The Nanotech BC Blog: Spreading the Word

I've been a bit of an absentee landlord with this blog lately, but that's only because a lot has been happening.

First off, Vancouver's own Georgia Straight had a feature article on Nanotechnology that Alan Guest, the Executive Director of Nanotech BC contributed to. It's a good article and manages to present nanotechnology in a reasonable light -- as neither a world-devouring existential threat nor the key to a sci-fi utopia. Bit by bit an understanding of "nano" as a scale for technology rather than a distinct technology itself is filtering into the public.

Next, I was off to Oregon for ONAMI's Micro Nano Breakthrough Conference. The event was fascinating and a lot of fun. They had around three hundred attendees and some truly remarkable speakers. The two that stood out for me were Clayton Teague the NNCO Director and R. Stanley Williams of Hewlett-Packard Laboratories. In particular I was amazed at what Hewlett-Packard is up to. It'll be interesting to see where the memristor takes us...

The Nanotech BC Blog: The More Things Change...

Maybe Charles Babbage was onto something...

Computers have become so integrated into our lives that it's sometimes easy to forget how much energy is required to keep them going. Silicon chips use a lot of power and Nanowerk has a great article today on the consequences of that energy use:

...about 200 billion kWh of electricity a year used by computers.... That means that generating the electricity for using 1 billion computers will release some 128 million tonnes of CO₂ (280 billion pounds) into the air.

Maybe we can find the way forward by looking backwards.

Dr. Robert Blick at the University of Wisconsin is developing nanomechanical computational devices -- chips that sacrifice a degree of speed but in return are vastly superior to silicon in terms of energy consumption and robustness. Soft Machines adds to the discussion and distinguishes Dr. Blick's work from Eric Drexler's rod logic.

The Nanotech BC Blog: Aim for where the Target is Going to Be

Two interesting recent posts from the Nanotechnology Development Blog.

First, they mention how nanotechnology is being used to develop "green" packaging. By adding nanoparticles to the bioplastic Plolylactic acid (PLA), bags made from it become stronger while still maintaining their transparency. The great thing about PLA bags is that they are made from corn, biodegradable and require less energy to create than conventional plastic bags. A few fewer plastic bags in the world might not seem like a big deal -- but it is.

The other post that I thought was interesting was about the increasing demand for Electron Microscopes. Apparently the spiraling decent of semiconductors to the nano-scale is making Electron Microscopes essential for product inspection. This should really have been an easy trend to predict.

Here's a prediction of my own -- a lot of money is going to be made by companies that take the adoption of nanotechnology as a given, and position themselves to provide goods or services that make that adoption easier.

The Nanotech BC Blog: Beetles, Wood and Nanotech

Speaking of using nanotech to benefit the environment, Nanowerk has a very good summary of some of the many ways that nanotechnology looks to be able to reduce greenhouse gases.

Global Warming is something we've been hearing about for a long time. It's only been comparatively recently that visible, serious consequences are starting to hit home. One of the least discussed but most serious consequences of a warming climate is the expansion of pests into new territories.

In BC that means the Mountain Pine Beetle. Thanks to a series of warm winters that caused the population of the Pine Beetle to explode, vast stretches of forests in British Columbia have turned rust red and died.

Unfortunately nanotechnology doesn't offer any easy solutions to the Pine Beetle problem. Pine Beetle damaged wood can be sold, but at reduced prices and this is hitting the forest industry hard. Nanotechnology cant protect the trees themselves, but it might be able to protect the economies that rely on forestry by enabling the creation of new high value products from damaged timber.

Nanocrystalline Cellulose is a product of plants derived through nanotechnology. As is so often the case when dealing with nanotech, nanocrystalline cellulose has properties that are quite different from its macro-scale counterpart, including "extraordinary catalytic, electrical and optical properties."

Nanocrystalline Cellulose is an example of how nanotechnology is allowing us to look at the resources we depend on and see them in a new way. By examining materials at the nano-scale we sometimes find uses and capabilities that nobody dreamed were there.

The Nanotech BC Blog: Worm's Eye View

Watching new advances in nanotechnology come rolling in everyday is exciting -- but with all the single-molecule sensors and nano-wagon wheels, it's easy to loose sight of what "nanotechnology" means to the average consumer.

For anybody interested in a worm's eye view of nanotechnology, take a few minutes to go through the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies. It's a consumer product inventory focused on nanotechnology.

Browsing the inventory is an educational experience, if only for the number of dubious claims you're likely to encounter. For a lot of products "nano" seems like magic, imparting remarkable qualities by virtue of association alone (Galaxia Nano Technology Limited Nano Cup Group Aerobics Living Supply Box.) There are also a lot of cases where limited nanotechnology, in the form of nano-particles like nano-silver is being used, even though there isn't yet a real sense of the long term health or safety consequences of some of these applications.

This is just a roundabout way of saying that nanotechnology is new and complicated. It takes time and patience to tell the snake-oil from the real medicine. Consumer groups play an important role in this process. It's also important for people to understand how really big (ironically enough) the word "nano" is -- encompassing a huge range of sciences, technologies and even particle types. Christine Peterson does a great job in today's Nanodot post of getting across how important it is for everybody, particularly consumers to recognize the variety within the nano lable.

The Nanotech BC Blog: 3 Views of the Nanotech Mountain

Long View:

Nanoscale memory devices made of quantum dots and viruses -- could lead to disease treating nanorobots.

Short View:

Simple magnet can control the color of a liquid through affecting nano-particles of iron oxide -- could lead to new display screens and electronic paper and ink.

Panoramic View:

NanoArt -- science, technology, photography and sculpture; beautiful snapshots of the nanoworld.

The Nanotech BC Blog: Learning from Geckos

Not only is Mother Nature inventive, she's had a very long time to add to her tool box. A case in point is the humble gecko -- able to scamper up walls and hang upside-down on ceilings thanks to the tiny fibers on its feet.

Now nanotechnology is about to let us do the same thing by using carbon nanotubes to develop tape based on the same principle that makes a gecko's feet sticky -- but with four times the adhesive power. Ars Technica and PHYSORG.com report on the cutting edge of stickiness.

Better tape might seem prosaic, but it will be advances like gecko-tape that bring nanotechnology into the mainstream by providing large jumps in effectiveness in materials with huge numbers of uses.

The Nanotech BC Blog: Why Stretching Matters

Perhaps the most surprising recent story in consumer electronics is the phenomenal success of Nintendo's Wii. Overpowered by Microsofts X-Box and Sony's Playstation 3, the Wii has none the less been flying off the shelves since it was introduced -- all because of an intuitive, candy-bar shaped controller and the fact that Nintendo understands a truth that too often gets lost: The way we interact with technology is just as important as technology itself.

Tech companies are starting to realize that faster and cheaper are no longer enough -- usefulness is king. Unfortunately, that often turns out to be extremely difficult because many of the materials that are central to electronics don't lend themselves to the kind of flexible use that our lives demand.

Nanotechnology may be the solution to this problem. By altering materials at the nano-scale it's becoming possible to create new capabilities in crucial materials. Physorg.com reports on advances in stretchable silicon. Advances like these beg the question, what could we do with computers in gloves or cloths or blankets? What would the ability to break computing power out of the boxes it's locked in mean to our everyday lives? Nanotechnology may be the key to finding out.

The Nanotech BC Blog: Long Carbon Nanotubes and the Desert Bloom

It's easy to think technological progress follows an incremental and predictable path -- that research leads to development, then to commercialization and finally to the consumer.

Take a trip to a desert in spring and you'll see evidence of a different model for growth. One day the landscape is dry and bleak, and the next it explodes into plants and flowers. Years of invisible preparation have been taking place and the result is a change so swift and complete that the landscape becomes an entirely different place.

Right now the desert of nanotechnology looks dry. Billions of dollars are being invested and thousands of researchers are working all over the world on countless different issues, but we've yet to see any single, revolutionary advance. Even so, the groundwork is being laid, and every day nanotech moves forward.

One of the most exciting new developments is the production by UC engineering researchers of arrays of 18mm carbon nanotubes. That might not seem like much, but it's a huge increase in length over past efforts and is an important step towards producing a material that is stronger and more conductive than anything now in use.

What will come of this achievement? A replacement for copper wire? Energy independence? A space elevator? Nobody can say for sure because so much more work remains to be done before carbon nanotubes fulfill their promise. Even so, one thing seems certain -- we're getting closer and closer to the day the desert will bloom.

The Nanotech BC Blog: Good Things Start Small

I'm eager to get started posting about all of the amazing things going on in the world of nanotechnology, but before I do I thought it might make sense to write a little about who we are at Nanotech BC, what we're trying to do, and what this blog is for. Nanotech BC is a not-for-profit organization started as a collaboration between British Columbia's business, scientific and governmental communities. Nanotech BC has three goals:

• To advocate for growth of BC's nanotechnology research and development community and infrastructure.
• To communicate with industrial, academic, government and public stakeholders to increase awareness of nanotechnology.
• To represent BC's nanotechnology interests and pursue partnerships nationally and internationally.

This blog is one of the ways we are working to achieve these goals. Research and development in nanotechnology is progressing at a blistering pace and we want this blog to be a record of what's happening, particularly in BC. You'll find regular updates on the science and business of nanotechnology as well as thoughts on where nanotechnology is going and what it means for BC. Community is built through discussion and we hope that this blog will help get people thinking and talking about nanotechnology and the exciting challenges and promises that it brings.