Nanotechnology is emerging from the labs, creating new markets and disrupting others.
A recurring theme in the comedy western The Adventures of Brisco County Jr. was that Brisco, the Harvard-educated lawyer turned bounty hunter, was always on the lookout for "the coming thing", a wondrous technological or cultural development that would change society.
For investors it's important to keep an eye out for the coming thing if only because emerging technological developments can present investment opportunities. But, more significantly, disruptive new technologies can cause havoc to existing businesses. Just consider the effect that the internet is having upon the newspaper business.
The coming thing is already here. It's nanotechnology and it's really small.
What Is Nanotechnology?
Nanotechnology is a branch of engineering which is concerned with manipulating materials at the atomic and molecular levels (the "nanoscale") and constructing devices at the molecular level.
The idea of nanotechnology dates back to 1959 when maverick physicist Richard Feynman gave the lecture, There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom. The first practical application was seen in 1985 when IBM researchers Binnig and Rohrer invented the atomic force microscope which enabled them to write the word "IBM" using individual xenon atoms (they won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1986 for their invention).
Investors should be warned that there's a lot of hype about nanotechnology, driven in part by firms using the buzzword "nano" to make it easier for them to raise money and/or ensure that their shares trade at a high price.
Conventional small-scale engineering (microtechnology) is essentially a miniaturization process. Thus most microscale devices are scaled-down versions of larger devices, made from similar materials but often using radically different manufacturing techniques.
But as we move from the microscale, where we're dealing with distances measured in millionths of a metre, to the thousand times smaller nanoscale, the properties of most materials change dramatically. For example, at room temperature gold is a solid. But once we enter the nanoscale gold turns into a liquid, much like mercury.
Engineers will tell you that discovering new materials and new properties of existing materials will create all manner of possibilities for new inventions. Hopefully those innovations which use nanotechnology can be translated into desirable products, meaning profits for investors!
Self-Cleaning Glass and Electricity From Leaves
Whilst we're waiting for those world-changing applications that science-fiction has promised us, such as nanoscale robots which scrub your arteries clean or rewire your brain so that you can speak Sumerian, some everyday products have been improved by nanotechnology and are starting to appear in the marketplace.
Fed up with cleaning your windows? The glass manufacturer Pilkington makes a self-cleaning glass called ActivTM where a special coating interacts with sunlight to break down dirt and then by reducing the surface tension of any water that falling onto the window, causing the water to fall off the window taking the dirt with it.
Many renewable energy experts and politicians are pinning their hopes on solar electricity generation. It's entirely possible that conventional solar cells will be thrown onto the scrapheap and replaced by plants which have been modified by nanotechnology. Researchers have modified photosystem 1, a protein which interacts with chlorophyll (the green stuff in leaves), so that plants can produce electricity instead of sugars. If this ever hits the market, you'll probably be able to run the fridge and central heating from the green paint on the outside walls of your house!
Some of the newer water-repellent fabrics incorporate nanotechnology in the form of a coating which contains carbon nanotubes. The nanotubes restrict the surface area that is available for any water to adhere to, causing the water to fall off.
Paint and dyes made from "quantum dots" are starting to come onto the market and have the advantage that they don't fade when exposed to light.
Wilson double-core tennis balls are coated with a composite material which contains nanoparticles which greatly extends the ball's working life (the balls don't deflate as easily and bounce more consistently).
Stuck for a really strong glue? A super-strength adhesive which incorporates miniature fibres similar to those on a Gecko's feet looks set to emerge from the labs in a few years.
Grey Goo And Other Horrors
Prince Charles entered the nanotechnology debate a few years ago when he referred to 'grey goo', a doomsday scenario where self-replicating nanoscale robots run amok and start consuming everything in their path.
Although the grey goo scenario requires technologies that are many decades ahead of us, it has been seized on by those who are agitating to ban nanotechnological research. More reasonable support for a partial ban comes from toxicological research which has shown that some materials which are perfectly safe in their everyday form become quite toxic when in nanoparticle form.
However, medical ethicist Peter Singer argues that any moratorium on nanotechnological research will drive it underground. The problem for society is that the genie is already out of the bottle and as William Gibson, the godfather of cyberpunk, puts it; the street finds a use for technology.
If the good guys stop research into nanotechnology you can be sure that the bad guys will carry on regardless. Nanotechnology has many military applications…
Nanotechnology is something to be aware of and in doing so you may spot the wonder product before the rest of the market does.
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