Nanotech: buy in while it still sounds like sci-fi

Several of today's hottest stocks are so tiny they have barely been registered by investors, says Gregory Zuckermann in The Wall Street Journal. But it is time that they - and their industry - were. Shares in companies such as Nanogen, Nanophase Technology and Veeco Instruments, all of which are involved in the emerging science of nanotechnology, have "doubled, tripled or more" in the last 12 months.

In simple terms, says Brian O'Connell on Streetinsider.com, nanotechnology is the business of manufacturing products from components smaller than 100 nanometres (the smallest size object that can be seen under a light microscope). The idea is that these can be used "to build smaller, stronger, tougher, and lighter products than ever before". Imagine tiny robots assembling products atom by atom, says Eurobusiness, miniature submarines travelling through your arteries, "clearing away cholesterol deposits and repairing nerve endings", or your grass being trimmed by a "fleet of flying nano-insects". Think of it as you would molecular biology. Depending on how you assemble a limited number of "building blocks" (in this case proteins and DNA), you could in theory create anything from a worm to a person. In nanotech, the blocks are nanowires, nanotubes and nanoparticles. With these, you could create a computer, say, or a biological sensor.

This isn't too distant a dream, says O'Connell. The present crop of nano-products may amount to little more than sunscreens, but the next generation promises products such as lightweight body armour made of "intelligent" fabrics that are flexible until hit, but stiffen in a fraction of a second to deflect a bullet. Sound like science fiction? asks Giles Whittell in The Times. It's not. Such fabrics have already been developed to withstand knives; it is only a matter of time before they can stop bullets too.This kind of thing is just the beginning, says Eurobusiness. Most of what is nearing market today is "incremental nanotechnology" - a continuation of the trends of the last 50 years in materials science, metallurgy and colloid science. Next will come "evolutionary nanotechnology" - the "scaling down of existing technologies into the nano domain". For example, the smallest features in integrated circuits are now "pushing down below 100 nanometres". As and when the limits of miniaturisation are reached in conventional semiconductor technology, evolutionary nanotech may provide "other ways of maintaining the rate of increase of computing power we have grown used to". This also has massive implications for medicine. As the sensitivity of diagnostic systems reaches "single molecule level", instant feedback on a patient's medical status will become possible and bespoke drug delivery systems will target the right dose of medicine to the right area of the body. With this technology you could give patients highly toxic drugs, such as those used in anti-cancer therapies, but without the side effects. Nanotechnology may even help us make "a decisive break" from fossil fuels by bringing us "cheap and efficient solar cells, safe methods of storing hydrogen and better fuel cells".

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All this might sound a bit futuristic, says Zuckermann, but there is serious money involved. Low-ball forecasts put the worth of the industry at a modest e8bn in 2008, but the high-end estimate is more like e700bn, rising to e1trn by 2013 - a figure the US National Science Foundation says is not outlandish. In addition, investors should note that while recent share-price rises have invoked comparisons with the dotcom mania of the late 1990s, it just isn't the same. Any idiot could start a dotcom from their garage five years ago, but "there are real barriers to entry" in nanotech: you really do need serious expertise to get started.Several of today's hottest stocks are so tiny they have barely been registered by investors, says Gregory Zuckermann in The Wall Street Journal. But it is time that they - and their industry - were. Shares in companies such as Nanogen, Nanophase Technology and Veeco Instruments, all of which are involved in the emerging science of nanotechnology, have "doubled, tripled or more" in the last 12 months.

In simple terms, says Brian O'Connell on Streetinsider.com, nanotechnology is the business of manufacturing products from components smaller than 100 nanometres (the smallest size object that can be seen under a light microscope). The idea is that these can be used "to build smaller, stronger, tougher, and lighter products than ever before". Imagine tiny robots assembling products atom by atom, says Eurobusiness, miniature submarines travelling through your arteries, "clearing away cholesterol deposits and repairing nerve endings", or your grass being trimmed by a "fleet of flying nano-insects". Think of it as you would molecular biology. Depending on how you assemble a limited number of "building blocks" (in this case proteins and DNA), you could in theory create anything from a worm to a person. In nanotech, the blocks are nanowires, nanotubes and nanoparticles. With these, you could create a computer, say, or a biological sensor.

This isn't too distant a dream, says O'Connell. The present crop of nano-products may amount to little more than sunscreens, but the next generation promises products such as lightweight body armour made of "intelligent" fabrics that are flexible until hit, but stiffen in a fraction of a second to deflect a bullet. Sound like science fiction? asks Giles Whittell in The Times. It's not. Such fabrics have already been developed to withstand knives; it is only a matter of time before they can stop bullets too.This kind of thing is just the beginning, says Eurobusiness. Most of what is nearing market today is "incremental nanotechnology" - a continuation of the trends of the last 50 years in materials science, metallurgy and colloid science. Next will come "evolutionary nanotechnology" - the "scaling down of existing technologies into the nano domain". For example, the smallest features in integrated circuits are now "pushing down below 100 nanometres". As and when the limits of miniaturisation are reached in conventional semiconductor technology, evolutionary nanotech may provide "other ways of maintaining the rate of increase of computing power we have grown used to". This also has massive implications for medicine. As the sensitivity of diagnostic systems reaches "single molecule level", instant feedback on a patient's medical status will become possible and bespoke drug delivery systems will target the right dose of medicine to the right area of the body. With this technology you could give patients highly toxic drugs, such as those used in anti-cancer therapies, but without the side effects. Nanotechnology may even help us make "a decisive break" from fossil fuels by bringing us "cheap and efficient solar cells, safe methods of storing hydrogen and better fuel cells".

All this might sound a bit futuristic, says Zuckermann, but there is serious money involved. Low-ball forecasts put the worth of the industry at a modest e8bn in 2008, but the high-end estimate is more like e700bn, rising to e1trn by 2013 - a figure the US National Science Foundation says is not outlandish. In addition, investors should note that while recent share-price rises have invoked comparisons with the dotcom mania of the late 1990s, it just isn't the same. Any idiot could start a dotcom from their garage five years ago, but "there are real barriers to entry" in nanotech: you really do need serious expertise to get started.