H
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Nanotechnology's everywhere
NEW YORK - If you're worried that nanotechnology is going to contaminate the
Earth and needs to be stopped before it destroys the human species, well ...
heh-heh ... too late!
Last week, I stopped by the NanoBusiness 2005 conference just off Wall
Street. The overarching theme: Nanotech isn't just a lab experiment anymore.
It's spreading fast and in some surprising ways.
For that matter, you'll probably slather nanotech all over your face this
summer. It's in sunscreens and sun-blocking lotions. It's in quick-drying
paint. It might be in your pants.
Perhaps most dazzling of all, nanotechnology can be used to manufacture
diamonds that are all but indistinguishable from mined diamonds - a profound
development that could eventually cut into traditional diamond sales the way
Tylenol pushed aside aspirin.
And the impression is that there is so much more right around the corner.
Nanotech is finding its way into drugs, diapers, walls and pesticides. A
study by Lux Research found that 3,800 nanotech patents have been issued so
far, and 1,777 more are pending.
One nanotech product, carbon nanotubes, has become so common that a company
at the conference hawks them like a used car salesman. The company is called
Cheap Tubes, and its slogan is: "We search the world for the highest
quality, lowest cost carbon nanotubes so YOU don't have to!" Which is
helpful, because I wouldn't know a carbon nanotube if it bit one of my skin
cells.
Nanotech really is becoming this generation's plastic. If you're over 40,
you remember when everyday stuff was made of metal or wood: car dashboards,
the players in table hockey games, office desks, golf clubs. Plastics turned
out to do most of those jobs better and cheaper, and so plastics spread to
every part of our lives.
In a lot of cases, that's what nanotech is doing, but on a more
sophisticated level.
Nanotech refers to any substance that is engineered at the scale of a
nanometer, which is about three to five atoms across. By messing with atoms,
an engineer can alter a substance so it does new tricks.
Take paint. I met Rich Stromback, who runs Ecology Coatings and is perhaps
the only nanotech CEO who used to be a minor league ice hockey goon (1989-90
Erie Panthers stats: 7 goals, 18 assists, 130 penalty minutes). As Stromback
says, paint has worked the same for centuries: You put it on, then wait for
it to dry. In a factory, the wait translates into a major holdup.
Ecology Coatings uses nanotech to create a "liquid solid." It flows but will
not evaporate. Spill it on the floor, and it will be the same three weeks
later - sort of like a McDonald's milkshake.
In a factory, the coating can be sprayed on like paint and then dried with
an ultraviolet light in three seconds. "We're solving one of the last
manufacturing bottlenecks," Stromback says
Also, paint has long served one main purpose: to add color. Michael
Riedlinger, president of NaturalNano, says his company is working on paints
with a property that could be turned on or off to block cell phone signals.
It could be used in a concert hall, for instance.
Among other companies here, Nanophase makes nanotech particles that go into
"everyday" sunscreens like Oil of Olay's Complete line of UV moisturizers.
The particles block the sun but don't interfere with the lotion's feel and
look.
Nucryst Pharmaceuticals engineers silver particles into infection-fighting
bandages for burn victims. Products from Nano-Tex make cotton pants that
repel water, now sold by Gap and Eddie Bauer. In a development that could
truly improve the lives of millions, companies here talk of engineering
diapers that never smell.
Then there's Apollo Diamond, which makes perhaps the most tangible of all
nanotech products. The 20-employee Boston company spent 15 years figuring
out how to construct a real diamond, one atomic layer at a time. Apollo
seems to be the only company that can do this. Finding the right recipe is
the equivalent of finding a particular grain of sand on a beach.
Now Apollo can make what it calls "cultured diamonds." They aren't fake.
They are real diamonds, but man-made instead of forged over millions of
years by intense underground pressure and heat. Jewelers can't tell the
difference. The only way to know is to use sophisticated equipment recently
developed just for that purpose by - surprise! - DeBeers, which controls
about half the world's diamond market.
"If there's any example of how our material world can be turned upside down
by nanotechnology, this is it," says nanotech consultant Jim Hurd.
Apollo has made gem-quality diamonds bigger than 5 carats. President Robert
Sennott says Apollo is close to striking deals with major retailers, though
he wouldn't say which ones. An Apollo diamond might cost one-third less than
a similar mined diamond.
"The retail gemstone business is $60 billion," Sennott says. "We'd be happy
with 2% to 3% of that, and we think we can get there."
If that's not wild enough, the real passion of Apollo is to make inexpensive
diamonds to put into computer microchips. Turns out that properties of
diamonds could help computers run far faster than they do today - at speeds
that would melt silicon chips into goo.
Speaking of goo, that word didn't come up at the conference. A few years
ago, a lot of people feared that nano-size machines would learn to replicate
themselves in a process that could spin out of control until the Earth was
covered in a gray goo, suffocating all life. Maybe that fear is subsiding.
A couple of times, though, someone in the audience raised health concerns
about, for example, spreading nanoparticles on your skin day in and day out.
But so far, no studies have shown that nanotech is harmful.
So instead of killing us, nanotech is bringing diamonds and odorless
diapers. That's progress.
NEW YORK - If you're worried that nanotechnology is going to contaminate the
Earth and needs to be stopped before it destroys the human species, well ...
heh-heh ... too late!
Last week, I stopped by the NanoBusiness 2005 conference just off Wall
Street. The overarching theme: Nanotech isn't just a lab experiment anymore.
It's spreading fast and in some surprising ways.
For that matter, you'll probably slather nanotech all over your face this
summer. It's in sunscreens and sun-blocking lotions. It's in quick-drying
paint. It might be in your pants.
Perhaps most dazzling of all, nanotechnology can be used to manufacture
diamonds that are all but indistinguishable from mined diamonds - a profound
development that could eventually cut into traditional diamond sales the way
Tylenol pushed aside aspirin.
And the impression is that there is so much more right around the corner.
Nanotech is finding its way into drugs, diapers, walls and pesticides. A
study by Lux Research found that 3,800 nanotech patents have been issued so
far, and 1,777 more are pending.
One nanotech product, carbon nanotubes, has become so common that a company
at the conference hawks them like a used car salesman. The company is called
Cheap Tubes, and its slogan is: "We search the world for the highest
quality, lowest cost carbon nanotubes so YOU don't have to!" Which is
helpful, because I wouldn't know a carbon nanotube if it bit one of my skin
cells.
Nanotech really is becoming this generation's plastic. If you're over 40,
you remember when everyday stuff was made of metal or wood: car dashboards,
the players in table hockey games, office desks, golf clubs. Plastics turned
out to do most of those jobs better and cheaper, and so plastics spread to
every part of our lives.
In a lot of cases, that's what nanotech is doing, but on a more
sophisticated level.
Nanotech refers to any substance that is engineered at the scale of a
nanometer, which is about three to five atoms across. By messing with atoms,
an engineer can alter a substance so it does new tricks.
Take paint. I met Rich Stromback, who runs Ecology Coatings and is perhaps
the only nanotech CEO who used to be a minor league ice hockey goon (1989-90
Erie Panthers stats: 7 goals, 18 assists, 130 penalty minutes). As Stromback
says, paint has worked the same for centuries: You put it on, then wait for
it to dry. In a factory, the wait translates into a major holdup.
Ecology Coatings uses nanotech to create a "liquid solid." It flows but will
not evaporate. Spill it on the floor, and it will be the same three weeks
later - sort of like a McDonald's milkshake.
In a factory, the coating can be sprayed on like paint and then dried with
an ultraviolet light in three seconds. "We're solving one of the last
manufacturing bottlenecks," Stromback says
Also, paint has long served one main purpose: to add color. Michael
Riedlinger, president of NaturalNano, says his company is working on paints
with a property that could be turned on or off to block cell phone signals.
It could be used in a concert hall, for instance.
Among other companies here, Nanophase makes nanotech particles that go into
"everyday" sunscreens like Oil of Olay's Complete line of UV moisturizers.
The particles block the sun but don't interfere with the lotion's feel and
look.
Nucryst Pharmaceuticals engineers silver particles into infection-fighting
bandages for burn victims. Products from Nano-Tex make cotton pants that
repel water, now sold by Gap and Eddie Bauer. In a development that could
truly improve the lives of millions, companies here talk of engineering
diapers that never smell.
Then there's Apollo Diamond, which makes perhaps the most tangible of all
nanotech products. The 20-employee Boston company spent 15 years figuring
out how to construct a real diamond, one atomic layer at a time. Apollo
seems to be the only company that can do this. Finding the right recipe is
the equivalent of finding a particular grain of sand on a beach.
Now Apollo can make what it calls "cultured diamonds." They aren't fake.
They are real diamonds, but man-made instead of forged over millions of
years by intense underground pressure and heat. Jewelers can't tell the
difference. The only way to know is to use sophisticated equipment recently
developed just for that purpose by - surprise! - DeBeers, which controls
about half the world's diamond market.
"If there's any example of how our material world can be turned upside down
by nanotechnology, this is it," says nanotech consultant Jim Hurd.
Apollo has made gem-quality diamonds bigger than 5 carats. President Robert
Sennott says Apollo is close to striking deals with major retailers, though
he wouldn't say which ones. An Apollo diamond might cost one-third less than
a similar mined diamond.
"The retail gemstone business is $60 billion," Sennott says. "We'd be happy
with 2% to 3% of that, and we think we can get there."
If that's not wild enough, the real passion of Apollo is to make inexpensive
diamonds to put into computer microchips. Turns out that properties of
diamonds could help computers run far faster than they do today - at speeds
that would melt silicon chips into goo.
Speaking of goo, that word didn't come up at the conference. A few years
ago, a lot of people feared that nano-size machines would learn to replicate
themselves in a process that could spin out of control until the Earth was
covered in a gray goo, suffocating all life. Maybe that fear is subsiding.
A couple of times, though, someone in the audience raised health concerns
about, for example, spreading nanoparticles on your skin day in and day out.
But so far, no studies have shown that nanotech is harmful.
So instead of killing us, nanotech is bringing diamonds and odorless
diapers. That's progress.
