One of the problems of being asked for advice is that the recipients don’t always like what they are told. This was memorably illustrated by one of the first ever reality TV shows, Troubleshooter, featuring former ICI chairman Sir John Harvey Jones. Never afraid to give blunt advice, Harvey-Jones’ solutions to struggling businesses ranged from developing turn around plans to …
Iran Catching UK In Terms Of Nanotech Research?
Playing with the new stats site from the Iranian Nanotech Initiative I couldn’t resist a few comparisons. Here’s a comparison between the UK and Iran of articles published on nanotechnology – the site explains the methodology in terms of keywords and of course these comparisons are never perfect. While Iran seems to be closing the gap this is based on numbers …
Tiny Steps Towards a framework for democratic governance of nanotech risks and benefits in the global South
We have been looking at issues surrounding nanotechnology & development for almost decade, so a new brief from Nano-Dev called “Nanotechnologies for development: Towards a framework for democratic governance of risks and benefits in the global South” naturally caught our eye (available as a PDF here). Unfortunately it’s another report that fudges the issue by concluding that while nanotechnology may have some advantages there …
Nanotech & Medical Diagnostics – Changing The Way We Live and Die?
Medical diagnostics are a subject close to my heart, and not simply because it we have a medical diagnostics company under the Cientifica umbrella. I have an elder brother who died last month as a result of undiagnosed cancer metastasizing until by the time symptoms appeared there were no treatment options left. My father, currently in the last stages of …
The New iPad3 and Nanotechnology
Nanotechnology was touted as being a ‘trillion dollar market by 2015’ back in the late 90’s, and since then we have all spent a lot of time trying to figure out whether that will be true, or whether it will be a two, three or zero trillion dollar market. Perhaps we needed’t have bothered. A lot of the discussion about …
India vs China in Nanotech: All Over In The First Round?
Every year we take a look at the global funding of nanotechnologies, a project that started out in the early days of nanotechnology when people desperately wanted to see who was pumping in the most cash and whether the US, Japan or Europe was leading the race. Of course pure numbers on their own aren’t much good, which is why …
The Challenge Will Not Just Be The New Ideas But Leaving The Old Ones Behind
It’s nice to see some constructive criticism of the plethora of technology roadmaps which governments commission and then ignore. One of the latest comes from the Australian Enabling Technologies Roadmap – or at least the consultation stage for it. The roadmap is focused on new forms of nanotechnology and biotechnology (including synthetic biology). Matthew Kearnes, of the University of New South Wales, …
The Responsible and Ethical Funding of Important Emerging Technologies for the 21st Century
I had a meeting this week with one of the first VC firms I ever worked for. At the fag end of the dot.com era they made a bit of money, then lost it all and more chasing those elusive short-term returns. 15 years later an incarnation of the fund is still in business, looking for deals where £250k can …
Market Opportunities In Nanotechnology Drug Delivery
Some forecasts have predicted the nanotechnology market to reach close to a trillion dollars by 2015, presenting investors with unique opportunities. However, the market for applications of nanotechnology is complex, multidisciplinary and highly segmented – to put it mildly! The healthcare market is poised to see some of the earliest benefits of nanotechnology. While early ideas about the impact on …
Why Sanctions Could Be Good For Iranian Nanotech
The news that Iran and Venezuela have signed a nanotechnology cooperation agreement seems to have raised a few eyebrows, which is probably what was intended. Or to put it in the evil dictator language beloved by the press “This news is a thorn in the eye of our enemies. Ha!” Far from being the creation of a new ‘axis of …