What’s In A Word?

On February 18, 2009, in Nanotech, US & Canada, Unmitigated Hype, by Tim

One of the oddest arguments of the molecular manufacturing community (the bunch that believe that nanofactories will lead to eternal life. personal freedom, and do away with the need for money, government, clothes and apparently, good manners or common sense) is their possessiveness of the term nanotechnology.This extract from a recent tirade is typical:

By appropriating the term nanotechnology for what it was they were doing, the scientists had pulled a neat rhetorical trick: they were associating themselves with the wonderful promises of Drexler’s vision without having explicitly promised anything themselves. And they reaped the benefits of billion-dollar funding levels worldwide, interest from investors and the media, the cream of the students, and all the rest.

What always mystified me about the Foresight Institute(and associated groups) is that they simultaneously wanted to keep nanotechnology to themselves but put no effort whatsoever into doing any science that make make their dreams come true. As soon as the scientific community begins to investigate nanotech they start prancing wildly around waving sticks and accusing all kinds of people of stealing it. Now, as a recipient of the Foresight Communications Prize in 2003 I recall that the molecular manufacturing community did all that they could to reap the benefits, it’s just that sitting in front of a computer all day speculating about what a nano enabled Utopia would be like wasn’t felt by government or industry to be an any more worthy recipient of funding than sitting in front of a computer all day speculating on what it would be like to be a potato.

It’s a real shame. The early work by Drexler was uniquely visionary,and I can’t help thinking that his adoption by a bunch of silicon valley nerds rather than exploring the ideas within the scientific community is a mistake of tragic proportions. Certainly demanding that scientists do what they were unwilling or incapable of doing and then getting all bitter and twisted over a word, and a poorly defined one at that, isn’t going to advance their cause.

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The Big Question?

On November 13, 2008, in Health & Safety, Nanotech, Products, Publications, by Tim

The Independent, the organ of middle class, slightly left leaning, middle of the road, organic veg munching people with a perpetually concerned expression on their faces (at least the ones I know) distills all the recent fuss into one big question, which it then fails to answer.

Should the Government call a moratorium on nanotechnology?

Yes…

* The risks are simply too great to carry on business as usual until we know more

* We have managed perfectly well so far without nanotechnology, so why take the chance?

* If there is any doubt at all, it would do no harm to call a temporary halt until we know more

No…

* We already enjoy too many benefits from nanotechnology to be able to straightforwardly stop now

* The risks are hypothetical and it would be a mistake to stop without harder evidence that the risk is real

* The potential benefits that are just around the corner far outweigh any possible risks

It’s easy to poke holes in this, even if it mainly concerned with nanomaterials rather than nanotechnologies, but to be fair, it’s in the nature of science journalism that it tends to be generalist and rather ill informed.

Even a polymath such as Leonardo Da Vinci would have had trouble dealing with the whole of science, from space walks to stem cells, and then breaking it down into 500 word chunks that non scientists could understand (and would have been no doubt lumbered with being the arts correspondent too).

However, in common with almost every other nanotech scare story in the last decade I suspect that this will be quickly forgotten by most, although those organisations who take up cudgels against any form of scientific progress will no doubt use the recent reports to claim legitimacy for their often rather unscientific arguments.

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The Ideal Breast…is nano?

On November 12, 2008, in Development Issues, Health & Safety, Nanotech, Products, Unmitigated Hype, by Tim

Nanotech Breast Improvement - apparently

Nanotech Breast Improvement - apparently

“The ideal breasts are the ones that are round, laid high on the chest wall, large and firm. If the breasts are not meeting such criteria, this makes not only the women feeling down but her social value also gets tarnished since she feels ‘not so happening’ in any public places such as parties or some sort of get-together. Breasts, being out of the body frame are obvious to get targeted by the gravitational force and over the times, they droop or sag.”

Not my personal opinion of course, but this comes from the marketing for an allegedly nanoparticle based “instant way to Breast Enhancement & Firmness” which the Daily Mail would no doubt classify as “Toxic ‘grey goo’ by stealth.”

The web site video may have caused apoplectic fits or aneurysms for some of the Mail’s readership, though perhaps others would be more than willing to pay $90 for the experience.  Despite intense scrutiny, no one in our office can see any difference in the before and after photos.

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Even in Uncertain Times Good Companies Can Still Attract Capital

On November 5, 2008, in Europe, Finance, Nanotech, Products, by Tim

As the financial crisis swirls around the world I’m seeing an increasing number of nanotech companies running increasingly short of cash as investors pull in their horns. It’s a good opportunity for cash rich companies to make acquisitions, something that is keeping me in the air this month, and any company that raises an equity round must be something a bit special, which brings me to this recent news from Nanosight.

Salisbury, November 2008 – NanoSight Limited, the nanoparticle characterization company, is excited to announce the completion of a new round of financing which will provide £920,000 to enable the company to expand the business with the development of new products and sales channels in the US market.

NanoSight has just closed almost £1m of investment finance in a month that has seen unprecedented financial turmoil worldwide. Having been close to breakeven for the first half of 2008, hitting sales targets and with margins better than anticipated, it was clear to the company that growth was limited by resource but not by market opportunity. Having successfully weathered the start-up process during the past four years, NanoSight can become more robust with investment in personnel, technical support and development of the underlying technology.

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