As oil prices go up, thousands of entrepreneurs are massing to sell all kinds of snake oil to people in order to increase their fuel consumption. Nanotech, being something advanced and sexy (well, to some people anyway) is seen as good hook. One of the latest money saving “nanotechnologies” is eeFuel from H2Oil. NanoTech eeFuel® Additive is the only multi-functional liquid nanotechnology …
Nanotech, Cleantech, Expensive Tech
Anyone considering jumping onto the clean-tech bandwagon would do well to take a look at just how woefully inefficient current renewable energy sources are. The table below is adapted from information published in the Sunday Times this weekend. Assuming that in the next thirty years you will move house, or that some part of the installation may require fixing, then …
Drexlerians and Saudi Arabia’s Nanotech
One of the presumed characteristics of those who are adherents to molecular nanotechnology (MNT) as proposed by Eric Drexler is their ability to keep an open mind, while simultaneously pointing out that the rest of us are “too conservative” or “close-minded,” but their open-minded qualities seem to run aground when faced with the prospect of a Saudi Arabian nanotechnology initiative. …
The Tata Nano
I’m in Pune, India this week enjoying subjee in the sun while lecturing on entrepreneurship with a team put together by the British Council. Coincidentally, Tata Motors chose today to unveil their new car, and the world’s cheapest, the Tata Nano which although not containing much nanotechnology provides a metaphor of sorts for what we are attempting to do in …
The State of British Nanotech
I popped along to the UK Nanoforum conference last week and what I found wasn’t a particularly pretty sight, especially in comparison with the previous week’s Nanosolutions/ 4th Nanotech Hesse Forum the week before. The main difference between the two events was in the number of people actually doing things, rather than talking about them or supporting them. While the …
Venture Capital Subsidises US Universities
Konarka have become the latest ‘nanotech startup’ to raise over $100 million without getting a product to market, adding $45 million in a “Series F” funding round. While the technology and ambition always looked good, I don’t suppose that in 2001 anyone imagined that the company would still be passing that hat around on an annual basis in 2007. It’s …
Natural Resources
We are getting used to the idea in nanotechnology that nature already has all the best tricks. DNA, in addition to its role in data storage is especially useful as an electron trap in LEDs, prompting one US scientist to find a rather unusual source based on something called salmon garnish (Not for the squeamish)
Taiwan Nano
This weeks carbon footprint was spread from London to Hong Kong and Taiwan for the Taiwan Nano 2007 conference (seen here being opened by president Chen Shui-bian) where we spent most of the day discussing the relationship between cleantech and nanotech. Taiwan takes its nanotech very seriously, perhaps more so than any of the other “tiger” economies, and has had …
A Reality Check For Solar Nanotech
While the sustainability bandwagon rolls inexorably on, I have noticed an increasing number of presentations claiming that nanotechnology will solve the worlds problems. Otillia Saxl of the IoN pointed out recently in Norway a number of ways that nanotechnologies can provide solutions, although I was rather glad that she didn’t go into the precise details of how nanotechnology can solve …
Ecology Coatings Files For APO
Ecology Coatings are planning to go public this summer, via an “Alternative Public Offering” or APO. This involves backing into a publicly listed but defunct company – in this case Ecology Coatings “will become a wholly owned subsidiary of OCIS Corp., a 5-year-old Nevada warehouse equipment company that has no operations and few assets”. Why not do an IPO? Well …