Postscript on Foresight

I just filed a report on the weekend's Foresight conference for Small Times, so look for it on smalltimes.com on Tuesday. Of course, one story and a few blog entries barely scratch the surface of what I've gained from this gathering, so readers here and at Small Times will continue to see reports based on some of the insights I've collected.

Most importantly for me personally, though, was a chance to meet and have detailed conversations with nanotechnology visionaries Eric Drexler and Ralph Merkle. Even those who consider these figures to be far from the mainstream (read tomorrow's Small Times report, and you'll see how this is changing), recognize their influence on a whole generation of nanotechnology's top thinkers.

And Drexler has left me with more than a few things to think about. The author of the 1986 book, "Engines of Creation," considered by many to be the inspirational blueprint for molecular nanotechnology, has granted few interviews to the media these days, just when nanotechnology is entering an important new phase in public consciousness and demand for interviews are high. Based on what he's read in this blog, Drexler decided that he'd grant me an exclusive. He sought me out at this conference, where we had a wide-ranging discussion that I'll ponder on a weeklong vacation amid the woods and cliffs of Big Sur.

The spiritual father of nanotechnology had some surprising things to tell me about the State of the Vision, and about his renewed mission.

See you next week.

Discuss

Cave Capitalists

To: 2 grunts & 1 cluck
From: 3 clucks & 2 funny back-of-throat noises
Re: Your invention

We over here in the Land North of the Tar Pits Venture Capital Cave were both amused and inspired by your request of funds for your "wheel" project.

Yes, we certainly believe that perpetuation of our species is linked to a wider range of migration patterns, thus the need for development of faster-than-foot technologies. But while your vision of a future in which humans routinely "ride" upon round things have certainly made for some sensational wall paintings that please our herd very much, we simply cannot provide the capital investment your company requires.

Your project is too high-risk, with little promise of return on investment within five cycles of really hot and really, really cold time periods. Plus, what you're proposing is not simply investment in a technology, but would require massive infrastructure changes that would alter transportation as we know it. A complex system of "paths" would need to be dug into the brush to accommodate the "wheels" and other related inventions you say they would enable ("carts," "bicycles" and – we were especially amused by this concept – "Hummers.")

You tell many fanciful stories about what your technology may someday do, yet this "wheel" concept is still just a theory. I realize your team believes it is close to chiseling a proper shape for such a device, but even if a prototype leaves the laboracave, it would need to undergo a series of tests required by the Herd Council before approval could be granted. And we haven't even mentioned mass-production and standardization.

Also, have you ever even considered the societal and ethical implications of such a "wheel" on our society as a whole? Those things could rip up our hunting and grazing land, and even "roll" out of control, destroying all living things in its path.

We recommend you take your funding proposal to the council's high-risk Advanced Technology Program and see if they'll be willing to dip into the herd's banana fund to pay for these far-fetched ideas.

We also recommend you study a project that our firm has decided to back: 4 Oogs and 5 Funny Sqeaky Noises recently discovered that vertical faster-than-foot travel is possible when one jumps off the rocky ledges that lie between our land and the Tar Pits. Surviving members of his company are confident that further tests will achieve sufficient horizontal escape velocity.

Thank you for contacting us, but please confine your dimwitted ideas to the three or four people who read your "clog" (cave log).

Sincerely,

Draped Fish and Jerky's Sons LLC

and ... action!

Since all the nanoworld's a stage, I'm glad I met David M. Berube yesterday at Foresight. The University of South Carolina debate director and associate professor of speech communication and film is gladly helping his school spend about a million bucks handed out by the government to study the societal implications of nanotechnology.

I plan on talking to him a bit more today, but watch out for a paper he's releasing early next week that looks at ... well, the ethics of handing out money for these ethical studies programs. I like him already.

Oh, and Berube jets off to Texas tomorrow to use his considerable conciliatory powers to help moderate a debate at Rice University's NanoDays 2003 on the Societal, Ethical and Environmental Implications of Nanotechnology. Among the panelists at the Rice event will be Pat Mooney of ETC Group. I'll refrain from more Mooney-bashing here. An influential nanoperson yesterday confirmed for me something that Mooney has said before in other contexts. Does Mooney really believe in a moratorium on all nanotech research? Well ... um ... er ... it sure does attract a lot of attention to ETC, anyway.

... and we are merely players.

Discuss

Some Foresight Insights

Just attended a venture capital forum at the Foresight Conference, featuring a discussion by some of the top VCs interested in spending money on such a high-risk technology. The panelists were Jim Von Ehr of Zyvex, Alex Wong of Apax, Alan Marty of JP Morgan and Steve Jurvetson of DFJ, one of the earliest investors in nanotech. I'm still going through my notes and I'll have more to say on it later, but here are a couple of quick impressions before I head off to a policy forum in about 15 minutes:

Most nanotech companies are not ready for VC money, so forget about it, and try the government's Advanced Technology Program grants before it falls prey to politics.

Nobody cares if you have a great idea. Build a prototype, then you'll see some VC excitement (if the prototype works, of course).

These money guys will not fund your long-range vision to completely reinvent the felt-tip pen industry (or whatever). Find a near-term business opportunity with an already-existing market and manufacturing technique, then you might get funded to take your vision to the next level.

Wong: "We love product companies."

Jurvetson: "Revenue is all the rage again."

Marty: (I'm paraphrasing here) Don't make a product. Make a product that will become the building block of somebody else's product.

One more thought from Marty: The stuff you're reading the press right now: You know, the nanobots and nano-enhanced weapons and paint that changes color according to your mood, and the cure for cancer and pollution? None of that exists right now, and none of it is being funded by VCs. They're looking at products like nanocoatings that enhance existing products -- not the stuff that inspires social revolution or sensational headlines, but does inspire real money from these guys.

OK. Gotta go.

Wait, one more thing: A nano businessguy arrives late: "I just got here this nanosecond!" Bunch of real nanocards here. Bye for now.

Discuss

Punditry by the Bay

Thanks again to Glenn Reynolds for his encouraging words. I'm but a puny nanopundit in your presence.

I was getting a bit stale in my cubicle, so Small Times decided to let me freshen up and air out across the continent in San Francisco, where I'll rub elbow patches with the nanorati at the 11th Foresight Conference on Molecular Nanotechnology.

As my comparitively nanosized brain strains to grow new synapses, I'll be gathering material for Small Times and hope to do a bit of blogging. Send me a note if there's anything you'd like me to ask these greatest minds of the nano generation.

Discuss

Getting better all the time

Betterhumans is staying true to its name in this report on Northwestern University researcher Chad Mirkin's use of nanoparticles to detect Alzheimer's. I've recently noticed some better original nanotech reporting on Betterhumans.com. I can admit that because there's still nobody who covers this stuff quite like Small Times, which is more of a betternanobusiness.com. So, read about Chad Mirkin's business side here.

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Risky Business

I just listened to an excellent NPR Morning Edition commentary by David Ropeik of the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis. He talks about use of the Precautionary Principle in formulating government policy on science, and asks the all-important question of when exactly enough proof exists that a product or technology is safe, and when are we being so safe that we're sorry and risk sacrificing the potential health benefits of genetically modified foods, among other technologies.

Those in time zones west of Michigan might still be able to catch the commentary on the air. If not, NPR usually posts sound clips from Morning Edition later in the day.

If you want to know what an idea as seemingly abstract as the Precautionary Principle might mean to you, or to the nanotech industry, take a look at this news out of Britain. If enough people believe a technology is harmful, why, then it must be true, right?

Discuss

Nanowar across the Taiwan Straits?

An American English teacher in Taiwan sent me this article from the Taipei Times. The teacher writes:

"Taiwan is using nanotechnology to produce weapons to defend against a possible China attack. I have no idea what kind of weapon can be produced with nanotechnology."

I don't know, either. A great deal of what's been reported so far on nanotech and weapons reads like a comic book. A few applications of MEMS and nanotech saw action in Iraq, but nothing close to Duck Dodgers in the 24th 1/2 Century.

The Taipei Times article claims China is developing "paralysis warfare." Yikes. Maybe I shouldn't be so quick to dismiss Lev Navrozov as a crank.

Discuss

New nano environment/policy papers

I haven't had a chance to review the material thoroughly yet, but the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars is in the process of posting a series of papers and video clips on nanotechnology and the environment.

I'm especially interested in this paper (PDF, 398 KB): "Nanotechnology and Regulation: A Case Study Using the Toxic Substances Control Act." It's been argued that existing regulations, with only slight modifications, can be used to regulate nanomaterials. This paper asks the question: "How would an existing regulatory framework, the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), administered by the Environmental Protection Agency, apply to nanotechnology?"

Can't wait to read it, and congratulations to the Wilson Center for taking the lead in presenting this scenario. The presentations came out of the center's "Dialogue on Nanotechnology and Federal Regulation" on Oct. 2.

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Three R's and an N

Three cheers for members of the Delta Kappa Gamma International Society of Women Educators, who, according to the Waukon Standard of Northeast Iowa, recently discussed "new rules for teachers, current brain research as it pertains to education, and nano-technology."

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Come on, Congress, light our fire

Pejman Yousefzadeh, in his Tech Central Station column today, urges Congress to stop treating nanotech legislation "like a secondary issue." He writes:

Not many people know about nanotech, and some fear that the creation of self-replicating systems might cross certain ethical and security boundaries. Putting aside legislation that affects the development of nanotechnology means putting aside the opportunity to debate the ethical and security issues that accompany nanotech research and development. This leads to an impoverished public debate on the issue of nanotech, and a less informed public -- a state of affairs that is inexcusable given nanotech's tremendous potential to change lives, and change the economy for the better.

Not much I can add to that, except my strong agreement.

If you want more background on pending nanotech legislation and the advisory process, go here and here. For other opinions and predictions on nanotech policy, take a look at these previous posts. If you want to look at a model nanotech policy process that addresses many of Yousefzadeh's concerns, look across the pond.

Discuss

Who will save Silicon Valley?

A slower, steady, nanotechnology wave (not a bubble) will help rescue Silicon Valley, nano evangelist and venture capitalist Steve Jurvetson told The Sacramento Bee. So, does it matter who wins the governor's office today? Small Times correspondent Michael Fitzgerald reports on some nano nail-biting in the Bay Area.

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Unfolding Philly's road map

The Inquirer focused on Philly's nano road map and, like me, found it a bit fuzzy.

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The nano-brain barrier

It's amazing to me how the Action Group on EROSION, Technology and Concentration  can come out in immediate opposition to a technology that prevents ... EROSION. Why is the group opposed to a new way of attacking a problem it was created to solve? Because the technology is nanosize, and ETC Group leader Pat Mooney will never fail to jerk his knee against the 'n' word, even if it's being used to advance his own organization's mission.

Mooney is quoted in Sunday's Toronto Star:

A long-time Canadian advocate for the strict regulation of biotechnology, Mooney says he is worried about an experiment now underway on the fire-ravaged slope of a hill considered sacred by an unidentified First Nations group.

A U.S. chemical company is treating the slope with a novel nanotech chemical that binds at the atomic level with silicate particles already in the soil, he says. That creates a tight cover over the hill, much like a porous plastic wrap. It is supposed to prevent erosion by rainfall for as long as a year.

Because the chemical involved is well-known, regulatory agencies have allowed the experiment to go ahead without health or environmental screening, he told a recent gathering here.

However, principles of nanotechnology show that even the most common elements, such as carbon, act much differently — chemically and physically — at the ultra-small scale. Mooney says in this case the nanoparticles are small enough to pass right through the membrane that normally protects the brain from contaminants in the blood."

It may be wonderful technology," he says, "but they haven't investigated how it operates at the atomic level."

The "unidentified First Nations group" and the "U.S. chemical company" were both identified by the Albuquerque Journal on Aug. 14, then by Small Times in its Aug. 21 report on Sequoia Pacific Research Co. and the Taos Pueblo Native American tribe. Small Times staff writer Jeff Karoub reported that a July fire scorched more than 5,000 acres of forest and the Bureau of Indian Affairs  selected Sequoia's nanoengineered organic material to drop on 1,400 acres of charred land. The agency hopes the material will bind to the soil to protect it from erosion and stimulate growth. Karoub reported:

(Sequoia President Richard) Maile said this is the first major application of Sequoia's soil binder, a nanostructured matrix of organic, biodegradable concentrate called SoilSET (PDF, 103 KB). Once the concentrate has been mixed with water, an electrochemical reaction creates an organic binder at the nanoscale, which sticks to soil to retain water. It also reduces runoff and helps germinate seeds.

Karoub also quotes a forest hydrologist at California's Mendocino National Forest, where the product was field-tested in 2002, as saying that the material had done its job of sticking to the soil and preventing erosion before dissolving after one year. He also quotes Kevin Ausman, executive director of the Center for Biological and Environmental Nanotechnology (CBEN) at Rice University, as saying that the product "sounds like a very safe application, and probably very good for the field."

For now, I'll take Ausman's word for it over Mooney's, since the CBEN institution is among the leaders in current research into the biological effects of nanomaterials. The issue here is, again, risk vs. benefit. Should the fact that SoilSET -- made up completely of organic material and under no current suspicion of toxicity -- has not been tested specifically for adverse effects through the blood-brain barrier prevent it from going into action in an area where it has proven itself useful: preventing erosion? Is it reasonable to tell the Taos Pueblo Native Americans that technology exists to make your land usable after a devastating forest fire, but you're out of luck? We're not clear yet on how particles behave on the nanoscale, so we still need to test it against a few thousand other scenarios. Call us in a decade or so.

Here's another tactic: Let's make some decisions based on what we do know, rather than what we don't. Here's one thing we know: Texas Tech professor David D. Allen recently demonstrated "no adverse effects" of nanomaterials "on blood-brain barrier baseline parameters." Yes, it's one study of a few varieties of nanoparticles and not by a long shot the final word on the toxicity of nanoparticles. But it is something that the "nanotech is bad for you" crowd lacks: actual scientific data.

What's seems especially surreal to me is the way Mooney and others take the issue of size, the very property that sets nano apart as such a promising technology, and create the impression that this scale is a force to be feared rather than looked upon with hope. Nanoparticles' nanosize is what gives each of them the ability to target individual cells, or clumps of them to cover larger surface areas (and in the case of SoilSET, apparently prevent erosion).

And it's in this breach of the blood-brain barrier that, for me anyway, inspires the most hope. This barrier is one of the human body's final frontiers, beyond which might lie a key to longer life, a way to make drugs more effective or even a cure for Alzheimer's.

But while they're working on that, we'll just have to settle for nanomaterials that restore Native American land that otherwise would have been lost to forest fire.

Discuss

The Napster of Nano

I've written before about Tim Harper's efforts to fight not only the perception that nanotechnology will widen the gap between the developing and developed worlds, but also to prevent this "nano divide" from becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy. Thus, his latest idea: Nanotech file sharing.

Harper, chief executive of the nanotech business research firm Cientifica, has been advising smaller nations, from Afghanistan to Israel, that they can develop their own nanotech industries that fit their local needs. While the United States, Japan and European Union might be spending huge amounts of money on nano, it's not a technology to which the developed world can claim exclusive rights, then use to bully or bribe nations with fewer resources. This is where the anti-globalism and environmental movements are in danger of going astray and undermining their own causes -- by mislabeling nanotech as simply the latest technological tool to keep the poor continuously dependent on the rich.

As the Environmental Research Foundation wrote in its August Newsletter:

The very latest corporate "solution" is nanotechnology, whose advocates assure us that environment-related diseases such as cancer will one day be cured by tiny "nanobots." ... All these new approaches like genes and nanobots share one common feature: they will all increase our dependence on corporate "experts" who will hold our lives in their hands, for which we will, no doubt, be required to pay dearly. (Those who cannot afford to pay are presumably lazy good-for-nothings whom we can profitably allow to expire, preferably somewhere out of public view.)

They're fighting yesterday's battles. Nanotechnology is not nuclear technology, and it's not akin to genetically modified organisms.

First of all, right now, "nanobots" don't exist except in the minds of science fiction writers and unimaginative, unoriginal Weblogging journalists. Harper and others who understand the real potential of nanotech as a great equalizer are telling nations and communities, rich and poor, that the ability to create and manipulate nanoscale materials can be achieved by any local economy and tailored to solve local problems. The big bullies have no secret formula that they can use to play keep-away from the weaker kids.

But there is a problem when it comes to equal access to information. The rich can pay for it, and the poor cannot. This digital divide and economic disparity was not created by nanotechnology, and Harper's company is doing its small part to try to correct it by making nanotechnology white papers, usually fairly costly, available for free. He's started with a group of 15 of them, available for free download here, from fullerenes to quantum dots.

Granted, the availability of free PDF files (a kind of nano Kazaa?) is not exactly forgiveness of Third-World debt, but Tim tells me there will be more information available later, plus I believe the free flow of information and ideas is an encouraging beginning -- and a move that others should emulate.

Here's some of what Harper had to say about it in his latest column:

While many can afford to pay for technical research and market analysis, many others who have an interest in, or will be affected by, nanotechnology cannot. In the past I have discussed the applications of nanotechnology to the developing world, and how providing solutions to local problems is the best way for developing countries to become a partner in nanotechnology rather than simply a consumer. But if business and government leaders around the world think that nanotechnology is all about tiny robots, confuse it with genetically modified organisms (GMOs) or feel that the developed world already has a stranglehold on the technologies, will they feel that it merits further investigation? We are already seeing the application of nanotechnology addressing issues of global concern, such as health, energy and water. We hope that by making these white papers available we can help to stimulate some real progress on these key topics.

Discuss

Consumer Reports reaches into the nanopants

WRAL-TV in Raleigh, Durham, and Fayetteville, N.C., home state of Nano-Tex's troubled parent company, Burlington Industries, is running a synopsis of a Consumer Reports review of stain-resistant pants (more popularly known simply as "nanopants").

A team of testers slopped all sorts of stuff on Lee Performance Khakis, Dockers Stain Defenders and Eddie Bauer's Nano-Care Chinos. The results? "Coffee beaded up and did not soak in at all." This, of course, conforms with my own far-less scientific study. But if you're careless with spaghetti sauce, grape jelly or vinaigrette salad dressing, the consumer magazine says, you'd better keep the napkin on your lap.

"All in all," the report says, "the stain-resistant pants perform well enough that they might be worth the higher price, especially if you are a little on the sloppy side."

P.S.: Welcome back, Instapundit readers! Here's an update: Stain-resistant pants are so 'last week.' NanoBot buddy David Pescovitz has a column about the nano couture of tomorrow over at Small Times.

Discuss

Red nano, green nano

The China Daily reports today that its nanotechnology patents have grown to 2,400, or 12 percent of the world's total, making it number three behind the United States and Japan. This news might make Lev Navrozov nervous, but I think it's still premature to start crying Cold War. China is continuing its Great Leapfrog Forward with some wonderful contributions to worldwide nanotech development in medicine, microscopy, research and development, and even partnerships with card-carrying capitalist corporations.

Discuss

'Old school' medicine meets the modern

This week's news from the U.S. National Institutes of Health might have been underplayed a bit. The NIH's new roadmap has been called an enabler of "personalized medicine," but it seems to be a bit more than that phrase implies (i.e. designer health care for the rich).

A "molecular library," new organizational structure and streamlined drug discovery process represent an acknowledgment by the NIH that the current system is cumbersome and so ... well, 20th century. The NIH plan is also an official recognition that nanotechnology is really going to revolutionize health care -- from the way doctors communicate with one another to the knowledge and tools available to the patients themselves to, most importantly, the length of time it takes from drug discovery to medications on the market.

But these technologies, themselves, are useless if the structure of the health care system remains "old school," and does not reconfigure itself to take full advantage of the these faster and more accurate methods of developing new drugs, and diagnosing and treating diseases.

The next step: Introduce the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to the 21st century.

Discuss

Do you know where your children are?

You thought New Math was hard? Wait until your kids come home talking nanotech. For parents who are worried that their kids' exposure to nanotechnology will go no further than The Hulk, Invader Zim or Jimmy Neutron (just chill, by the way), the nonprofit National Science & Technology Education Partnership and the NanoBusiness Alliance are getting together to introduce real nanotechnology instruction into K-12 classrooms.

Educators and parents might also want to take a look at what The NanoTechnology Group is doing. The nonprofit education consortium is putting together pilot schools for its "Nano Science Modules" and "Interactive Virtual Nano-Labs," looking at NSF funding proposals and sponsoring a student essay contest.

"We are submitting many proposals this year to get the funding for our education prototypes," says Judith Light Feather, the group's founder and president. "In the meantime, kids are introduced to the negative side of nanotechnology in 'Spiderman' and 'Space Kids II.' I attempt to combat this by putting many educational links on the site specifically to interest kids."

Well, it's certainly a start, anyway. You want to really reach them, though, grab them where they live.

Discuss

Display this

If you were drooling over TechNewsWorld 's roundup of future display technologies and are thirsty for more on the nanotech component, take a look at this and this and at today's Small Times for more on carbon nanotube field emission displays.

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The 'Biointelligence Age' really smarts

Smart dust, smart shirts, smart toilets: Some of those Yalees really are smart.

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U.K. recognizes importance of perception

Scientists and engineers are talking today with members of the British nanotechnology working group, according to today's progress report. The experts are helping to "define what is meant by nanoscience and nanotechnology" (an argument that could take up the whole day in itself and likely never be resolved), identify specific applications and, probably of most interest to the general public, "start to consider where there might be health, safety and environmental impacts of the technology." The group will also host an Oct. 30 workshop for nongovernmental organizations and will publish the results of both of the meetings.

But what sets the British nanotech advisory process above others, including the United States', is its simultaneous study of public attitudes toward nanotechnology. The group is inviting market research companies to survey "1000-2000 people to establish what is the awareness of nanotechnology amongst members of the public" and to hold "workshops with members of the public to explore their ideas about nanotechnology, and to identify and discuss any potential concerns or questions that might arise." There will also be a monthlong "Web consultation" to allow anyone to (just love the genteel British wording) "engage with the project and inform the working group's thinking."

The British working group should be applauded for recognizing early the importance of public perception -- oftentimes wholly divorced from fact yet just as important a consideration as real science -- when formulating public policy.

The British scientific community has apparently learned from recent history. Its experience with this phenomenon has some rather frightening consequences and implications. I'm working on a Small Times column about this subject and, no, I'm not talking about genetically modified organisms. This is a perception-vs.-reality issue that more directly effects the health of society's most vulnerable, and has even touched me personally. More later.

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Water for peace

The International Herald Tribune is noting Israel's new emphasis on nanotechnology not only as a tool of economic recovery, but also of "national importance." I'd probably change that wording to "national survival."

The paper mentions Israel's focus on nanotech for water desalination. Despite the media's almost-complete focus on the religious and nationalist struggles in the Mideast, the Israeli-Arab conflict is also about competition over scarce natural resources such as fresh water.

I'm under no illusions that nanotech could create a true oasis of peace in the Middle East, but it could not hurt for this little-publicized element of the conflict to go away. (My credentials: In a previous journalism incarnation, I was managing editor for JTA, a Jewish news service that covered, among other things, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.)

Tim Harper of Cientifica told the Herald Tribune that while smaller nations like Israel cannot hope to compete with the U.S., EU and Japan, they can become leaders in specific applications of nanotech by "focusing on solving local issues, water and energy being a case in point."

Here are some of my previous rants on Israel and nanotech, but keep your eyes on Small Times for an upcoming exclusive interview with former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres, who is remaking himself in his golden years from peacemaker to nanotech prophet.

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Will Brit buses burn cleaner under the Cerulean sky?

Nanotechnology company Cerulean International is going to try to do to England what it's done to Hong Kong: cut fuel consumption in city buses. Cerulean is a subsidiary of the British nanomaterials company Oxonica. Small Times reported back in 2001 that the company would test its nanoparticle fuel additive on Hong Kong's city buses.

Apparently, the test was a success, although I cannot immediately find any independent confirmation of it. The company says the trial "demonstrated up to 12 percent reduction in fuel consumption," but this June document (PDF, 205 KB) from the World Bank, which helps fund the company through its Clean Air Initiative for Asian Cities, says Cerulean is "in the process of documenting all of the testing carried out."

The fuel additive is called Envirox, an oxidation catalyst that helps fuel burn cleaner. It's not your father's oxidation catalyst, though, because it doesn't sink to the bottom of your tank and come out as exhaust gunk. That's where the "nano" comes in. As Small Times correspondent Genevieve Oger reported back in 2001, the additive has been chopped down to 5 or 10 nanometers and coated with a fatty acid – small enough to mix with the fuel but big enough to be effective.

British bus company Stagecoach UK has volunteered 1,000 of its buses to go through the full nano treatment and see what happens.

Also watching closely, I'm assuming, will be members of a British nanotechnology working group who are taking a look at the safety of nanoparticles.

Discuss

'When Pants Attack'

My 12-year-old link to the nano-generation demanded yesterday that I turn on Nickelodeon and catch an episode of "Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius" called "When Pants Attack."

"There's nano in this episode!"

She was right. In another confluence of fashion fiction and reality, our high-IQ hero decides that picking up and folding his pants is really a waste of time, so he designs "self-folding smart pants" by embedding them with something vaguely called "nanochips" -- yes, "nano" is simply another synonym for anything high-tech.

The pants, of course, have minds of their own and set out to enslave mankind in a self-organizing way ("I'd better stop my pants before they recruit more pants and take over the world") and wacky hijinks ensue, along with a half-hour of pants puns that put even my best (or worst) headlines to shame.

Among the best lines:

Jimmy: "I sense a disturbance in my pants, Ma'am."

Carl: "Hey, Jimmy, can I play with my pants?"
Jimmy: "No, your pants look playful now, but deep down in their pockets,
they are pure evil."

Jimmy (aiming weapon): "Cindy's pants are goin' down"

Cindy: "I've had dreams and plans for my future, and they don't involve living in a land ruled by pants."

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Nothing like nano incitement to rouse the masses

It's not very cricket for members of the media to insist on getting in the last word, so I asked Douglas Parr, chief scientist at Greenpeace UK, to write a rebuttal to criticism of his organization's July report on nanotechnology. Douglas rose to the task with this well-written commentary I've posted on Small Times.

I've been correctly accused of out-of-proportion obsession over the Greenpeace report, so let me explain why I dwelled on it.

First, the Weblog format allows me to do something that is not always possible at Small Times: React to, and instantly analyze, the increasing media coverage of nanotechnology. This blog is independent and covers a niche that Small Times, as a business-to-business publication, cannot focus on. That's why I've been filling the NanoBot with commentary on broader issues of nanotech perception, ethics and media coverage. These are not issues that Small Times explores in depth, yet I believe that these are areas where nanotechnology could meet a broader audience. The environmental/policy/ethical issues are a kind of "gateway drug" for the curious to seek out more nanotech fixes.

I began this Weblog because I wanted to present some of my thoughts on the larger context behind the ETC Group's anti-nanotechnology activism and the Drexler/Smalley debates. I knew that eventually a higher-profile organization like Greenpeace would weigh in and, in my position as news editor of one of only a few publications that cover nanotechnology, I would have a unique opportunity to help frame the issue. So, part of this site's reason for being was to help guide the debate in a productive way, while also exploiting this transitional moment in media and nanotech history.

I'm in a kind of unique position because, for this brief period of time, nanotechnology is a very hot subject for the mainstream press, and Weblogs are a relatively new phenomenon with a kind of lopsided influence on public debates because they are a quick resource for general-interest reporters who seek instant analysis.

The reaction to the blog was immediate: As soon as it launched, I was fielding calls from newspapers and magazines all over the world -- not only drawing attention to myself, but making more people aware of Small Times. Reporters from the Wall Street Journal, U.S. News & World Report, Reuters, Wired and other publications tell me that they read my blog regularly to get story ideas and to stay abreast of nanotech issues.

Now, I believe, I've done my part to stir things up a bit and arouse the curiosity of the general media and public. In the same way that I believe the ETC Group has been exploiting nanotech to draw attention to its own agenda, I've tried to do the same in picking out a "target of opportunity" like the environmental/policy issue.

By being provocative, I get more of the public engaged, involved or aware of nanotechnology and all its implications -- even if that engagement takes the form of anger against my hair-brained commentaries. Getting citizens all worked up about policy issues and forcing them to clarify their own opinions can only enhance the nanotech debate and shock the industry out of its insularity.

I don't know where Weblogs are headed, or what they will eventually morph into, but right now they're perfect for fomenting an immediate worldwide shouting match on issues both trivial and important. It's in this combination of provocation, anger, emotion and resultant immediate exposure to competing ideas where the Weblog phenomenon can find its home in the general media landscape.

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More small tech mainstreaming

From Nano-Tex to RFID tags, everything you ever wanted to know about emerging small tech without reading Small Times is in this story by Nick Turner. Nice work.

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Salt and vinegar moratorium?

An enlightening commentary by Bill Durodié, a senior research fellow at the International Policy Institute, King's College, London, over at Tech Central Station. He comments on proposed European Commission legislation that would require testing, until 2012, of "all existing, unregistered substances." It sounds reasonable, until you look a bit deeper. I'll let Durodié explain:

But a focus on narrowly political or economic motives misses the broader cultural trend that drives these matters and that will make the debate over chemicals more, rather than less, central in the coming years. That trend is the growing aversion to risk that is now manifest across society as a whole.

A meeting of science and industry experts recently hosted by the Science Media Centre at the Royal Institution in London pointed to some of the more ludicrous consequences of what is being proposed. Salt and vinegar for instance, have been around and in use for quite some time prior to 1981. Under the new proposals, they too would have to be subjected to rigorous testing lest they prove more toxic than we already know, and in order to harmonize procedures. In short, by asking for an across-the-board approach to some 30,000 chemicals, all sense of appropriate prioritization has gone out of the window.

To that, I'd only add that somewhere between recklessness and risk aversion, there needs to be room for reason.

Update: The European Commission is softening the proposed rule.

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With no malice aforesight

I'm proud to see that Small Times is represented in three out of the four finalists for the 2003 Foresight Institute Prize in Communication. The prize recognizes outstanding journalists or other communicators whose work leads to a better public understanding of molecular nanotechnology or other key emerging technologies with high social or environmental impact. Last year's winner was David Pescovitz, a Small Times correspondent and columnist, co-editor of the unimaginably popular BoingBoing blog and invaluable NanoBot adviser.

This year, Jack Mason's relentless curiosity and dynamic writing style for Small Times and more recently for Salon earned him a finalist position.

Another is Stephan Herrerra, a seasoned veteran writer for Small Times, The Economist and the late Red Herring. In his columns for Small Times and others, Stephan was one of the first writers to slap a dose of reality into nano-euphoria.

Paul Holister and Tim Harper of Cientifica are also finalists. Tim is one of those rare nanotech business leaders and consultants who also slings a pretty mean pen -- an excellent choice by Foresight.

The fourth finalist was me, and while I'm still not certain who nominated me or why, I'm very honored to have my name mentioned alongside these eloquent nanotech communicators.

The winner of the prize will be announced at the 11th Foresight Conference on Molecular Nanotechnology Oct. 9-12, where I'll be filing Small Times stories, blogging and generally making a nuisance out of myself.

Discuss

This just in: Holister and Harper were awarded the communications prize "with very little fanfare" during the World Nano-Economic Congress in Washington a few weeks ago. Foresight tells me there will be "a little more fanfare at our conference." The big event, though, will be Foresight's announcement of the coveted Feynman Prize.

News in a Nanosecond

Results of a "nanotechnology" search in Yahoo's new "Products" search engine: Lots of books, few products St. Petersburg's nanorevolutionaries crush the crown jewels This time, my boss sings praises for THE PANTS Lots of reaction to my Crazy Lil Nano post over here, here and here (I'm hoping Blogger gets its act together soon and puts my archives back online) And, finally, the Space Elevator: In this latest flurry of news, you read it here early on, then in other blogs before the New York Times gave the story the green light for journalistic legitimacy, leading to a media elevator-fest Discuss

They got some crazy lil nano there

I'm quoted in Monday's Kansas City Star. The report is what is known in journalese as a "localization" of a national or global story. The local angle is NanoScale Materials Inc., of Manhattan, Kan., and its Fast-Act nanomaterials that the company says can neutralize toxic chemicals and biowarfare agents. Reporter Scott Canon sets the local and global scene in a well-written first three paragraphs:

Ken Klabunde is an explorer in a world only a tad bigger than the atom. He wanders the frontier of nanoscience, where forces like gravity begin to fade before the atomic scale's quantum physics take over. "It's a new realm of matter," said Klabunde, the founder of NanoScale Materials Inc. He hopes to revolutionize industry and maybe make a few bucks along the way. Such is the beauty, and perhaps the peril, of nanotechnology.

Then, in paragraphs that have been repeated like a mantra in news reports around the world, Canon appears to give equal time to the pseudoscience and real science.

The same scientists who salivate at the most fantastic possibilities sniff danger, too. They wonder whether robots smaller than bacteria will leave a wasteland of "gray goo" as they reproduce and devour all they touch. More realistically, they fear an unleashing of new poisons so small they could slip into the body through your fingertips.

I don't mean to be critical of Canon, whose nanotech reporting was better than most I've seen in the general media. It's simply another illustration of how nanotech's extreme detractors have won a complete victory over the truth. The "gray goo" scenario is almost always used up high in news reports, and sometimes even given equal time with current nanotech reality. The media-savvy ETC Group, Greenpeace and others have so successfully implanted these ideas into the gestalt of mainstream thought that journalists would almost seem to be irresponsible if they did not mention gray goo in the same breath as buckytubes. To Canon's credit, he outlines the arguments against the nightmare scenario, but not until toward the end of the story. Eye-tracking studies by journalism institutes have consistently shown that a minority of readers ever reach that far down in any news report. Again, not the reporter's fault. It's simply the nature of general-interest journalism, and the reason why specialists in any field, from nanotechnology to piano technology, almost always rail against their local newspaper for promoting misconceptions about subjects that they hold dear. My answer to that is that the specialists should relax a bit. News reports pique curiosity, but the truly curious will seek out more specialized information. My quote in the story:

"With a few exceptions, investors are kind of reluctant to put their money into basically a science project," said Howard Lovy, editor of the nanotech industry journal Small Times. "We're not seeing people scratching a business plan on a napkin and raising a few million bucks."

Canon had asked me whether nanotechnology was attracting a great deal of venture capital investment. My answer was that there is a perception that VCs are rushing to throw money at nanotech, which they see as "the next big thing," when in fact just the opposite is true. There may be a great deal of talk, ink and electrons floating around about nanotech, but except for the brave, most VCs are hanging on to their wallets, having been hoodwinked before by the napkin-scratchers. Discuss

You say you got a real solution …

Now that some key pieces of the nanotech Tinkertoy set have been dumped out onto the playroom floor, it's time to snap the parts together into airplanes, pirate ships and Ferris wheels. Something like that, in effect, is what University of California, Berkeley professor Arun Majumdar said in Ron Wilson's excellent EE Times piece about a Sept. 17 Stanford University symposium on energy and nanotechnology.

The Berkeley professor then threw in his support for the growing list of nanotech scientists and critics alike who want to see this infant industrial revolution grow up to benefit "all humanity," and not just the guys with the top hats and monocles.

"Only about a hundred million people in the world have incomes over $20,000 per year," Wilson quotes Majumdar as saying. "But we direct all of our technology development at this minority, and assure ourselves that the benefit will trickle down to the majority at the bottom, earning less than $2,000 per year. It's time to look at the needs of that majority - with little to spend, but with huge needs and huge numbers."

This echoes a theme espoused, in various ways, by many nanotechnology thought leaders, from Doug Parr of Greenpeace to Tim Harper of CMP Cientifica to Eric Drexler of Foresight. In at least vocalizing the hope that promising new technology will be used for the betterment of mankind rather than the enrichment of a few and the destruction of many, Majumdar joins himself, in spirit, with the likes of Einstein, Oppenheimer and others.

But also remember that these giants of science took to their graves an element of sadness in the circuitous path their life's work had taken between the joy and promise of discovery and ultimate application in the hands of the political and business sectors.

Some world political leaders, at least the democratically elected ones, are currently taking their cues from the fears voiced by their most-vocal constituents and have created forums for economic, ethical and environmental issues to be aired. While nanotech business leaders cannot be characterized with any one sweeping statement, since nanotech itself does not encompass any one business, I have not heard much from them, in words or in deed, that signify that they take seriously the fears of a potential "nanotechnology divide" and environmental impact.

The NanoBusiness Alliance recently formed a safety task force, but this panel came into existence only after the media began paying more attention to these fears. I do hope it's an attempt to take the lead in ensuring that what they are creating is socially responsible, and reassuring the public in a meaningful way, minus dismissive and derisive comments about those who attack nanotech as another tool for the rich.

The nanotech business community should take its own words seriously. Everything is going to change, they say, and everybody will benefit. Yes, We get it. They're not setting out to simply sell more widgets. They're proposing, actually promoting, an incredibly traumatic societal transition. If it is true that nanotechnology is going to shuffle the deck and deal each nation and individual an entirely new hand, then that in itself is reason enough for nanoBUSINESS (yes, my caps) to cool it a bit on the second part of that compound word and explain what exactly is meant by the first and how it will change lives.

Be like our Professor Majumdar, and take the high road.

My criticism of Greenpeace, ETC Group and others is not based on pure disagreement with the spirit of what they are trying to do. It's their methods – use of shoddy pseudoscience that plays to emotion and fear to score political points – that I disagree with. Ultimately, these methods undermine their own agenda because they are seen as unable to transcend the political.

ETC and Greenpeace are easy targets because their biases are so obvious and their conclusions so obviously politically preordained. It's unfortunate that because their methods are so easily mocked and dismissed, so too is their message.

Just gimme some truth.

Discuss

News in a Nanosecond

First light for one-atom laser

Smalley's iron grid

The European Union's brain trust

And in honor of Talk Like a Pirate Day ...

Discuss

Fuzzy Nano Math

Natalie Kostelni of the Philadelphia Business Journal really nailed it in one simple sentence in this report on a recent economic development idea jam session in her city. The idea of a nanotechnology hub was thrown into the pot of proposals. "In the end, one thing was clear -- there are a lot of ambitious ideas but exactly how to turn most of them into reality still seems a bit fuzzy." Bingo. There is a basic assumption that nanotech is going to be a powerful new engine of economic creation, and regions ranging from continents to countries to towns are flinging words and wallets at it, but exactly how and when these benefits will emerge is still unknown. Or, in the words of David Luzzi of the University of Pennsylvania, "It is something that is here and is happening." Perfectly clear? All else is commentary. Discuss

News in a Nanosecond

But are chips really nano?

More nano fear factor

Are 'nanoballs' from Mars proof that we're not alone?

Brush, floss, rinse, spit, nano

Memories made with nano on my mind

Discuss

Swiss miss the mark

First, here's a shameless teaser: There's "booty" at the end of this post.

As I promised at the end of my Kiwi Economics commentary, Swiss correspondent Valerie Thompson's report is up on Small Times today. Valerie writes about how the media in Switzerland, birthplace of the scanning tunneling microscope, are focusing more on claims of nanotech's risks.

Even though much of the recent reporting out of Switzerland repeats, unchallenged, the same old misinformation put out by activists groups, I understand the reasons behind the new focus. I suppose it's the geek version of "if it bleeds, it leads." Nanopollution is a fresh angle, and most general-interest journalists are used to seeking out clear-cut opposing sides to any complicated issue. Now that there are spokesmen for the opposition, look for the general media to fall into this comfortable, lazy format.

One item that came too late to add to Valerie's report is this feature in today's Neue Zürcher Zeitung newspaper. It leads, predictably, with the environmental issue, but with that out of the way it continues with an informative description of real nanotech research. Valerie points out to me that this is the same newspaper that earlier had run an article that dismissed as unimportant the Swiss invention of the scanning tunneling microscope.

"Interesting, the article is in the Science and Technology section and the journalist seems to be someone who understand physics," Valerie says.

Today's NZZ article includes work being done by Harvard University chemist Charles Lieber. The closest I come to understanding German is a few words of pidgin Yiddish, so I had to run it through the Google translator, which transformed the researcher's name to "Charles dear one." I like that. I think we should all think about the meanings of our names.

More fun with the German-English Google translator: "There the acceptance lies close that that once artificial organisms could be created, which multiply themselves uncontrolled, as this for instance the Science fiction author describes Michael Crichton in its new novel 'booty'."

Don't ask me. I merely did a cut-and-paste.

Discuss

News in a Nanosecond

Zyvex assembles new partnership

Tubes toughen ceramics

Life sciences take a number, stand in line

Col. Mustard in the kitchen with a pathogen

Discuss

Kiwi Economics

Like a tornado touching down indiscriminately, the nanotech policy debates are now shuffling political trailer parks in New Zealand. The country's Bioethics Council is warning that nanotech could potentially become as polarizing to society as the genetically modified foods controversies. The council called on scientists to "carefully watch international research on its ethical, spiritual and cultural implications," according to a report in the Star-Times of New Zealand. One important thing to note here is that the Bioethics Council concerned itself purely with the impact public perception can have on formation of nanotechnology policy. The implication, of course, is that while public fear may be completely divorced from scientific fact, the fear is no less a potent factor in shaping nanotech regulations and the ability of businesses to sell their products. New Zealand's fledgling nanotechnology industry should pay attention to this debate. Its ability to do businesses could someday be limited by the government. The nano industry could rightly point out that there is no current scientific proof or even suspicion that its products are harmful, but when facts collide with hysteria, guess which usually emerges unscathed? The New Zealand policy debate appears to be textbook, with each side talking slightly past each other: The Greens say it's up to the science community to prove it isn't harmful, scientists say there's an enormous potential for good so leave us alone to develop it, while the politicians calculate which side will earn them the most votes. Meanwhile, across the Pacific, Glennda Chui of the San Jose Mercury News filed a report updating the nanotech policy issue in the United States, along with a rundown of how nanotech devices work. Here, as in New Zealand, environmental activists warn of a "regulatory vacuum," while admitting that there have been no scientific studies to back any claim that nanomaterials harm anything. Right now, at least in the United States, reason is winning the day and calls for a moratorium are left on the margins. But regulatory winds can change just as easily as political. As I've noted before, take a look at how the Precautionary Principle is slowly winding its way from the margins to the center. "Do no harm" is a wise creed for every profession, but political expediency could someday produce government mandates to "do nothing." It can happen. It already has. Coming soon in Small Times: The nanotech/policy typhoon makes landfall in Switzerland. Discuss

Time for my close-up

This August pinup looks hot, hot, hot!

News in a Nanosecond

The coolest thing in the universe

Bang, zoom, to the moon!

First thing we do, let's hire all the lawyers

Salaam, Shalom, Peace

Discuss

For greener planet, remove people; results may vary

From: Robert J. Bradbury
To: Doug Parr
Cc: Howard Lovy
Subject: Greenpeace and HLovy web comments

This is my comment on Doug Parr's comments on Howard Lovy's web log:

You may both want to be aware that Robert Freitas and Landes Bioscience will be releasing Nanomedicine Volume IIA very soon. It is devoted almost entirely to the topic of biocompatibility of nanotechnology. I have reviewed much of it and was also a reviewer for Nanomedicine Volume I.

I would *seriously* doubt that anyone who has not read both of these volumes can comment authoritatively on the biosafety issues of nanotechnology.

I will acknowledge that there are potentially dangerous aspects of nanotechnology -- i.e. the production of fibers of a size smaller than, particularly if stiffer than, asbestos fibers will clearly be dangerous. Some of this Robert Freitas discusses, some of it he says requires further research.

However, any citing of a "strong" version of the "precautionary principle" (I have not read the Greenpeace report, but have read the ETC group report) is completely wrong-headed.

It is absolutely impossible to prove that something is completely safe. For example, to prove the safety of each "drug" (i.e. nanomolecules) produced by extracting them from natural organisms or invented using computer aided drug design one would need to know the complete genomic sequence and genetic mutations for every single human on the planet, potentially every single organism if one goes to the extremes that Greenpeace typically does, and then be able to perform computer simulations of the interactions of those drugs with the products of those genes in those many billions of individuals and species. That cannot be done at this time and not anytime in the near future -- so any proposal regarding a "strong" precautionary principle that delays things like GMO or nanotechnology is essentially passing a death sentence on large numbers of individuals.

Doug (and perhaps Howard) should bear in mind that the annual death count for human beings on the planet is greater than 50 million individuals per year. That is approximately equal to the number of individuals (military and civilian) that died in WWII. It is already reasonably clear that Nanomedicine will eliminate most of those deaths (perhaps > 80-90%).

So for every single year that the ETC Group or Greenpeace delays the development of robust molecular nanotechnology the cost will be nearly the death toll of WWII. And for people who are informed about the technologies it is relatively clear that the deaths will have been unnecessary.

This is the problem of having a focus on the negative side of a technology without also looking at the benefits. For Greenpeace not to have blood on its hands it needs to come out with a very strong statement in support of nanotechnology rather than hiding behind the "precautionary principle."

You two may also want to be aware that the Foresight Institute's Senior Associates group had a meeting last year where individuals got to break off into focus groups. I got to participate in a focus group on environmental topics. The general conclusion that we reached was that the only way to have a really "green" planet Earth was to remove the people from it. This can easily be accomplished using nanotechnology to produce a combination of space elevators and O'Neill type space colonies. That would allow all humans to be removed from the Earth and allow it to return to its natural state. So if Greenpeace is to live up to its name, it seems as if it should be promoting nanotechnology.

In addition, the Earth gets toasted by the sun in a few billion years. The chances of solving that problem (and saving the ecosphere) seem remote using conventional technology. It seems (to me) to be a rather pointless exercise to save the ecosphere now when it is toast in the long run. That problem can be solved but it requires fairly massive engineering capabilities to do so. Those in turn probably require nanotechnology.

So, even though I have not read the Greenpeace report and I am not familiar with the principles on which Greenpeace bases its opinions, I strongly suspect they do not completely understand and have not thought through the implications of robust nanotechnology and what they *really* want to achieve.

Best regards,
Robert Bradbury

Discuss

What's the frequency, Greenpeace?

Open the channels.

The Straits Story

Malaysia's New Straights Times, one of the oldest papers in the world (founded July 15, 1845, the site says, has witnessed "the age of the bullock cart to the cyber age of the new century. It has seen two world wars, the fall of colonialism, the rise of nationalism and the upheavals of societies and the birth of nations." Sounds like the paper's institutional memory is alive and well as this story places nanotech in its historic context and recognizes it for what it is: technology's "next level" that has the potential to create the next series of societal upheavals. The article concludes: "So as we celebrate the move into the next level of technology, we must also take full cognizance of the fact that there are downsides that must be appropriate handled. This too needs broad public airing right from the start." Wise words from witnesses to history. Discuss