If our region is serious about attracting a nanotech center in Marcy, we need to be ready on all fronts.

IBM Corp. is going to invest $1.5 billion to promote nanotechnology research and create and retain jobs in New York. The state is giving IBM $140 million in economic development grants to support the creation of as many as 1,000 new high-tech jobs upstate and to advance IBM’s work on nanotechnology computer chips.

The Marcy nanotech site at SUNYIT — which has been touted as the region’s key for future economic development — is the place for this center. To become an attractive candidate, our region must consider…

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Could the use of nanosilver products create another problem for medicine -- strains of bacteria that are resistant to silver? Although silver is not used to treat disease, it is used in hospital settings to speed wound-healing, prevent eye infections in newborns and as a coating for catheters, where it can cut infection rates.

Here, too, there is much surmise and not much evidence, although researchers do know there are strains of bacteria that have developed resistance to silver.

"If [nanosilver] is used without restriction, then you're increasing the chances that a number of microbes will develop resistance to it," says Andrew Maynard, chief science advisor for the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

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A Remington electric shaver says nanosilver will decrease redness and irritation. The company AgActive touts that the SilverSure coating on its bedsheets will "fight against cross infection of superbugs such as MRSA [methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus]." A website selling plastic food containers imbued with nanosilver reminds consumers that "a typical [hospital] infection can cost as much as $47,000 per patient to treat."
The website www.nanosilverproducts.com asserts that nanosilver will "improve blood circulation and metabolism" and "adds immeasurably to your well-being." And Helix curling irons are touted as a "natural bacteriostat" without any explanation of why bacteria on a curling iron may be problematic.

In September, the Environmental Protection Agency, concerned about a large number of nanosilver products claiming antimicrobial abilities, ruled that any device using silver to generate ions for the express purpose of killing organisms must go through a vetting process to determine that it poses no unreasonable risk to people and the environment.

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Germ-conscious consumers are always looking for ways to increase their comfort level. In the 1990s, antibacterial soaps, lotions and potions saturated the marketplace. Now comes another germ-killing innovation -- nanosilver.

Silver, the metal, has long been used as an antimicrobial, killing germs by very slowly releasing silver ions that are toxic to bacteria. But now, via nanotechnology, silver can be revamped into minuscule particles a few ten-thousandths the diameter of a human hair.

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Companies say that so-called nanofoods could be more flavorful and healthier than regular food. There’s even indication that a juicy hamburger could taste the same minus the fat and cholesterol, and peanuts could one day provide an innocuous snack for those with peanut allergies, for example.

…Despite their promise, nanofoods may be the next target for “consumers already worried about genetically engineered or cloned food,” according to Reuters. As supermarkets continue to quietly stock more nanofoods, consumer advocates want manufacturers to label such products, which currently stem from an industry lacking government supervision.

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Warning: Your keyboard could be a danger to you and the environment.

Sound preposterous? Then consider this: Some keyboards contain nanosilver, which, because of its antimicrobial properties, is increasingly incorporated into everyday items even though studies have questioned its health and environmental safety.

Concern over nanosilver keyboards is just the start. A growing number of organizations and scientific studies are raising questions over the proliferation of nanotechnology, which can be found in numerous consumer and commercial products, from IT components and cars to clothing and cosmetics.

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Benny the Bear plush toy: Silver nanoparticles fight bacteria, molds and mites.

Behr Premium Plus Kitchen & Bath paint: Nano-sized additives for resistance to water, mildew, stains and grease.

Samsung washing machine: Nano silver in the tub sterilizes clothing.

Shirts, pants, ties with Nano-Tex at Eddie Bauer, Dockers, L.L. Bean, Gap, Old Navy and Nike, Champion, Perry Ellis labels.

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Furniture fabrics that repel dirt and stains. An improvement over applied finishes.

SmartShirt that monitors heart rate and respiration continuously and wirelessly.

NanoSafe Battery in the zero-emission Phoenix electric vehicles charges in 10 minutes, goes 130 miles between charges and has a life expectancy of 12 years.

Vehicles available in 2010.

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But now, researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have shown that shape matters even more — a finding that could lead to new and more effective methods for treating cancer and other diseases, from diabetes and multiple sclerosis to arthritis and obesity.

A team of researchers led by Joseph DeSimone, Ph.D., Chancellor's Eminent Professor of Chemistry in UNC's College of Arts and Sciences and William R. Kenan, Jr. Distinguished Professor of Chemical Engineering at North Carolina State University, and Stephanie Gratton, a graduate student in DeSimone's lab, have demonstrated that nanoparticles designed with a specific shape, size and surface chemistry are taken up into cells and behave differently within cells depending on these attributes.

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In this article I will emphasize the research being done in electrical generation and applications.

The April 6, 2007, issue of Science Daily tells of research in which scientists use nanogenerators to produce electricity by responding to the environment around them.

…This process will make generation of power for nanodevices practical. Normal batteries would be too large and could pose health risks if implanted on a device that would be used in the human body. There still needs to be more research to perfect the process. Because zinc oxide is non-toxic and compatible with the body, it could be incorporated into the biomedical implants. The system would be completely self-contained.

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RCNT doesn’t differentiate companies due to their origin. The only restriction is that at least part of the production facilities must be situated in Russia.

“We already have applications for financing such joint projects. We render full administrative support for such projects, especially in overcoming of the bureaucracy barriers” – said Mr. Melamed.

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But this focus on biological interventions may be wrongheaded. After all, some argue, we don't fly because we sprouted wings, so neither will we live longer because we've fiddled with our genomes. Why not make machines that hunt down harmful disease organisms and repair damaged cells? That is the ambitious aim of nanomedicine.

Proponents of medical nanotechnology -- such as Ralph Merkle, a former research scientist at Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center and now a fellow at the Texas nanotech company Zyvex -- outline an ambitious vision. "Nanotechnology will let us build fleets of computer-controlled molecular tools much smaller than a human cell and with the accuracy and precision of drug molecules," Merkle declared in the Winter 1999 issue of the Anti-Aging Medical News. He added, "These machines could remove obstructions in the circulatory system, kill cancer cells or take over the function of subcellular organelles." Robert Freitas, author of the 1999 book Nanomedicine, foresees a day when oxygen-carrying red blood cells could be supplemented by artificial respirocytes made of carbon that would be 200 times more efficient.

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But nanotech also promises some environmental benefits. A number of researchers and some commercial businesses are working on ways of using it to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, generate and use energy more efficiently and even clean up existing contamination.

The intersection of nanotech and the growing "clean tech" industry is important for the nanotech sector and could become equally significant for clean tech, according to Duncan Stewart, head of Canadian research at Deloitte Consulting.

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Today we are experiencing a major “de-leveraging” of the credit system upon which world economic growth is based. We have never seen anything like it in my 35-year professional career. Already it rivals the mid-1982 deflationary vs. inflationary spiral point of decision, that, fortunately, Volcker navigated successfully.

Around mid-April, all the major nanotech stock indices, including our own, The Nanotechnology.com Small Tech Index, hit five-year lows.

Today, “greentech” and “cleantech” are the catchwords of the moment. They too are having their comeuppance in the throes of the exuberance of too many solutions chasing too many markets that may or may not even exist (note charts of solar and wind stocks over the last few months). Not only are these catchwords just new ones for “nanotechnology,” “small tech,” and “advanced technologies” (think about it, except that they usually don’t include the medical or semiconductor sides of “small tech,” they really are).

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