direct economic impact, South Korea has been a shining example. While we struggle with budgets, the People’s Daily reports on South Koreas spending plans for emerging technologies:

The South Korean government said Thursday it will increase the amount of investment in developing technology to enhance the nation’s competitiveness.

According to the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, it will spend up to 354.9 billion won (316.0 million U.S. dollars) this year, up 18 percent from the 2009 expenditure, which will be focused on nano tech, biotech, technology convergence and energy.

Of the total amount, 80 billion won (71.4 million U.S. dollars) will be used for new investments, surging 43 percent from the previous year, the ministry said.

The increase in fund comes as part of South Korea’s national plan to advance in the basic technology research and development areas by 2021, local media said, quoting a ministry official.

The ministry, in particular, is supposing domestic technology creation will benefit the country by curtailing patent lawsuits and royalty payments, according to media reports.

 
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In Iran, Despite Everything the Nanotech Goes On

On December 29, 2009, in Asia, Nanotech, by Tim

While Iran continues to attract international attention for the wrong reasons, spare a thought for the Iranian science community who are battling with embargoes meaning that they can’t even buy basic equipment, but are still managing to develop a nanotech research community.

If you are curious you can download their latest quarterly bulletin here, or visit the web page of the Iran Nanotechnology Initiative

I just received a Christmas/New Years card from the Iranian Nanotechnology Initiative Council, a timely seasonal reminder that science is international and cuts across religious, cultural and political boundaries.

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Long Term Prosperity is an an Ozymandian Dream Without Technology

On November 26, 2009, in Asia, Development Issues, Economy 2.0, Finance, Nanotech, Renewable Energy, Social and Ethical, Sustainability, credit crunched, by Tim

The recent news about the debt problems in Dubai contrast with the glitzy no expense spared hotels and conference centres where I spent last weekend with the World Economic Forum, but probably do more to highlight the importance of a diverse technology enabled economy than any amount of lobbying we could do.

While Dubai has led the way for the emergence of the Gulf as a major economic centre, most of my technology work has been done in the neighbouring states, Abu Dhabi, Qatar and Saudi Arabia who, while perhaps being slightly envious of Dubai’s dash to pre eminence in the region with the worlds tallest tower and an indoor ski slope have been taking a more measured approach to development. Most of these countries have been playing the property game too, but also backing this up with major investments in science and technology, and that doesn’t just mean taking stakes in AMD or IBM but making sure that technology fits into the local economy.

The reasons to do this are all the more obvious this week, and in a region with tiny but fast expending populations, ensuring that jobs are created for locals rather than overseas labourers is of increasing importance. It is estimated that Saudi Arabia has 25% youth unemployment, and in a country where 40% of the population is under 15 the petrochemical industry isn’t going to provide all the jobs that will be needed to prevent social unrest.

What is? Increasing the size of the manufacturing sector is a key policy goal in many states, and Mubadala, one of Abu Dhabi’s investment agencies has already announced plans to build an AMD fab in the emirate but this is only the start. The longer term goal, and the financial and political situation in many of the the Gulf states allows the luxury of long term planning, is to develop new technology based industries in materials, aerospace, semiconductors, renewable energy and pharmaceuticals but based on a whole host of new and emerging technologies such as nanotech, industrial biotech and regenerative medicine.

While Dubai may in the eye of a storm right now, the longer term prospects for the region look as bright as the desert sun.

Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: “Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
`My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!’
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away”.

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Anti-Science and Politics

On June 2, 2009, in Asia, Economy 2.0, Europe, Health & Safety, Publications, education, by Tim

I’ve mentioned the negative views of science expressed by the ‘green’ movement, but according to the Guardian most politicians feel the same, with hardly any thought given to science other than the usual lip service of creating dynamic knowledge based economies, although unfortunately the result we ended up with was less like the Google campus and more like this:

I suppose it says a lot about the quality of our politicians.  When the Chancellor of the Exchequer (Finance Minister) is caught with his fingers in the till, and needs an accountant to work out his own tax should we really be surprised that many of them don’t have a clue about science?

It’s probably because of the lack of political interference that British science is relatively robust – funding levels are pretty good and research quality is still excellent. Compare that to an area where politicians have been constantly poking their noses in, such as schools, and perhaps we should be grateful that most politicians know more about Cicero than Chemistry.

The other side of this coin, however, is that politicams view science as a political quagmire – a word out of place about stem cells could alienate the Catholic vote etc – and so tend to stay well clear unless a kneejerk reaction is required in which case they start burning cows and blaming scientists.

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China & US Neck & Neck For Third Place In Global Nanotech Funding

On April 27, 2009, in Asia, Europe, Nanotech, Publications, US & Canada, by Tim
china-vs-worldA few years ago I spent a long time explaining to journalists that it didn’t actually matter whether Europe, the US or Japan was spending the most on nanotechnology R&D, it was how they spent it that mattered. But of course numbers and league tables make good copy.

Looking at the 2009 numbers, which you can see on the left or download directly here, things have changed a bit. It’s now a top five rather than a top three, and once we correct the numbers for purchasing power parity (PPP) which takes into account the fact that scientists are a lot cheaper in China than the US (although an electron microscope will cost about the same) the US has slipped from being undisputed world champion in 2001 to racing neck & neck with China for a bronze medal in 2009, while Russia and the EU are racing ahead.

But how much money you have to spend on anything is no indication of success, it’s what you do with it that matters, and that is the real story behind the numbers. Money can be wisely invested, stashed under the bed or frittered away in the pub, and we see all three strategies being deployed in the world of nanotechnologies.

Perhaps the most remarkable change is that from curiousity driven science to attempting to tackle some major issues. We’ll probably see that in the forthcoming Technology Strategy Board nanotechnology policies, and the US, India and China have already started thinking of nanotech as a tool to tackle some real and urgent issues rather than just something that goes on in a lab.

 
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The Least Informative Information Of The Year?

On April 15, 2009, in Asia, Events, Nanotech, by Tim

Some bizarre statistics about nanotechnology market growth are being bandied around followimg the “Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) along with Department of Science & Technology, (DST), Government of India, Gwangju Institute of Science & Technology (GIST) and Tamil Nadu Technology Development Promotion Council” fourth Nanotechnology Conclave 2009.

This looks like a perfect storm of the longest and most complex conference name (you certainly couldn’t tweet that!) and the least informative piece of information so far in 2009.

The fastest growing segments of the market are scanning probe microscopes, with a CAGR of 19.4% between 2007 and 2012, and charged particle microscopes with a CAGR from 2007 to 2012 of 9.0%. Optical microscopes are projected to have the lowest growth rate of any major market segment (5.6% CAGR). As a result, charged particle microscopes, which have the largest market share of any product segment, are projected to increase their market share further, from 52% in 2006 to 52.1% in 2012. Optical microscopes are projected to lose market share, from 26.2% in 2006 to 21.9% in 2012. In 2006, semiconductor manufacturing was the dominant end-user market for microscopes, with 31% of the total market, followed by life sciences (27%) and materials (24%), and nanotechnology (10%). Nanotechnology and semiconductor manufacturing are the fastest-growing end-user markets with CAGRs of 19.4% and 10.2% respectively.

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The Chinese are Coming! Oops, They Are Already Here!

On March 24, 2009, in Asia, Nanotech, US & Canada, by Tim

The chart below shows nanotechnology R&D spending in the US and China corrected for purchasing power parity – i.e things are cheaper in China so $1 gets you more minutes of a researcher or a bigger bowl of noodles in Wuhan than in San Francisco (and parking is probably cheaper too).

Click to enlarge

Click to enlarge

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Russians To Stamp Out Nanothieves

On December 11, 2008, in Asia, Europe, Health & Safety, Nanotech, Products, education, by Tim

One of the banes of nanotechnology has been the number of companies claiming that things are nano when they are clearly not, for instance the infamous sickness inducing Magic Nano from early last year.

Help is at hand from the Rusian Nanotechnology Corporation who have pledged to “implement a system of standards to weed out swindlers who use the term ‘nano’ in the names of their companies and products just to get the attention.” As a result according to the Moscow Times, “State Duma Speaker Boris Gryzlov said … that the parliament would adopt laws setting technical regulations determining which companies would be entitled to use the term in their name or those of their products.”

The Times then proceeded to dig up a number of Russian companies making everything from concrete to breast implants while claiming to be using nanotechnology.In contrast to Europe, the Russian view of nanotech seems to be that “It is sexy, it attracts investment and generates profits.” Perhaps this is related to the ever  increasing number of breast related nanotech applications (or maybe it’s just a result of spending too much time in the lab).

The breast implant team are quoted as saying

“We can prove that this breast is really nano. What we need is about 5 million rubles ($180,000) to begin production on an industrial scale.”

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Drexlerians and Saudi Arabia’s Nanotech

On June 25, 2008, in Asia, Energy Efficiency, Events, Nanotech, US & Canada, by Tim

One of the presumed characteristics of those who are adherents to molecular nanotechnology (MNT) as proposed by Eric Drexler is their ability to keep an open mind, while simultaneously pointing out that the rest of us are “too conservative” or “close-minded,” but their open-minded qualities seem to run aground when faced with the prospect of a Saudi Arabian nanotechnology initiative.

 This hostility towards the Saudis developing an initiative to embark on nanotechnology research seemed to first surface in January of this year when the Foresight Institute in its Nanodot blog took umbrage to King Abdullah being the one who approved the funding for research rather than “a government research agency, university, or CEO”.

It seemed that the term “Federal Government” or “National Nanotechnology Initiative” being replaced by “Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz” just wasn’t right as far as they were concerned.

But the real animosity towards the Saudi nanotech initiaative seemed to reveal itself when the author of the post responded in the comments section to a question of where the research scientists would be coming from to support the initiative: “From wherever research scientists would be willing to move to Saudi Arabia, I suppose. Not women scientists, presumably, who might like to — for example — drive a car, or be able to work with their male colleagues.”

Ah yes, not liking the Saudi’s interpretation of Islamic law pertaining to women translates into off-hand disparagement of their nanotechnology initiative.

But things seemed to be improving as we were notified last month that one of the principals at the Center for Responsible Nanotechnology (CRN) had been invited to deliver a presentation at the first International Conference on Nanotechnology (ICON) to be hosted by the Center of Nanotechnology at King Abdulaziz University.

 

The title of the presentation was to be “Responsible Nanotechnology”, which can leave one to easily speculate that they invited a representative from the Center of “Responsible Nanotechnology” to speak on the topic based on the title of their organization rather than content of their project of preparing the world for the social and economic disruptions caused from table-top nanofactories.

Nonetheless, CRN expressed genuine excitement at the prospect of traveling to Saudi Arabia to make their presentation.

But then yesterday we got the most appalling scapegoating we’ve seen in some time  when the CRN speaker failed to secure the proper documentation and could not enter into Saudi Arabia, he complained “It seems I’d received incomplete information on visa requirements from my contacts in Jeddah.”

A number of us here at Cientifica have traveled back and forth to Saudi Arabia several times while helping them to develop their plans for a nanotechnology initiative, and not once did we NOT get complete and detailed instructions on how to fulfill our visa requirements. The one caveat is that you have to go to the consulate and get the visa and fill out the appropriate forms. It takes an afternoon.

While this can all be chalked up to “live and learn” (yes, some countries require visas for US passports), it all descends again into Saudi bashing in the comments section, where we get this priceless gem that conjures up 9-11: “Looks like they’re getting back at us for our post 9-11 visa restrictions!”

 It’s hard to see from this type of thinking how the mainly US-led Drexlerians are going to both introduce MNT to the world and make it safe for the societies of the world when they are so hostile to ones that are different to their own.

From our experience, the Saudis are a very hospitable people and are making great strides in diversifying their economy. While social and cultural norms are somewhat different in Riyadh from Palo Alto, things that seem commonplace in Amsterdam would get you arrested in Little Rock. 

Ten years of running around the globe in the service of nanotech has taught me one thing – people are pretty much the same, wherever they live and whatever their colour or religion, and most people are friendly, helpful and hospitable. As Mark Twain remarked, “Travel is fatal to prejudice,” and I can’t help thinking that the Saudi bashers should get out a bit more. 

 

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