We see clearly the ongoing convergence in the arena of mobile computing. Tablet computers, including the iPad, the Kindle Fire and the Android variants, are at the top of a lot of Christmas wish lists. The newest smartphones are also objects of widespread lust.

The convergence, however, is much bigger than these powerful new devices that meld computers with phones and televisions. As the carnival barker said, “You ain’t seen nothing yet.”

Faster and smaller chips, combined with faster data flow and sophisticated cloud computing, are opening up new realms for enterprise. One that is not yet understood by most people is the arrival of expert systems, sometimes called artificial intelligence or AI.

My problem is with those who are predicting that AIs will soon transform the world. These people, not surprisingly, are almost all from the physics side of the scientific divide. Moreover, they regularly betray a shocking lack of understanding regarding biological systems and consciousness.

You will frequently read projections of the forthcoming “singularity” based on Moore’s law. People make good livings by forecasting the day that transistors on chips match the number of neurons in the human brain. This is childishly simplistic.

Some proponents of this view are convinced that computers, once they have as many circuits as a biological brain, will become capable of self-awareness. I’m skeptical for a number of reasons, but primarily because we have only begun to understand the biological brain. Every year or so, in fact, a new layer of mind-boggling complexity is found in our DNA. The more I learn about genomic function, the more I understand how little we really know.

Our cells and the DNA that controls their growth and interactions are complex on the level of individual molecules, not crude microcircuitry. Nothing that nanotechnologists are doing even approaches the level of multifaceted precision at that scale. Proteins, the stuff that DNA works with, are capable of transforming in ways that defy imagination. Each time a protein “folds,” it presents different ions and other electronic components in amazingly interactive ways.

If I were to show you a teddy bear that could turn into a helicopter, and then into a bowl of pasta with a really, really good glass of Carménère, it would still pale in comparison to gene behaviors.

My point is that projections about the emergence of self-aware computers remind me of certain religious convictions. On the other hand, expert systems are a reality. Expert systems (ESs) are software-embodying decision trees capable of integrating and analyzing a vast array of information and data.

For example, expert systems are used in remote mining locations when experienced mining engineers cannot be on-site. This software is designed by experienced mining and software engineers. The ES will suggest avenues of action based on information and can even ask for specific tests needed to improve decisions. The same is true in medicine, a field in which diagnostic programs include information beyond the scope of any single specialist. These programs interact with doctors and nurses to identify medical conditions with extreme accuracy.

Expert systems are already integrated into your computer software. When something goes wrong and your operating system suggests a course of action, often after asking a series of questions, you are dealing with an expert system. User interfaces often embody extremely complex ES software. Interfaces could, of course, be much more useful if they had the processing power and access to more data. Human-language interfaces are beginning to take advantage of new computer power, but Moore’s law and the cloud are in the process of providing far more.

Robotics is an area completely reliant on expert systems. When you see a robot fold a towel, you are seeing a machine access an expert system that has attempted to lead the machine through the many decisions involved in towel folding.

This is the relatively near future, when we will have expert systems capable of washing and folding laundry as well as cooking, cleaning and arranging delivery of needed groceries. This means, of course, that many jobs will become obsolete. Restaurants, for example, will employ robots that will draw upon expert systems integrating the knowledge of top chefs.

Robots, however, are often hard to recognize. Technically, modern cars integrate dozens of robotic systems. Moreover, powerful expert systems don’t actually need physical bodies. The 3-D television and computer screens that are coming onto the market now are going to accelerate the development of ES avatars.

Already, expert systems exist that can outperform your typical outsourced customer-support technician. It’s cheaper today to hire actual workers in Manila or Bangalore, but that will change. This means that bank and online stores will also be able to employ virtual characters to deal with routine customer issues.

The benefits of this ES technology will flow not only to businesses, but directly to consumers. I’ve already mentioned household tasks that will be taken over by appliances driven by expert systems. We’ll also get much more useful personal assistants capable of helping with everything from complicated scheduling problems to personal portfolio, budget and tax planning.

At one time, only the wealthiest people could afford to have servants who would take care of all the little details of their lives. Soon, however, the convergence will supply everybody with the artificial equivalent. In fact, they will have to, as the Japanese clearly understand.

Anybody who follows robotics knows that Japan leads the world in terms of humanoid robot development.

The Japanese, however, are preparing for a tsunami of another sort. It is the rapid increase of aging citizens in a country with a shrinking population. There are simply not enough young people to take of an aged Japanese population.

Robots and ES avatars are going to be a part of most of our lives. Like the kings and queens of other eras, we will not need to deal with routine annoyances and chores.

Obviously, there are going to be investment opportunities within the industries that commercialize this aspect of convergence. There will also be important consequences for existing businesses that we will need to take into consideration.

“You ain’t seen nothing yet.”

Yours for transformational profits,

Patrick Cox
for The Penny Sleuth

[Editor’s Note: Later this week we will be releasing a exclusive interview with Patrick Cox where he will reveal all of his 2012 predictions, and the 5 companies small-cap companies that could lead to explosive gains for early movers. Be sure to keep an eye on your inbox...]

2012 and Beyond: Explosive Opportunities With The Rise Of This Technology… was originally featured in the Penny Sleuth.

For example, New York University chemists have created 3-D structures out of strands of DNA. By creating “sticky ends” on the DNA strands, they were able to get them to self-assemble into 3-D shapes large enough to be visible to the naked eye. These researchers believe that this ability could lead to major improvements in the ability to manufacture nano-sized electronics.

Others have also investigated the utility of DNA in manufacturing electronics. DNA has many advantages as a molecular building block. DNA is relatively well studied and understood, and it is both tough and flexible. It has been recently used to construct box-like structures; light-driven, nano-sized motors; carbon nanotube wrapping for tissue replacement; and a way to bind together gold nanoparticles to create sheets.

Caltech is responsible for a major breakthrough in this area — “DNA origami.” This is a technique that causes single strands of viral DNA to self-assemble with short synthetic strands. This self-assembly allows scientists to fold viral DNA into precise shapes such as squares, triangles and stars. These structures have the width of the DNA double helix.

IBM, in turn, used the origami technique to build nano-sized DNA “scaffolding” or miniature circuit boards. These “lithographic templates” could be integrated into conventional semiconductor fabrication techniques and used to install the smallest components yet devised. IBM has, in fact, pinned down the conditions that would allow the use of these DNA tools in traditional chip fabrication processes.

Moore’s law, it appears, is safe for the foreseeable future. But that’s not all. Bio/nano structures are not only being used to bring the power of biology to computers. They are bringing the power of computers to biology.

Recently, hybrid bio/nano circuits were constructed by researchers at UC Berkeley and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. They coated nanowire-sized transistors with a lipid membrane similar to those found in our own cells. This means that the same complex biochemical processes that open and close channels in our cell membranes can be replicated in electronics.

By introducing proteins onto the lipid layer of their hybrid circuits, the researchers were able to create channels similar to those that exist in the cell membrane. By controlling the voltage in the nanowire transistors, they were able to make these channels open and close.

This technology holds enormous promise. It could be used to create medical prosthetics such as cochlear implants that can be implanted in the body to interact directly with the nervous system. They could also be used in a new generation of biosensing devices for use in medical diagnostics.

This is one technology you will want to keep your eye on.

Ad lucrum per scientia (toward wealth through science),

Ray Blanco
for The Penny Sleuth

Biotech and Nanotech Converge With Semiconductor Industry was originally featured in the Penny Sleuth.

While the talk surrounding the project addressed science and human achievement, there was always a distinct element of military defense associated with the program. The moon is, after all, the ultimate high ground.

I’m generally not a fan of big state-funded science. Among the exceptions, NASA’s Apollo project ranks high. It inspired a whole generation of kids to become scientists and engineers. Many of the breakthrough technologies of the era, including computer science, semiconductors and the Internet, were assisted by the Apollo project.

These technologies went on to play a huge role in the global economy.

Unfortunately, the Apollo project itself proved to be a dead end in many respects. Most people of that era were certain that we would continue to expand the human presence outside our own planet.

However, it has been nearly 39 years since humans last walked on the face of the moon. NASA fell prey to many of the traps that plague government bureaucracies. Private efforts to profit from space flight were treated with deep suspicion.

Finally, that seems to be changing…

Various private concerns are in the process of selling tickets to space. The most well-known is the partnership between Virgin’s Richard Branson and designer extraordinaire Burt Rutan.

The space program of the mid-20th century was based on a convergence of the advances in materials and design technology. Space tourism depends on new materials. Future space technologies will be increasingly based on breakthrough nanomaterial technology.

Nanotechnology enables lighter, stronger and more intelligent designs. This will solve the weight problem— a major hurdle to private space development.

Smart nanomaterials offer the prospect of self-healing spacecraft. Nano-sized electronic components have proved more resistant to radiation damage than their conventional counterparts. Microelectromechanical (MEMS) components will provide more inexpensive and efficient ways to provide propulsion for spacecraft than anything we currently have.

There is one nanotechnology, however, that could truly transform space travel…

Though the concept seems, at first, to be out of a science fiction novel, many respected scientists are taking it very seriously.
I’m talking about the space elevator.

The space elevator is a very simple concept:

• You start with a satellite in geosynchronous (stationary relative to Earth) orbit.
• Extend a tether all the way to the Earth’s surface. Another tether would extend out into space with a counterweight attached.
• The centripetal force caused by the rotating weight keeps the rope taut.

This is the same physics observed whirling a weight tied to the end of a length of rope around over your head. To turn this into a productive and profitable system, you would only need to haul cargo up and down the tether, assisted by counterweights.

Geosynchronous satellites are easy. The orbital rate of the satellite matches the Earth’s rotation. This means the satellite appears stationary relative to us on the surface. We have plenty in place right now. Our global communications system relies on them.

Russian rocket scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky had the idea for the space elevator in 1895. The reason we have not built the space elevator yet is simply because we have not had materials strong and light enough to build the tethers.

Estimates are that they would have to have a tensile strength about 180 times greater than our strongest steels.

There is, however, a material that could provide the necessary strength-to-weight ratio: carbon nanotubes.

Carbons nanotubes that approach the required strength for a space elevator have already been built. The materials are constantly being improved. Researchers have been finding ways to grow the individual tubes longer and longer. Once we can spin them long enough, we will be able to weave them into a tether that could possibly be used for this application.

A working space elevator would lower the cost of getting into orbit to a small fraction of what it is today. The hardest part of space travel now is just getting beyond the Earth’s atmosphere. Current launch costs hover around $10,000 per pound on Russian rockets, which are the cheapest option.

It has been estimated that a space elevator would lower that price to less than $500 per pound — possibly even only $100 per pound.

If we manage to build this, space travel, currently reserved for wealthy governments, large corporations and billionaire space tourists, will become widely accessible. The space elevator would provide the necessary infrastructure for inexpensive access. The commercialization of space would grow rapidly.

If researchers prove it a workable technology, the space elevator would be the 21st-century space equivalent of the U.S.’ first transcontinental rail line that opened the American West. In terms of expanding human frontiers, it would be truly transformational.

As carbon nanotube technologies improve, this is definitely an area worth watching.

[The Sleuth’s Note: Doing a quick Google Finance search, we were able to find a few companies working on nanotube technology right now.  Here they are: Applied Nanotech Holdings (OTCBB: APNT), CVD Equipment Corp (NASDAQ: CVV), and Amtech Systems Inc (NASDAQ: ASYS).

Better yet?  Both CVD and Amtech are working on solar cell technology as well.  If you missed it, Ray joined us a few weeks ago to talk about the major developments in this field. Click here if you missed it.

But before buying anything, please remember to do your own research.]

Ad lucrum per scientia (toward wealth through science),

Ray Blanco
Building Profits With Space Technology is featured at Penny Sleuth.

Building Profits With Space Technology was originally featured in the Penny Sleuth.

Currently, medicine is, to a large degree, a “one size fits all” proposition. Doctors watch for adverse effects and check personal and family histories. Medical technologies, however, are designed for the general population, not individuals.

That’s going to change…

The Problem With the “Normal Curve”

We know that many current treatments work on some people, yet not others. Some drugs are safe for many people, but have dangerous side effects for others. This is because all of us have individual differences in our genetic code based on heredity and environment. Even slight differences can lead to very different reactions to medications.

This has created serious regulatory problems. Drugs are denied regulatory approval not because they do not work, but because some fraction of the population suffers adverse effects. As a result, we are often denied incredibly effective therapies simply because they are not universally effective.

This shockingly primitive state of affairs exists because, until very lately, we simply have not had the tools to get to the genetic roots of disease. Scientists and pharmaceutical companies haven’t precisely known how a particular drug’s chemical profile interacts with a genetic one. Medical science, in turn, has been unable to tailor drugs to work with a specific genetic makeup.

The Impact of the Genome

This is rapidly changing. Just a few short years ago, the human genome was first mapped. The genome, as you know, is the entire collection of genetic code that defines us at a biological level. Now scientists are studying single genes and their individual expressions.

It is meaningful, from the investor’s perspective, that Dr. Francis Collins, the head of the Human Genome Project, has just been selected by the Obama administration to head up the National Institutes of Health. Collins has long been a prominent champion for using the knowledge gained from human genome to accelerate personalized medicine. 

This is important because institutional forces, with lobbying clout, always resist change. Much of Big Pharm, and its regulators, are vested in the “one size fits all” model. Many of the old players fear personalized medicine because it threatens the existing hierarchy. Collins’ presence at the top of the NIH will help counter this institutional resistance.

Incidentally, Collins has stated that genomics is currently where the computer industry was back in the 1970s – at the beginning of a technological revolution. While he was speaking in scientific terms, we should remember that the ’70s was also the right time to begin investing in a diversified portfolio of breakthrough computer technologies. Those who did so, despite claims that it was too risky or early, were made rich.

Dr. Collins is not alone in his views about personalized medicine. Former FDA director under G.W. Bush Dr. Andrew Von Eschenbach urges that the FDA approval process be overhauled and streamlined to help accelerate the adoption of personalized medicine. He is on record predicting that the medical industry will, in fact, undergo this profound metamorphosis.

For transformational profits,
Patrick Cox

How to Make a Fortune From the Personalized Medicine Revolution was originally featured in the Penny Sleuth.

Currently, most applications simply integrate superior nanotech materials into existing products. Carbon allotropes are used to produce gecko tape. Antibacterial nano-silver is used in clothing, food packaging, disinfectants and household appliances. Nano-sized cerium oxide is employed as a fuel catalyst. Increasingly sophisticated products are appearing at the rate of two-four per week.

This month, we’re going to invest in 33 nanotech companies. Almost all are pre-IPO privately held startups. And we’ll do it in one step while retaining complete liquidity.

In the process, I’ll describe how one company is altering the DNA of viruses to attack cancers. I’ll also talk about a company that gets oils from algae. Another company that we’ll be adding to our portfolio is the leading contender in the race to make your current computer as obsolete as an abacus.

It’s Time to Get into the VC Business

One of the greatest frustrations about this job is coming across fantastic startups that I can’t add to the portfolio. I’ve written at length about a few of these pre-IPO companies with enormous, nearly inevitable returns. There are many more, in fact, that I haven’t mentioned. As a result, I truly envy venture capitalists. For some time, I’ve been fantasizing about a breakthrough technology venture capital fund. This isn’t quite that, but it’s close.

The attractions of the VC (venture capital) business are obvious. One is simply the ability to go where equity investors cannot. It irks me that VCs get to buy into obviously transformational companies when we can’t. The other reason is the rate of return enjoyed by VCs is typically so much higher than the stock market’s. I really want you to get in on the high yields earned by angel and venture capitalists.

This is why I’m so pleased to have come across our newest addition to the Breakthrough Technology Alert portfolio. Buying stock in this company allows you to participate in some of the most exciting and promising nanotech startups in existence – on better than VC terms.

This company acts as a kind of VC mutual fund, investing only in privately held early-stage breakthrough technologies. Moreover, your participation in the VC market remains liquid because you can sell the fund at any time. That’s a privilege that normal venture capitalists don’t have.

Not only does the VC fund take positions in important startups, it is actively engaged, bringing its expertise to and working side by side with the management of its portfolio companies. With its broad knowledge of the nanotech industry, the fund can help portfolio companies with general strategic and operational problems, as well as business and intellectual property strategy. It helps with executive recruiting, fundraising and compliance with Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.

Perhaps most importantly, it is in the position to build collaborations with strategic partners.

In the process of vetting this company, I spoke at length with the company’s CEO. I was pleased, by the way, to hear he had enjoyed reading some of our past issues of Breakthrough Technology Alert.

He took the time to explain the VC fund’s investment philosophy to my associate Ray Blanco and me. According to this CEO, the current team has grown from four to 11 members since 2002. Five have extensive VC experiences. Additionally, team members have expertise in solid-state physicists, biochemistry and other technologies that intersect and converge with nanotechnology.

This team constantly monitors the world of nanotech. Additionally, it maintains contact with nanotech scientists in academia, where much cutting-edge research is taking place. While academic research is typically too early a stage for investors, these relationships allow the fund to identify important spinoffs as they occur.

We know that the long-term promise of nanotech is world changing. The immediate challenge for nanotech investors is finding companies in the commercialization stage. As I’ve explained, we at Breakthrough Technology Alert don’t mind getting in a little early, because the eventual returns will be so high. Investors do, however, want to know that their portfolios will maintain and increase in value while waiting for those eventual huge returns. Everyone at this unique venture capital fund clearly understands this need for liquidity.

The Only Publicly Traded Liquid Nanotech VC Firm

To my knowledge, this investment is the only truly liquid nanotech venture capital company available to stock buyers. Diversification is at the heart of its investment philosophy. It generally doesn’t put more than 5% of its gross assets in any single holding.

It also maintains large cash reserves as a means of counterbalancing the inherent risk of investing in young nanotech businesses that are not yet profitable. As its CEO says, the fund offers a “diversified way to play the emergence of nanotechnology – when most of the companies are still private – in a public vehicle.”

Several of its holdings are, however, already earning significant revenues. Companies in the portfolio generated $242 million in revenue for 2008, a 22% increase over 2007. Other companies are on track to becoming revenue producers or to significantly increase revenues.

Since I recommended this unique venture capital fund to my readers last week, we’re already closing in on double-digit gains. If you want access to my full report on this stock – as well as new transformational technology stocks each month – visit the Breakthrough Technology Alert website.

Sincerely,
Patrick Cox

July 2, 2009

Earn Venture Capital Profits for Your Stock Portfolio was originally featured in the Penny Sleuth.

Let me say first that picking APM winners is not a slam-dunk. We are at a stage in nanotech that can be very frustrating if you forget the big picture. We are tantalizingly close to seeing a swarm of startups come out with world-changing products. These products will provide investment opportunities unlike anything ever seen before. The problem, though, is that sitting on the edge of your seat can be difficult — you can jump the gun. Worse, you can lose patience and give up.

Don’t do it. The reason is that APM will not only create new opportunities, it will destroy many existing industries. Just as light bulbs and AC electrical power created huge opportunities, they razed whole sectors. Lucrative businesses crumbled, taking their investors’ fortunes with them.

Furthermore, it will happen sooner than most expect, and it will happen very quickly. Tracking APM and other transformational markets is not just a matter of making money. It is a matter of not losing money. It could even be a matter of financial survival. I promise you that many people who think they have diversified safely will find their former wealth in new hands. My goal is to make sure that you don’t wake up one morning to find that your portfolio consists of buggy whips and chemical-based photographic film.

The irony of nanotech is that we have a pretty good idea about some of the important ways APM will change our lives. There’s a surprising amount of consensus on the big vision. The intermediary steps challenge us.

The ability to use individual molecules to manufacture machines and materials will eventually make, for example, today’s supercomputers cheap and small enough to carry in your pocket. That doesn’t mean, though, that you will need one. Wireless speeds will skyrocket and we’ll all own multiple devices connected to powerful external processors and free unlimited storage.

This is not a risky prediction, because it already exists in rudimentary form. Most people don’t know it, but the equivalent of free online storage has been around for some time. Tools exist now that allow you to easily use online mail accounts as remote storage devices. Yahoo mail accounts have no limits on storage. Google’s Gmail apparently still does — but the limits are high and it’s easy to set up multiple accounts. Google has leaked plans to offer free online storage anyway.

One of the most compelling predictions about the future of nanotechnology is, in fact, very similar to the Star Trek replicator. Researchers say that, eventually, we will have desktop APM devices. With downloaded software and cheap basic raw materials in cartridges, you will be able to “print out” everything from electronics to a new suit.

These predictions may sound like science fiction, but that was what people thought about Star Trek’s personal communicators not that long ago. Today, common cell phones are smaller than the devices used on the television show. Moreover, cell phones can stream video, give navigational information and do other things Star Trek’s creators didn’t think of.

The danger in talking about nanotech in terms of science fiction, however, is that it tends to make people think of APM as something that will happen in the future. In fact, it’s happening now, and the rate of scientific progress is accelerating exponentially.

An Emerging Nanotech Materials Star

As I said earlier, we are at an uncomfortable stage right now in APM. We see the huge winners on the horizon. Closer in, we have a number of extremely promising players. We know some of them are going to use the expertise they’ve built to take advantage of the transformation opportunities that are just arriving.

For that reason, I believe it is time to start picking up the rising stars. I’m after companies that show excellence in management as well as its decisions regarding emerging markets. I’m looking for companies with substantial research funding, proven research scientists and a management team willing to walk barefoot on glass if necessary. I want undervalued companies able to survive and ride the flood of nanotech opportunities that will wash away skeptics in the next few years. Ideally, this company will not have yet landed the big contracts that drive up its stock prices, but can make its case to a cold-eyed analyst.

As I see it, one nanotech company stands out right now for this buy-and-hold strategy. It’s a company that I’ve told my Emerging Capital Report readers about already, and it’s one that there’s still time to act on. This is a scrappy, but very talented company. It could very well succeed big in this early and unpredictable nanotech market.

For transformative profits,

Patrick Cox
March 25, 2008

Nanotech Breakthrough Will Grow Millionaires Like Weeds was originally featured in the Penny Sleuth.

However, researchers are busily developing applications that link enormous numbers of nano-sized particles into larger structures. This has important business implications.

The University of Texas reports that a team at UT-Dallas has recently been able to “grow” sheets of carbon nanotubes at high speeds using a revolutionary process. These sheets have many remarkable properties.

They’re transparent. They’re also stronger than steel on a pound-for-pound basis.

The new process “spins out” these sheets at the rate of about 20 feet per minute. By comparison, wool is spun out commercially at the rate of roughly 60 feet per minute.

Here’s how it works: Unlike previous approaches which relied upon the dispersion of carbon nanotubes in liquids, this new approach is dry. Trillions of carbon nanotubes constantly rotate in a coordinated manner, with new ones attaching to the previous part of the sheet in a self assembling fashion.

Carbon nanotubes are theoretically one of the strongest materials known to man, and may just be the strongest possible in terms of weight-to-strength ratio. They are considered ideal for applications where weight must be minimized, yet intense stresses will be applied to the finished product.

Not only are the sheets light and strong, but they’re also very flexible.

This is particularly important in space and aircraft applications, where minimizing weight is crucial to fuel economy. In years to come, we can expect to begin seeing these sheets molded into coverings and eventually structural components of aircraft and spacecraft.

For example, much as one would wind duct tape around a pipe, a thin hollow aluminum tube could be wrapped in a sheet of carbon nanotubes until it approximates the strength of a solid steel strut. The difference is that it would do so at far less total weight.

In addition, the sheets have high electrical conductivity. They could be cut and formed into different shapes and serve as bright light emitting diodes (LED’s). LED’s are already increasingly being deployed as replacements to traditional filament based bulbs, and this will hasten the transition.

Another exciting potential use is as solar cells. Although the efficiency has apparently yet to be determined, this should offer advantages in simplicity of manufacturing process and eventually a very low cost per square foot.

A more exotic use is in making artificial muscles. The University of Texas researchers recently published an article in Science that explored how these carbon nanotubes sheets could be configured to flex without losing electrical conductivity.

Using microwave radiation, the sheets can even be welded between sheets of Plexiglas. This would enable something those of us who’ve lived in snowy and icy environments have long desired: A transparent heating element in our car windows.

Down the road, other UT researchers now envision even more exciting applications. For example, Dr. Larry Cauller, associate professor of neuroscience has tentatively determined that cells will grow on these sheets. In addition to supporting laboratory research, this might solve one of the major challenges in growing artificial organs.

It’s funny how sometimes technologies from diverse areas converge. In 2006, I had dinner in Baltimore with the CEO and lead scientific researcher of Hepalife Technologies (HPLF.OB: OTC BB), a Transformational Technologies Portfolio holding.

This scientist is quite confident that his research will lead the world’s first functioning artificial liver. They have the perfect liver cell line. It’s basically immortal, does the same job of purifying blood as human liver cells and is “well-behaved,” meaning that it will grow to cover a scaffolding and then stop growing.

So far so good. The problem, he candidly admitted, was that they haven’t yet found the ideal scaffolding material. I’m guessing that these carbon nanotubes sheets with their flexibility, biocompatibility and durability may be just the ticket.

You can be sure I’ll let them know about this breakthrough.

Multiple other possible applications have been identified, including batteries, fuel cells and even multifunctional applications in which the sheets can both store energy and provide structural reinforcement. Imagine, for example, a car battery that also serves as a roll bar.

“Rarely is a processing advance so elegantly simple that rapid commercialization seems possible, and rarely does such an advance so quickly enable diverse application demonstrations,” said the article’s corresponding author, Dr. Ray Baughman, director of the UTD NanoTech Institute.

The institute is reportedly working with some major corporations and government agencies to bring the technology forward to commercialization. I’ll be watching for small, promising companies to pick up some of these applications and run with them.

To your profitable future,
Jonathan Kolber
April 11, 2007

P.S.: Big Pharma’s biggest players are waving blank checks at this fledgling drug firm — and at YOU, if you’re holding shares… This new company’s Alzheimer’s drug sailed through FDA Phase 2 drug trials with flying colors — spurring immediate interest in either a licensing agreement or an outright buyout from one household-name drug giant.

Investing in Nanotechnology was originally featured in the Penny Sleuth.