The business of imagination

Why nanotechnology is next big thing (Financial Times)

Nanotech has had a bad press of late. You could blame Michael Crichton, whose novel Swarm (Blogger's note: See this post) imagined a world overrun with self-replicating "nanobots", or microscopic robots. Or you could put it down to the imaginative leap that is so hard for most people to make: to a time when tiny machines self-replicate, "space elevators" using carbon nanotube cables to pull ships into orbit, and almost any man-made product will be created from little more than a handful of dirt.

This is the futuristic world which, says Mr (Steve) Jurvetson, business visionaries must start to imagine. Who knows in exactly what form it will arrive, or when. But those in the forefront should be best placed to profit. The current reality of nanotech, by contrast, seems altogether more prosaic. The silicon chip industry has already started engineering components measuring less than 100 nanometres across - or one ten-millionth of a metre. Some bulk industrial materials are also the result of production at the molecular level.

Subsequent products of the nanotech revolution, says Mr Jurvetson, will become apparent in the next three to five years: more efficient solar cells, cheaper sensors, television screens created by new industrial processes, and memory chips with exponentially more capacity. Linking developments such as these with the more outlandish world imagined by the futurologists involves a leap of the imagination that is not easy to make, he concedes. But his message to entrepreneurs is: do not be afraid to think big, and to anticipate a future that may still seem far-fetched. More here (subscription required)

NanoBot Backgrounder
How to fight misinformation in two easy words: Honesty, imagination
Steve Jurvetson sings the carbon electric
Images of the possible
Three Nano Kings
We all live in a nano submarine
Choose your own 'irrational' scenario

Time for oily retirement

I dozed off and had the most bizarre dream today. I had decided to make a living writing about nanotechnology, but all that kept flashing before me were pants and cooking oil. "We are nanotechnology! We are nanotechnology!" they kept repeating, in a tone that implied that I was the one who was out of his mind.

"No! No!" I screamed. I ran as fast as I could (through a long tunnel, smoking a cigar, etc.), but the pants were too fast. They dropped me with their superior kung fu, my blood just beading up and rolling off their cuffs.

When I opened my eyes, I was reclining on a couch (covered with a Nano-Care™ Gripper™ Chair Cushion) with Scarlett Johansson, an inviting look in her eyes and a bottle of OilFresh cooking oil in her hands ... but that's a story for another day, and another Web site.

March goes out like a Li-Ion

Toshiba preps minute-charge 'miracle' battery (The Register)

Toshiba has developed a Lithium-Ion battery capable of being charged to 80 per cent of its full capacity in under 60 seconds. Filling it up takes just "a few more minutes", the company boasted today.

Toshiba 'one-minute charge' Li-ion batteryThat's considerably faster than today's Li-ion rechargeables which can take 1-4 hours to reach 80 per cent capacity, and even longer to fill completely.

Toshiba also claimed the new cell offers a greater longevity than today's Li-ion batteries, losing only one per cent of its capacity after 1000 charge cycles, according to the results of its own charge-discharge testing.

... The company lauded the new battery's eco-credentials. With such a fast recharge time, it consumes less energy than today's Li-ion cells, leading to reduced carbon-dioxide emissions, Toshiba claimed.

The secret is the use of "nano-particles" to "prevent organic liquid electrolytes from reducing during battery recharging. The nano-particles quickly absorb and store vast amount of lithium ions, without causing any deterioration in the electrode". More here

NanoBot Backgrounder
Albany to feast on nanochips
Nokia watches kudos for Konarka
U.S. to China: Let's share power
Nanomix senses a product in 2005

A Spoonful of Nano

"Never give us castor oil or gruel," was the ad for a nanny proposed by Jane and Michael Banks. And when Mary Poppins arrived, she brought with her the news that it is, indeed, a spoonful of sugar that helps the medicine go down.

Well, leaving aside leaps of logic regarding the aerodynamic properties of umbrellas, Poppins proved to be prescient. But it took a few technological revolutions never dreamed of in turn-of-the-20th-century London to finally dump the castor oil -- dreaded not only by generations of children but also by women undergoing breast cancer treatment today.

These days, it's a spoonful of Cremophor – a polyethoxylated castor oil – that makes the anti-cancer drug Taxol go down and ensure that it's absorbed by the body. But this kind of castor oil is not merely hard to swallow; it can be toxic, creating the need for more medication in another link in chain-reaction treatment that is decidedly old school.

So, flying in from above, nanotechnology recently arrived on the scene with a groundbreaking FDA approval of a drug that makes breast cancer treatment a comparative piece of cake.

That was the beginning of the "director's cut" for an article I wrote for The Scientist magazine in print and now online. (You'll need to subscribe to read it, and it's well worth it!)

It's about the FDA's approval of Abraxane, a nanotech-enabled drug marketed by American Pharmaceutical Partners.

It was just a blurb, so I had to leave some information on the cutting-room floor, including some interesting comments by the FDA investigators. I'll save them for another day. But I will give you my "alternate ending." Here it is, for NanoBot audiences only:

To Patrick Soon-Shiong, APP's executive chairman, the FDA approval marked the end of a difficult struggle against nano naysayers who doubted that a human protein could be scaled up into the nano realm.

Along the way, he approached five major pharmaceutical companies and was shown the door each time. Big Pharma just won't do nanotech, he said. They see it as too risky.

So, while scientific vindication may be sweet, there was a little something extra, too. Just after Abraxane's FDA approval, American Pharmaceutical Partner's stock soared by 50 percent. Now that, some would say, is what nanotech is really all about these days.

And, as Ms. Poppins might say, that's more than tuppence.

NanoBot Backgrounder
Living on nano time
The FDA's need for speed
Nanoparticles clobber cancer with sneak attack

QuoteBot

"A growing number of people believe that we need a fresh dialogue between science and religion. I mean religion in its widest sense - a belief in the value of human life. Apparently the direction of scientific progress means that we have to make moral judgements about what's permissible and what isn't. We need a moral consensus."

Brian Walden
Writing in BBC News

NanoBot Backgrounder
Rational science for an irrational world
Zeno, nano and quantum cwaziness
Barking at scientific dogma

Sticker shock and awe

An Army Program to Build a High-Tech Force Hits Cost Snags (The New York Times)

The Army's plan to transform itself into a futuristic high-technology force has become so expensive that some of the military's strongest supporters in Congress are questioning the program's costs and complexity.

Army officials said Saturday that the first phase of the program, called Future Combat Systems, could run to $145 billion. Paul Boyce, an Army spokesman, said the "technological bridge to the future" would equip 15 brigades of roughly 3,000 soldiers, or about one-third of the force the Army plans to field, over a 20-year span.

That price tag, larger than past estimates publicly disclosed by the Army, does not include a projected $25 billion for the communications network needed to connect the future forces. Nor does it fully account for Army plans to provide Future Combat weapons and technologies to forces beyond those first 15 brigades.

Now some of the military's advocates in Congress are asking how to pay the bill. More here (registration required)

NanoBot Backgrounder
'Integration' and 'Vision' at Michigan Small Tech
NanoLife vs. NanoDeath
The nanothin green line

Congress is thinking about thinking

"Further out, scientists envision development of "bio-enhancement" nanoproducts that would give people greater strength, better vision and perhaps even computer-assisted thinking -- goals that raise ethical issues that already are 'very much on Congress's mind,' (White House science adviser John) Marburger said."

The Washington Post

Blogger's Note: "Computer-assisted thinking." That sounds even more imaginative than the "wrongheaded" nanobots Marburger denounced a year ago along with the "imaginative commentators" who focused on them.

NanoBot Backgrounder
Nano superhero is, appropriately, a golem
Bucky rage and 'imaginative commentators'
Nano on the brain

'Molecularium' explores inner space

Molecule movie offers new twist for planetariums (Associated Press)

Old school: sitting under a planetarium dome gazing at a simulated Sagittarius.

New school: watching smiling, singing, animated atoms zip around the dome as they journey through a falling snowflake and a stick of chewing gum.

A children's museum near Albany is debuting something new on its big-domed screen they call a "Molecularium" show. The 20-minute digital animation piece reinterprets the traditional planetarium experience for kids as likely to stick their nose in a Game Boy as a book. The subject isn't outer space this time, but atomic space. The movie tells the story of an oxygen atom, Oxy, and her nano pals exploring protons and electrons _ a sort of science meets Shrek story for the early grades. More here

NanoBot Backgrounder
NanoBot vs. NanoBot
Good grief, it's Linus!
Buckyball at 79th and Central Park West
The Wonderful World of NanoKids
'Nanoworld' is about solving small mysteries

Steve Jurvetson sings the carbon electric.

Does Georgia Tech have its top down?

Photo by Daniel Moore
Some red clay has already been moved at the future site
of Georgia Tech's Nanotechnology Research Center.

Georgia's governor is a real peach. He wants to give $5 million to Georgia Tech so it can begin clearing away old buildings to make way for a brand-spanking new $81 million Nanotechnology Research Center (NRC). But before they can build it, the university still has to raise $36 million in private funding.

NanoBot's "Ramblin' Wreck" of a reporter, Daniel Moore wonders what's going on at the construction site pictured above, then. It's located right about where Georgia Tech's Office of Development says the NRC will be.

Moore, who is not only a blogger but also a nano researcher, thinks the NRC will be great for his state, but has "a few misgivings" about what he sees going up on campus.

I feel like the space in the center is going to be overwhelmingly dominated by the electrical engineering MiRC (Microelectronics Research Center) filling it up with clean rooms and nanofab stuff that is so much top-down focused that I fear it will drown out the bottom-up segment of nanotechnology. More here

NanoBot Backgrounder
Nanotech a ramblin' wreck at Georgia Tech
Georgia Tech, meet your new nanotech wide receiver
Georgia Tech's Ambassador of Nano

Nano superhero is, appropriately, a golem

Israel's first "nanotechnology-powered" superhero is now available in English at ynetnews.com. Cartoonists Eli Eshed and Uri Fink collaborated on "The Golem," which is a perfect name for the product of science gone awry.

Golems are clay creatures of Jewish legend brought to "life" by rabbis who can master the correct Kabbalistic incantations. Mary Shelley was said to have been inspired by them when she created Frankenstein. The most famous of these Jewish Frankensteins was the 17th century Golem of Prague, created out of clay and brought to life with one word, "emet" ("truth"), placed on its forehead by Rabbi Jehudah Loew.

Rabbi Loew is one of my ancestors, and I've always felt a spiritual closeness to him, which grows the more I read about his life and legend. His golem was meant to stand for truth, to become a protector of the Jewish people during times of persecution. Things didn't turn out as ol' great-grandpa planned.

Since then, the golem has come to symbolize how the "creations" of man can go horribly wrong. I wonder if this comic's creators are aware that if they are to stay true to the golem legends their superhero must ultimately fail. The moral of the Jewish myth is that it is dangerous for mankind to "play God," or to "alter nature" by giving life to clay.

It is a message that resonates today, of course, as the far left is beginning to voice its opposition to nanotechnology on the assumption that to manipulate molecules is to mess with "nature," and the far right is mobilizing against the concept of "transhumanism," "human enhancement" and other schools of thought and technologies that seek to improve upon our essentially weak -- yet, "God-given" -- bodies.

The comic, however, is obviously taking a lighter approach. In this modern version, it's government bureaucracy that goes awry. The first comic begins with Professor Finstein's "Israeli Super Hero Project" about to become the victim of budget cuts. He convinced the government to build it using "these very small appliances," which turned out to be nanobots, of course. What he did not say was that he neded "67 trillion" of them to build a proper super hero. "Oy vey .." exclaims the guy from the Israeli budget office.

NanoBot Backgrounder
The Golems of our Era
Nanotech and Tikkun
NanoKabbalah Consciousness
Evangelicals and Nano-Gnosticism
The Kabbalah Nanotech Connection

NanoMarkets Explorer

From: Howard Lovy
To: Lawrence Gasman
Date: Thu, 24 Mar 2005 17:16:22 -0500
Subject: Nanotech: The Tiny Science Is Big, and Getting Bigger

Lawrence, you made National Geographic! With any luck, you're right next to a naked pygmy!

Howard

From: Lawrence Gasman
To: Howard Lovy
Date: Thu, 24 Mar 2005 20:37:04 -0500
Subject: RE: Nanotech: The Tiny Science Is Big, and Getting Bigger

Darn . . . and I thought I was being interviewed for an article on mating rituals in central Virginia.

Lawrence

Lawrence Gasman is the founder of NanoMarkets, a Sterling, Virginia-based nanotech market analysis firm. He said the coming revolution will be akin to the plastics revolution of the 1960s. At that time, plastics transformed everything from kitchen appliances and food containers to housing construction and medical safety.

"What it's really about is applying the latest and greatest in materials science to solving real-world problems," Gasman said. "That's where the money will be made, and that's where [nanotechnology] will change lives." More here

NanoBot Backgrounder
The fundamental (not fundamentalist) 'why'
Spin there, done that
Storage space

Workin' in a nano mine

Zyvex partners with School of Mines (Keloland.com)

A high tech company that works with the smallest materials in science is coming to South Dakota.

Today, Governor Mike Rounds announced an agreement with Zyvex and the South Dakota School of Mines in Rapid City.

With the help of a projector, students and visitors at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology are able to view what they normally couldn't see with their own eyes-- nanotechnolgy at work.

Governor Mike Rounds said, "South Dakota is one of those states in which we have a long way to come in terms of developing technology and commitments with technology companies."

The state took a step towards that goal today, by announcing a partnership with Zyvex, a Texas based company that specializes in creating tools and services to help scientists work with atoms and molecules.

Zyvex CEO Jim Von Ehr said, "Well this is a very persuasive place. They came and approached me about a year ago and I really ought to come here and they wanted to get involved in nanotechnology and I thought at the time, so do a lot places." More here

Related News
South Dakota Tech Launches Nanotechnology Testing Facility (Associated Press)

NanoBot Backgrounder
NanoLife vs. NanoDeath
Zyvex's Von Ehr on pixels, bits and stitches
Nano and nan at NNI

Got the world on a string

  

New space prizes target space elevators (New Scientist)

Space elevators - a futuristic idea in which space is accessed via long tethers with the power needed being transmitted on beams of light - are the target of two new cash prizes, sponsored by NASA.

The prizes, announced on Wednesday evening, are the first in a series called "Centennial Challenges", modelled on the $10 million X Prize recently awarded to the first privately developed spacecraft. Winning teams will receive $50,000 in 2005 for either building the strongest strand of material or for using light to power a wireless robot up a cable.

The Spaceward Foundation, a space advocacy organisation based in Mountain View, California, will administer the prizes, which NASA will fund. The new prizes will focus on the technologies necessary to develop a space elevator. But NASA is keen to stress that the work could benefit many space-based projects required to achieve President George W Bush's plans to return people to the Moon and on to Mars.

"The innovations from these competitions will help support advances in aerospace materials and structures, new approaches to robotic and human planetary surface operations, and even futuristic concepts like space elevators and solar power satellites," says Brant Sponberg, NASA's program manager for Centennial Challenges. More here

Update: Earth's first Space Elevator Club!

NanoBot Backgrounder
QuoteBot: "NSF is just hot to trot on nanotechnology"
Buy-in-the-sky scheme
Stairway to Heaven
The goal is elevation

Pioneers with arrows in our backs

Alexandra Witze and Tom Siegfried of the Dallas Morning News have won the 2004 Science in Society Journalism Awards from the National Association of Science Writers for their June 2003 work: "'Science's Big Unknown,' a three-part series on nanotechnology, which explored its health and environmental effects." You can download PDFs of their articles here.

It's a well-earned honor, but the judges note that the writers "raised questions about the safety of nanotech months before any other major media outlet." OK. I'll accept that, I suppose. My old employer never made it to the status of "major media outlet." But I'm still rather proud of our work on the nanotech/environment issue, which we were covering as early as March 2002. Then, we were on the story and covering every major development -- in August 2002, November 2002 (when we were introduced to a certain instant pundit), then again in January 2003 when we broke the news on the ETC Group's demand for a research moratorium, then again in April when a toxicology survey was released (the "survey" of previous studies has since been misinterpreted in just about every news report as new "studies.") When Greenpeace issued its opinion in July 2003, reporter Douglas Brown and I worked into the night and early morning to break the news.

I was mostly a behind-the-scenes guy, assigning and editing the stories, until July 2003, and I haven't shut up since.

NanoBot Backgrounder
Rebuttal from Greenpeace's scientific adviser
Nanotechnology industry takes Greenpeace's bait
The Greenpeace Report, Part II: NanoWars
UK sets up a fragmented nanopolicy

Nano World: Just start me up

Blogger's Note: UPI's Charles Choi gives us another sneak preview into his latest Nano World column. -- Howard

On Friday, Nano World will explore how catalysts, which underlie more than 20 percent of world industrial processes, can benefit from nanotechnology. Nanocatalyst advances should include improved catalytic converters in cars, more efficient oil reforming for cheaper gas, safer drugs, environmentally friendly ways to create hydrogen peroxide and hydrogen fuel cells.

Related News
Environmentally Safer Catalyst Proves More Active In Hydrogen Production (Science Daily)

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From Wilkes-Barre to Wolfe
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NanoBot: Balkanized for your pleasure

Nanobot News (Sean-Paul Kelley, San Antonio, The Agonist)

Howard Lovy's Nanobot - In this balkanized day and age sometimes the best place to get news on interesting, but under the radar coverage is through blogs--specialist blogs, that is. And this is especially true when it comes to Nanotechnology. I highly recommend, if this is your kind of science thing, reading Howard Lovy's Nanobot. More here

Awww, shucks, Sean-Paul. You're obviously a man of incredible intelligence, taste and sophistication. I take back everything I've ever said about Texas.

Nano, SUNY side up

SUNY foundation: nanoscale college (wow, they must have some really tiny buildings and students -- HL) drives research funding to UAlbany (The Business Review)

The state University at Albany received the third most research funding from federal and private sponsors of any SUNY school during the 2004 fiscal year, according to estimates by the Research Foundation.

The foundation, a private, nonprofit corporation that administers SUNY's research activity, estimated that UAlbany received $132.1 million for research during the year ended June 30, 2004. UAlbany saw a 69 percent increase in funding over the previous year, which the foundation said is primarily attributable to the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering and the Center of Excellence in Nanoelectronics. The college is considered the first in the country to be focused entirely on nanotechnology, and is located at the state university's $1 billion Albany NanoTech research center. More here

NanoBot Backgrounder
Albany to feast on nanochips

QuoteBot

"The killer app for nanotechnology is nanobots. Some will be in the environment, cleaning up, providing energy. Some will be involved in automated manufacturing. Some will be in our bodies, keeping us healthy from the inside. Destroying pathogens, getting rid of toxins, killing cancer cells. It will be routine."

Ray Kurzweil
Quoted in Fast Company magazine

NanoBot Backgrounder
Stop worrying and learn to love nanobots
Antediluvian NanoBots
NanoBots are Needed

No news is bad news

Business Week's Deal Flow says that the "'news coverage-to-actual VC dollars going to nanotech'" ratio is pretty out of whack," and that Lux Research is "the only research firm I know of dedicated to nanotech."

I'd say just the opposite is true. Nanotech research firms and premium reports are replicating like Starbucks franchises in any city's downtown, leaving nanotechnology journalism to the haphazard, surface coverage of mainstream publications.

Business Week and The Motley Fool have taken up the slack, but their coverage, by necessity, is devoted to nanotech primarily as stock ticker symbol.

NanoBot Backgrounder
NanoBot needs you, Part II
The Sounds of Media Silence
Hail! Hail! Freedonia!
NanoBot Soup

We got a pal in Kalamazoo

Western Michigan University undergrad awarded $25,000 for nanotech research (WMU News)

KALAMAZOO -- An undergraduate focus in the field of nanotechnology--science that focuses on the smallest structures found in nature--has turned into big news for a Western Michigan University student and his department.

Curtis J. Deer, a senior from Lawrence, Mich., has won a scholarship of up to $25,000--one of just 15 awarded nationally--from the United Negro College Fund and the pharmaceutical giant Merck. The award will put Deer in Merck laboratories over the next two summers, earning an additional stipend, and will pave the way for him to eventually earn a doctoral degree to advance his career.

... Deer is part of WMU's nanotechnology team led by Dr. Subra Muralidharan, professor of chemistry and director of the Nanotechnology Research and Computation Center. Although he has been a WMU student for just three years, Deer has earned senior status and is beginning to lay plans for his graduate work in the discipline. He expects to graduate in April 2006 and is already looking at such schools as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Washington and Northwestern University.

... Muralidharan describes Deer as something of "a poster child for the value of giving students the opportunity to have hands-on science experience." After what Deer describes as initial amazement at the complexity and opportunities of laboratory life, he jumped in and is now pursuing his own research into an area of nanotechnology known as quantum dots -- an area he says has potential for bioimaging and the development of biosensors as well as in the fields of medical discovery and computation. The Lee Honors College member is writing his honors thesis on the future uses of semi-conductor quantum dots.

Deer also serves as a W.M. Keck Scholar, one of two undergraduates selected to work as part of Muralidharan's team that is undertaking a $1 million research project aimed at unlocking the secrets of the mechanism that allows the penetration of cells by everything from harmful agents like viruses and pollutants to beneficial new drug discoveries. The project's major funding is from California's W.M. Keck Foundation.

Deer, who ultimately wants to conduct research and teach at the University level, says he's always gravitated toward science and his experience in WMU labs has left him with a view of a future in which electronic devices are much smaller and biological and environmental sensors are commonplace, thanks to nanotechnology. But he admits to having to resort to today's more common uses of the technology to explain what it all means to family and friends. The stain-resistant properties of today's clothing, for instance, is a favorite of his when he wants to tell people how nanotechnology impacts their lives. More here

NanoBot Backgrounder
Ivy League human league
Radicals find no freedom from fullerenes
Texas ropes young nano herd
Overachieving undergrads
Learning a living with Luna

Mumbai nano center will be fab

IIT Mumbai plans nano R&D centre (Press Trust of India)

Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Mumbai, will set up a world-class nano research and development centre to promote nanotechnology in the country.

"The IIT nano cente will have a fabrication facility in addition to scientific and structural characterisation facilities," R&D dean Professor Kartik Khilar said today.

IIT currently has 50 faculty members working on various areas of nanotechnology like nano electronics, nano materials, nano biotechnology , micro electromechanic system and nano electromechanic system, he said.

The details of the centre is being worked out and is expected to be ready in a couple of years, Khilar added. More here

Related News
Indian Americans Modify Nanotubes Using Clean Method (INDOlink)

NanoBot Backgrounder
India's president urges IT to go nano
Upsourcing to India for aircraft nanomaterials
India pledges irreverence to science past

Perpetual pursuit of elusive funding

Josh Wolfe, the Shaolin priest of Wall Street and the prophet of nanotech profit, always sprinkles philosophy with finance in his newsletter. In his latest, Josh writes:

The truth is this: if I sent you one million dollars tomorrow, as unlikely as it may seem -- you'd be no happier a year from now then you are today. From an evolutionary biology standpoint, happiness is just a tool our genes use to guide us towards behaviors that benefit them. The perpetual pursuit of elusive goals is written in our genes. The racetrack of happiness has no speed limit and no exit ramp.

Josh, as a believer in the scientific method, I agree to help you prove your hypothesis and will live with the consequences. Hit the button below, and let's get this experiment started:

NanoBot Backgrounder
NanoBot needs you
3M's tale of the nanotape
From Wilkes-Barre to Wolfe

NanoBot vs. NanoBot

NanoBot Good	NanoBot Bad
NanoBot Good	NanoBot Bad

Nanostuff vs. nanotechnology

Here in Michigan, researchers are looking at "how certain kinds of nanoparticles damage cell membranes — enough to cause cell death in some cases — and how the damage can be prevented." The answer is you don't just pump the stuff blindly into the body. You engineer them, or make the little beasts do what you want them to do. One researcher says, "Not only does engineering make them less harmful, but it also makes them better at what we want them to do. You don't lose anything; it's all a gain."

This is another example of the kinds of "mixed" nanotech messages being presented to the public. Like any new science, there will be a "breakthrough of the week" that may or may not conform to a particular political agenda. One day dendrimers can cure cancer, the next day they'll kill you and the next day they'll save your life again.

The answer, of course, is this is why it's called nano "technology," and not just nanoscale stuff. Size, alone, does not necessarily matter. In fact, size alone could be more dangerous -- just as anti-nanotech groups like the ETC Group have claimed. However, when you add the "technology," when you engineer them for a specific function, that's when you really see the benefit. This is especially true in nanobiotech.

In many cases, the mainstream media have picked up on studies in which researchers pump rats' lungs or fish's brains full of dumb nanomaterials, and bad things begin to happen. Receiving less attention are the followups in which these nanomaterials, when engineered for a specific purpose, could possibly not only fail to kill the poor rodents or other creatures, but actually help them get better and learn to play the piano.

OK. I'm kidding about the piano.

Related News
Nano Hazards: Exposure to minute particles harms lungs, circulatory system (Science News)

NanoBot backgrounder
The buckyfishbrain study is online
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Nano World is water world

Blogger's Note: UPI's Charles Choi gives us another sneak preview into his latest Nano World column. -- Howard

Hi guys -- the next Nano World focuses on what may be one of the single biggest applications of nanotechnology -- bringing clean water to the world. "It's the new oil of the 21st century," said F. Mark Modzelewski, managing director of nanotechnology analyst firm Lux Research in New York.

Update: Here's the story

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"Can Nano-Technology Be Used to Remediate Produced Water?" (El Defensor Chieftain)

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Nano World: Haves and have-nots
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Adv: WaterWorld Free Subscription

Information needs to be free ... and is

Pssst. You. Yeah, you. Come here. Don't tell anybody, but if you click here you can pick up some trade magazines for free and support NanoBot at the same time. I got all the best mags, no matter what your pleasure, from Biophotonics International to Consumer Goods Technology. I've got an array of sensual and culinary delights, from food to water to light. Why, there's something for all tastes -- although there is no accounting for taste.

Yeah. This is an ad. You got a problem with that?

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What's the nano fore?

Inquiring golfers want to know: Is nano the new titanium, or just another load of nanocrap?

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Pull yourselves together, nanodevices

Nanoscience Imitating Nature (By David Pescovitz, ScienceMatters @ Berkeley)

It's tough to build things that are 100,000 times smaller than the diameter of a human hair. Biology has had a few billion years to perfect the craft of building from the bottom up. That's why UC Berkeley nanoscientist Matthew Francis collaborates closely with Mother Nature. Francis and his research group use organic chemistry to assemble nanoscale devices with unprecedented capabilities that could revolutionize cancer treatment or lead to the development of highly efficient solar cells.

"Our goal is to address a big challenge in nanoscience, which is how to position objects with exquisite resolution so that the exciting components people are developing can be combined into functional devices," Francis says.

In recent years, he explains, materials scientists have developed a wide array of impressive building blocks for nanoscale systems, from computer components fashioned from single molecules to promising drug delivery systems. The problem though is constructing useful devices from these materials. Some of the new nanoparticles are too small for current lithographic techniques like those used to fabricate integrated circuits. Others are a bit oversized for precise "bottom up" positioning using organic chemistry. More here

NanoBot Backgrounder
The Descent of Nano
Human Nanofactory Experiment: The Sequel
Feynman's missing pieces
Driving under the influence of Feynman
RatBot strikes again
The Amazing Montemagno

Richard Jones: Solid blogger in a soft machine

Blogger's Note: As part of my series on the expanding nanotech blogging universe, here's Richard Jones, author of "Soft Machines: Nanotechnology And Life," and proprietor of an influential blog of the same name. -- Howard

In my day job I'm a Professor of Physics at the University of Sheffield, in Britain. I'm an experimental polymer physicist who studies the properties of macromolecules at surfaces and interfaces.

My research group works in three main areas. At the fundamental end, we study the changes in properties that occur when polymers are confined to very small dimensions. We're interested in exploiting surface and interface effects and self-assembly to devise cheap processing routes to make efficient plastic electronics.

And at the speculative end of our research, we are trying to learn how to exploit the way macromolecules change shape with changing environment to make devices like single molecule motors and nanoscale pumps, which use some of the same operating principles that biology uses but which are made from synthetic materials.

I'm also interested in nanotechnology education, both at University level and for the general public, and I spend quite a lot of time talking about nanotechnology to all sorts of audiences. I'm also interested in the broader economic and social aspects of nanotechnology, and I am increasingly collaborating with social scientists in the study of these.

In my blog I aspire to give readers something of the perspective on nanotechnology that is held by a jobbing scientist. I'd like to expose some received opinions on nanotechnology - whether they are held by the nanobusiness community, nanoscientists, environmentalists or the MNT (molecular nanotechnology) community - to a bit of critical examination. And I hold out the hope that a few readers of the blog are inspired to buy my book, "Soft Machines."

NanoBot Backgrounder
UK misses chance to defuse nanotox issue
Hard Machines
The NanoNovus Code
Martyn Amos: Lecturer, Blogger
It's good to be a blogger with tenure
Blogging responsibly
We all live in a nano submarine

QuoteBot

"What if you're a nanonazi, using nanotechnology to efficiently destroy the world?"

Richard Louv
Quoting architect William McDonough on the double-edged concept of "efficiency," writing in the San Diego Union-Tribune

The NanoNovus Code

Blogger's Note: As part of my series on the expanding nanotech blogging universe, here's Jack Uldrich, author of "The Next Big Thing is Really Small" and now a blogger at NanoNovus. -- Howard

NanoNovus is dedicated to providing timely and succinct analysis on nanotechnology developments from a business and investment perspective. It will seek to do two separate things. First, it will discuss in relatively non-technical and jargon-free terms how new scientific and business-related nanotechnology developments might alter the commercial and competitive landscape. Secondly, due to the growing interest of individual investors in nanotechnology, the site will offer occasional analysis on nanotechnology companies.

What I hope to accomplish with NanoNovus is to create a space whereby more people—especially those who are not necessarily comfortable with their understanding of nanotechnology—can seek information and gain an understanding about how nanotechnology might affect themselves, their businesses, their investments in practical and easy-to-understand terms.

From a personal perspective, I view NanoNovus as a way to market myself, my company and my books to a wider audience. (I am the author of "The Next Big Thing is Really Small: How Nanotechnology Will Change the Future of Your Business" and have a forthcoming book tentatively titled “Investing in Nanotechnology: Think Small, Win Big” coming out later this summer. I am also a public speaker and own my own consulting group — The NanoVeritas Group).

Obviously, the readers themselves will ultimately determine whether or not my analysis, views and opinions are worthy of their time; but I hope the code of ethics which is stated on my blog will, at least, give them an initial level of comfort. The code simply states that I will: 1) disclose all conflicts of interest, 2) publish only what I believe to be true, and 3) quickly and publicly correct all mistakes.

Related News
Jack Uldrich: As life span moves up, there's a cost to be paid (startribune.com, registration required)

NanoBot Backgrounder
Martyn Amos: Lecturer, Blogger
It's good to be a blogger with tenure
Blogging responsibly

Nanotech's cleanup crew

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency just handed out suitcases full of cash to nanotech companies that think they can do something about all this mess we've created over the centuries. Here's the list:

• Nanoadsorbent and Microwave Technology To Capture and Recover Organic Vapors, $69,953, ADS Technologies Inc.
• Magnetite Nanoparticles for Enhanced Environmental Remediation, $69,939, Luna Innovations Inc. (good job, Jonathan)
• A Nanocrystal Biosensor Array for Simultaneous Detection of Multiple Waterborne Pathogens, $70,000 (why do some get a nice round number?) Nanomaterials & Nanofabrication Laboratories
• Solvent-Free Production of Alkaline Earth Metal Titanates for Electronics Applications, $70,000, NanoScale Materials, Inc.
• Engineered Magnetic Nanoparticles for Advanced Biosensor Signal Processing and Detection of Waterborne Pathogens, $70,000, nGimat Co.
• Chromate-Free Nanoparticle Corrosion Inhibitors for Steel, $70,000, TDA Research Inc.

NanoBot Backgrounder
UK misses chance to defuse nanotox issue
U.S. chemical workshop takes on nanotech
Ecotru or false?
Pinhead Angels

Nano World: Haves and have-nots

Blogger's Note: Charles Choi writes a weekly feature distributed through UPI called Nano World. Charles' excellent nanotech pieces appear online and in newspapers around the world every Friday, but he and his editors have agreed to give me sneak previews. Here's what Charles says to expect tomorrow in Nano World -- Howard

My next Nano World will focus on the issues surrounding nanotechnology and the poor. It's obvious nano advances in water purification, electricity, health and other areas can helping the poor, but little of nano is devoted to specifically aiding them, even in nations where the poor constitute a large fraction of the population.

In this Nano World we'll discuss some things industry, governments and academia can do, including pro-poor business techniques and modified intellectual property provisions.

Update: Here's the story.

NanoBot Backgrounder
A peak into Charles Choi's Nano World
Conquer the Divide
China, garment workers and nanotechnology

QuoteBot

"In the area of clean coal, he'll take a look at this new advanced technology called Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle. That is the next step on the road to a zero-emission coal fired power plant that enables us also to capture and store CO2. As part of that, he's going to take a look at a vial of nano-materials that specifically absorb carbon dioxide. And the nano-materials in that vial contain as much surface area as the entire exterior surface area of the White House."

Jim Connaughton
Head of The Council on Environmental Quality, speaking aboard Air Force One

NanoBot Backgrounder
Philippines to launch NanoPower Revolution
From Wilkes-Barre to Wolfe
Dirty diesel done 'nano' cheap?
Converging on clean energy

An all-star scientist ... and a human

I've been meaning to publicly congratulate my friend Jordan Paul Amadio, who was recently named to USA Today's 2005 College Academic All-Stars First Team. It's a well-deserved honor. Jordan is not only a bright young scientist, but he also pays attention to the social, cultural, economic and ethical context in which he will practice his science. He recently returned from a trip to Africa, where he further explored the idea of science and technology to benefit the "have-nots" of the world. I'll let the USA Today blurb tell the rest of Jordan's story.

Jordan Paul Amadio, Princeton University: Home: Cazenovia, N.Y.; Age: 21; Major: Physics; GPA: 3.86; Graduating: May; Career goal: Physician, global science advocate, writer. Accomplishments: A physics major with minors in biophysics, materials engineering and Italian literature, Amadio developed nanotechnology techniques that may lead to improved biomedical devices and investigated the molecular pathway of Alzheimer's disease; founded Princeton Undergraduate Research Symposium; head scientific and technical writing tutor; traveled to Africa as Student Global Science Corps founder to network with scientists; Princeton University Press Club president has had dozens of articles published by newspapers such as The Independent in Great Britain; Goldwater Scholar; Spirit of Princeton Award. More here

NanoBot Backgrounder
NanoPrincetonian
Ivy League human league
A good omen for nano's future

'Swarm,' 'Prey,' whatever ...

Needless to say, I'm all in favor of this kind of study, since I've been arguing for a couple of years now that public perception of nanotech should not be ignored. However, when they get the name of the Michael Crichton book wrong, I'm not filled with great confidence in this study's overall accuracy.

How Media’s Representation of 'Nanotechnology" Is Shaping Public's Opinion (NewsWise)

... “With potential nanotechnology applications across a broad spectrum ranging from disease treatment to computer memory, to environmental pollution control, public awareness of the field is clearly growing fast,” says Brenton Faber, associate professor of Communication & Media at Clarkson University. “But little research has tracked, categorized or sought to understand how nanoscale science and technology is represented in written media.”

Sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF), Faber and a team of research assistants are now analyzing how nanoscience and nanotechnology are being defined, presented and perceived. This information is important, he explains, because the media plays a major role in “framing” issues, such as a new technology’s “promise” or “threat,” in the public mind. And those public perceptions lead to political agendas and government policies.

“By understanding this media presentation,” Faber points out, “scientists will be better able to define their own nanoscience agenda.” He notes, for example, a spike in attention following publication of Michael Crichton’s novel Swarm, which depicts potential horror from self-replicating, out-of-control nanobots. More here

NanoBot Backgrounder
Rational science for an irrational world
NanoSurvey says ...
Britain balances science, economics, perception

Nanotech Limerick Contest

OK, any nanotech poets out there? Use the Comments section below to give me your best nanotech limerick. It doesn't even need to be based on the story below.

Technology company to create 50 Limerick jobs (Ireland On-Line)

A Russian technology company is to to create 50 new jobs in Limerick after setting up its first Irish facility in the mid west.

NT-MDT (NanoTechnology - Modular Devices and Tools) has set up an Irish subsidiary at the National Technological Park in Plassy, close to the University of Limerick.

The company is expected to begin recruiting in July and expects to employ more than 50 people over the next five years. More here

NanoBot Backgrounder
Happy St. Pat's to The Nano People
Pinhead Angels
'How The Schmirk Stole Nanotechnology'

Era of 'pleasant' feelings for Nanomix

Nanomix raises $16M third round (TheDeal.com)

Semiconductor sensor maker Nanomix Inc. has raised a $16 million third round led by New York-based nanotechnology venture capital specialist Harris & Harris Group Inc. and Germany's Star Ventures, bringing the total raised by the Emeryville, Calif., nanotechnology startup to more than $30 million.

Previous investors Alta Partners of San Francisco, Sevin Rosen Funds of Dallas, Apax Partners Inc. of New York and EnerTech Capital Partners of Chicago all participated in the oversubscribed round. David Macdonald, president and CEO of Nanomix, declined to comment on valuation but said it was a "pleasant" feeling to have so many interested investors and that he wasn't eager to raise more capital anytime soon.

As part of the round, Daniel Leff, an executive vice president and managing director with Harris & Harris, joined the company's seven-member board. Nanomix did not use financial advisers, but Warren Lazarow, a partner with O'Melveny & Myers LLP, represented Nanomix in the financing.

Nanomix takes carbon nanotubes, wraps different molecules around them and integrates them on a chip in its own clean room. The company uses old semiconductor technology in its manufacturing process working on four-inch wafers. Macdonald said the 5-year-old company will launch its first products later this year and begin generating product revenue. More here (registration required)

NanoBot Backgrounder
Nanomix senses a product in 2005
Nokia watches kudos for Konarka
See Spot's IP

Human Nanofactory Experiment: The Sequel

Pictured above is the beginning of a new "bottom-up" assembly process. The results of my first experiment were perfect. With the help of my able assistant, I shall try to replicate this perfection. I expect a complete human to be assembled by late September.

NanoBot Backgrounder
Shocking photo of secret human nanofactory!
Update on human nanofactory experiment
I've Got Male!
Human Nanofactory in Four Dimensions
Eureka!

Martyn Amos: Lecturer, Blogger

Blogger's Note: As part of my series on the expanding nanotech blogging universe, I now present Martyn Amos, a lecturer (now, there's a word packed with negative cultural connotations, yyyawwwwnnnn) in Computer Science at the University of Exeter, United Kingdom. Here, he'll introduce us to his blog: Martyn Amos: Complexity, Nanotechnology and Bio-computing (Wake up! The title is finished!):

I gained my Ph.D in Computer Science from the University of Warwick in 1997. I then moved on to become a Leverhulme Special Research Fellow (1998-2000, University of Liverpool) and then Lecturer in Bioinformatics (2000-2002 at Liverpool and 2002-2003 at Exeter).

I'm currently a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Computer Science at the University of Exeter, and a member of the Artificial Intelligence and Emergent Technologies group. Fundamentally, I am interested in the intersection between computer science and biology. My research interests include molecular and cellular computing (the use of organic and living materials for the construction of micro and nano-scale computing devices), artificial life (the study of "life as it could be"), complex systems, and bio-inspired algorithmics (for example, the development of new optimisation methods based on the operation of ant or bacterial colonies). I am also interested in modelling all manner of biological systems, from bees foraging to complex bacterial ecologies and the spread of diseases such as MRSA.

I hope to act as a bridge between the worlds of biology and engineering/computer science/mathematics. Often it is the case that very similar fundamental concepts exist in multiple discipines, but they are described in very different language (for example, the Turing machine head and DNA poymerase). I hope to draw on my expertise to faciliate cross-talk between different fields of study, as well as contributing original research of my own.

NanoBot Backgrounder
It's good to be a blogger with tenure
Blogging responsibly

QuoteBot

"Being small is going to be a problem. So how can you get a whole bunch of dumb small things doing something smart? And that's why these techniques, borrowed from the ants, can be exploited to make very small robots. It would be nice to think that we could use nano-robots to carry out repair work inside the human body, but it's early days."

Dr. Chris Melhuish
Intelligent Autonomous Systems Laboratory at the University of the West of England, working on a fleet of "U-bots," quoted in BBC News

SciFi and the scientist

Howard,
Just so you know, they (the Stargate Atlantis cast) weren’t flailing around at invisible bugs, they were flailing around a bug induced visions. The bugs attacked the optical lobes and caused an aneurism thus the visions as pressure builds. I don’t know if you caught the ending but they killed the bugs with a large EMP. The writing for the ep was typical for nano coming out of Hollywood.

Jonathan Reid
Scientist
Luna Innovations

---

Now, Jonathan -- a sober scientist like yourself watching science fiction?!

Howard

---

Are you kidding? I get my best ideas reading and watching Sci-fi and thinking "We could do that!" What's really cool is when I can turn to my wife and say "We're already doing that." ;)

Jonathan

---

Yes, but strange how in the '50s, SciFi writers thought we'd all be wearing form-fitting body suits. Is Nano-Tex working on that now?

Howard

---

Well, lets see. NASA is working on silver for killing bacteria that produce odor. The silver fiber is woven in the fiber of form fitting t-shirts for the guys on the space station. The first results look good and they are moving on to blankets and sheets. Not exactly nano but that is most likely the next step for wearability and comfort. We are doing a few things here looking on embedding conductive nanotubes in cloth. I don't know how form fitting the end product will be.

You also have to realize that to the writers of the 50's, form fitting was as close to naked as they could get and not be censored. It looked great on film because you could have a very busty woman scientist that took the attention away from the holes in the plot.

Jonathan

Blogging responsibly

Blogger's Note: There are so many newcomers in the nanotech blogging world, I thought it would be a good idea to let everybody introduce (or reintroduce) themselves on NanoBot and tell what they're all about. So, from time to time, I'll feature a few comments from elsewhere in the nanoblogosphere. I've asked them to write a few paragraphs telling readers who they are, what they do, what their blogs focus on and how they view their contribution to this worldwide nanotech discussion? Here, we read about the Center for Responsible Nanotechnology's blog, run by two guys, Chris Phoenix and Mike Treder, whose impact far out outweighs the strength of their numbers. -- Howard

The Center for Responsible Nanotechnology (CRN) is a nonprofit think tank concerned with the major societal implications of advanced nanotechnology. CRN promotes public awareness and education, and the crafting of effective public policy to maximize benefits and reduce dangers. CRN was founded in 2002 by Mike Treder and Chris Phoenix.

In January of 2004, we began publishing a daily weblog on our activities, our research findings, and our commentaries on both technical and political/social developments relevant to our work. According to the reaction we get when we attend and speak at forums worldwide, interest in both the opportunities and the threats posed by exponential general-purpose molecular manufacturing is rising. We hope to contribute by engaging individuals and groups to focus on the real risks and benefits of the technology. Our goal is the creation of wise, comprehensive, and balanced plans for global management of this transformative technology.

NanoBot Backgrounder
It's good to be a blogger with tenure
NanoBots are Needed
Molecular manufacturing back on the table

QuoteBot

"Even science-fiction comedy Red Dwarf has resulted in an interest in many to study nanotechnology."

Hawkesbury Gazette
In an article about TV's influence on students' choices in degree programs at the University of Western Sydney Hawkesbury

Gray Goo

A peak into Charles Choi's Nano World

Charles Choi writes a weekly feature distributed through UPI called Nano World. Charles' excellent nanotech pieces appear online and in newspapers around the world every Friday, but he and his editors have agreed to give me sneak previews. Here's what Charles says to expect tomorrow in Nano World:

"The next Nano World will deal with the impact nanotech might have on drug discovery. Not only can nanoarrays and nanofluidics speed the rate of drug discovery, but nanotech-enabled whole genome sequencing and drug reformulation could help out drug candidates that might not otherwise have made it to or passed clinical trials. NanoMarkets' latest report will be touched on, and comments from Sean Murdock are included."

Update: Here's the story.

NanoBot Backgrounder
Regulate this!
Lux Research's states report

NanoBots are Needed

Nanobots Not Needed, declares the Center for Responsible Nanotechnology.

The popular idea of so-called nanobots, powerful and at risk of running wild, is not part of modern plans for building things “atom-by-atom” by molecular manufacturing. Studies indicate that most people don't know the difference between molecular manufacturing, nanoscale technology, and nanobots. Confusion about terms, fueled by science fiction, has distorted the truth about advanced nanotechnology. Nanobots are not needed for manufacturing, but continued misunderstanding may hinder research into highly beneficial technologies and discussion of the real dangers. More here

OK, well, I'll try not to be offended. They're referring to nanobot as a concept and not NanoBot, the "leading source of nanotechnology information and commentary." (I just made up that little slogan. I might have a future in PR).

Let me raise a couple of points. Does CRN believe the general public is really concerned with these distinctions?

To whom is their clarification aimed? Journalists who write about nanotechnology? Or those in government and business who have narrowed nanotechnology's definition to fit neatly into their own commercial and research goals?

The word "nanobot" is often used as a term of derision by those who now set the agenda, but CRN needs to get a bit of perspective and stop hanging around those who only speak nanotech-ese. It's a habit journalists get into, also -- a kind of Stockholm Syndrome, where they speak the language of those they cover and come into contact with, forgetting that there's a much-larger audience out there waiting to be informed.

The Center for Responsible Nanotechnology should know -- perhaps better than most groups -- that what is tossed aside as silly in one political season can be embraced in another. So, I hope it's not the derision that CRN is reacting to. And if they have truth on their side, they'll eventually be brought in from the cold.

To me, fighting against a word like "nanobot" -- a word that has been adopted by the general public and infused into the culture -- is akin to Eric Drexler's failed attempt to rename his vision of nanotechnology "zettatechnology." They're spitting into the wind. Why would they want to take a simple word that has captured the public imagination and muck it up with distinctions that mean little to the public at large? Nanobot is a cool word (if I do say so myself), and it should be embraced when speaking to the general public. It's only in our own closed circle that it takes on political or derisive meanings.

CRN should make those distinctions when they're at a nanotech conference, speaking to a bunch of other folks in our little world. But when it comes to making a connection with the people who really count -- those who will ultimately accept or reject a technology or technological direction -- I'm sticking with NanoBot.

NanoBot Backgrounder
NanoBots control the horizontal and vertical
Antediluvian NanoBots
Nano's most fantastic image
Smalley plays with 'Rage'
NanoBot Soup
Stop worrying and learn to love nanobots

Intel: 65 nano? No prob ... we hope

Intel Says New Chip-Making Technology on Target (Reuters)

Intel Corp., the world's largest chip maker, is seeing good results with an advanced manufacturing technology it plans to use in products next year, an executive said on Wednesday.

The Santa Clara, California-based company today produces chips with features as small as 90 nanometers, or billionths of a meter. Its plants in Oregon, Arizona and Ireland are currently being upgraded to handle 65-nanometer production, improving efficiency and cutting per-unit production costs.

"All indications today, right now, is that we will be good on 65 nanometers," said Steven Grant, a vice president in Intel's technology and manufacturing group, at a company-hosted technology conference. "It's in very good shape."

... Intel stumbled through several product introductions last year, with at least one delay caused by a manufacturing glitch. The company has tried to put those missteps behind it, and executives have reiterated repeatedly at the conference here that its product introduction plans are on target.

... Grant, however, said he was not yet ready to declare the 65-nanometer technology was home free.

"There are still some problems to fix," he said. More here

NanoBot Backgrounder
From a buzzword to a brick wall
Revolutions happen to the unprepared
Welcome to our Nano Nightmare - The Sequel

Ecotru or false?

I recently pulled this out of my briefcase. It had been sitting there for a month or so. I picked it up on a Jet Blue flight, along with an air sickness bag where I wrote down a message that appeared on the video screen in front of me:

"Tray table need a wipe? Ask your inflight crew for help with an Ecotru cleansing wipe."

I'm always thinking of my readers, so I asked my inflight crew for a sample. I remembered that Envirosystems, the company that makes Ecotru, is promoting it as a nanotech product.

My local NBC affiliate, Local 4 in Detroit, was on the story recently with a report on whether Ecotru is squeaky clean. Here's what Lila's Good Health says:

The company credits something called nano-emulsive particles. They are particles so small they can wiggle their way through the walls of a germ and kill it from within.

Envirosystems said the particles target tiny bacteria and viruses, and leave larger human and animal cells alone.

... Lila's Good Health wondered if Ecotru was too good to be true?

So Local 4 took the bottle to Dr. Michael Harbut, the chief of occupational and environmental medicine at Providence Hospital.

... He believes it will kill what it says it will, but so will a lot of other products.

"A 10 percent bleach solution will kill the HIV virus," said Harbut.

The price is $19.95 for a 22-ounce bottle. That's far more than other household cleaners.

"I think for most household uses, it's probably pretty expensive and doesn't offer a lot of advantages over things which are already available," said Harbut.

Despite the cost, major companies are snapping it up. Boeing now recommends Ecotru to clean the inside of its planes and 30 airlines have placed orders. More here

Jet Blue seems to like the stuff, anyway.

NanoBot Backgrounder
Prosaic Potty-Cleaning Nanoparticles
Will Brit buses burn cleaner under the Cerulean sky?
Fine Corinthian Nano

'Nano enhancement' comes in pairs

It seems like nano is all about enhancement these days. Enhance your energy and, with the link below, enhance my blog's ability to show up under new and interesting key words. (Thanks, Rocky)

Instant Breast Firmness, Enlargement & Enhancement (Alibaba.com)

ST. HERB NANO BREAST CREAM, Instant Beauty Breast Care Nano Tech Product

You can instantly experience Natural Breast Enlargement& Firmness.

Nanosomes are protected from Surface& bulk erosion also, this feature provides added advantage - Toning of Breast Skin, visible cleavage, radiant texture of breast skin & protection from free radicals. More here

NanoBot Backgrounder
Nerd American Idol
Beauty and the Nano Beat
'Nano' for your aura