Sunday, October 21, 2007

Cleantech's the new nano; nano's the new dot-bomb

Here's a quick follow-up to the "nano bad, cleantech good" portion of this post.

Just as Lux Research is dropping its nanotech emphasis in favor of cleantech, Lux's pioneering parent (or whatever) publication Forbes/Wolfe is laying down its nano burdens to rebrand itself the "Forbes/Wolfe Emerging Tech Report (covering nanotech, cleantech, and all physical science breakthroughs)."

One analyst I talked to (a tech biz analyst, not a shrink!) finds the rush away from nano somewhat amusing.

"I find it interesting that all of the folks who hyped nano in the first place are scurrying away from it just when it’s really starting to get interesting."

I'd also repeat a point I've been making for, oh, about five years now: Nano is not any one technology. It does, however, enable the next generation of pretty much every technology -- including the "cleantech" flavor of the day.

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