Harvard set to license 50-plus nanotech patents
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Harvard University, in one of its largest technology transfer deals ever, is set to disclose today that it has licensed a portfolio of more than 50 nanotechnology patents to a Cambridge start-up that is working with manufacturers and the Pentagon to commercialize the technology.
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Nanotechnology is coming to a clothing store near you.
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One nanotechnology researcher said supercomputers small enough to fit into the palm of your hand are only 10 or 15 years away."If things continue to go the way they have been in the past few decades, then it's 10 years," said Michael Zaiser, a professor and researcher at the University of Edinburgh School of Engineering and Electronics. "The human brain is very good at working on microprocessor problems, so I think we are close -- 10 years, maybe 15."Zaiser's research into nanowires should help move that timeline along.For the last five years, he has been studying how tiny wires -- 1,000 times thinner than a human hair -- behave when manipulated. He explained that each such miniscule wire tends to behave differently when put under the same amount of pressure. Therefore, it has been impossible to line them up close to each other in tiny microprocessors in a production atmosphere.Zaiser said he's now figured out how to make the wires behave uniformly. He separates the interior material of the wire into distinct groups so the wire can't react as a whole. That makes it much easier to control. "It's like crowd control," he added. "If they can all go one way, you have a big mess."These nanowires will go inside microprocessors that could, in turn, go inside PCs, laptops, cell phones, or even supercomputers. And the smaller the wires, the smaller the chip can be.Shrinking down the microprocessors is a big step toward shrinking down computers.Zaiser was quick to point out that his nanowire discovery won't immediately lead to the development of supercomputers that can fit in the palm of a hand or even shrink down to the size of a book of matches. In addition to smaller microprocessors, engineers will need to deal with thermal fluctuations that erupt at that size.But he does humbly admit that taming nanowires is a big step toward the goal of small supercomputers."This will enable chips to become much smaller," he said. "Think 10 years back. You could hold [a cell phone] the size of a telephone receiver and it didn't work so well. Today, you can fit what is a powerful computer onto a small device."Charles King, an analyst at Pund-IT in Hayward, Calif., said that with advances like nanowire technology continuing to come along, Zaiser's predictions for tiny supercomputers may not be so far off. And that will be a huge step for the industry, considering that not so long ago supercomputers filled up enormous rooms or even entire buildings."Actually, what he's saying is not crazy," said King. "The wire problem was an important one. Solving that particular issue, one so fundamental, needed to be done. If he can solve that, a lot of people, a lot of companies, will appreciate that. The industry is aligning in a direction where we're going to be seeing continuing improvements and developments."Jim McGregor, an analyst at In-Stat in Scottsdale, Ariz., said he definitely can see palm-size supercomputers coming out within 10 to 15 years, but he thinks they'll be based on the basic silicon technology used today. He added that the next generation of tiny supercomputers -- made with carbon nanotubes and nanowires -- may be as far off as another 30 to 40 years, though."You know, everybody says we'll get to a physical limit but every time we think we're going to hit it, we overcome it," said McGregor. "They end up being speed bumps instead of road blocks."King added that over the last 10 or 20 years, technology advancements have put smaller and more powerful computers into the hands of children and researchers alike. That leads him to believe that the shrinking of supercomputers is just ahead of us."We're at the beginning of some very exciting times in supercomputing," he said.Computerworld is an InfoWorld affiliate
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(InfoWorld) - Nokia and the University of Cambridge in the U.K. have agreed to collaborate in several areas of long-term research, beginning with nanotechnology. The Finnish handset maker will establish a research facility, initially with a team of 10 scientists, at the university's West Cambridge campus and work with several departments, including the Nanoscience Center and the Electrical Division of the Engineering Departments, the company said Tuesday. Nokia scientists will focus initially on nanotechnology, a branch of science and engineering devoted to the design of extremely small electronic devices and circuits built from individual atoms and molecules. Space has become a precious commodity in compact mobile phones already packed with advanced functions, such as digital cameras, music players, mobile TV, and cashless payment. A joint steering committee established by Nokia and Cambridge will review ongoing work and select new projects. Nokia joins several other high-tech companies seeking to take advantage of the scientific know-how available at the nearly 800-year-old University of Cambridge, which boasts more than 80 Nobel Price laureates. Microsoft has established its European R&D (research and development) center at the prestigious university. Japan's Hitachi also has an R&D center on the campus.
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Big opportunities await patient investors in nanotech, cleantech, and robotics.
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A U.S. scientist said researchers should be using green chemistry to reduce future risks of nanotechnology.  Around the world, there is a growing urgency about nanotechnology and its possible health and environmental impacts, said University of Oregon Professor James Hutchison.
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Millipore Corp. , a leading supplier of equipment to the drug industry, plans today to open a $50 million research center in Bedford , the centerpiece of a new effort to improve the costly process of making biotechnology drugs.
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CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - Harvard University is planning a major expansion of its engineering program, including a 67 percent increase in the size of the faculty and the possible establishment of a separate school.
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Nanoparticles allow researchers to initiate biochemical events at will.
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U.S. patent leader IBM said late  on Monday it plans to donate 500 patents for free use by  software developers, marking a major shift of intellectual  property strategy for the world's top computer maker and a  challenge to the high-tech industry.
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Harvard University, already America's   richest university, on Tuesday said its endowment swelled to   nearly $30 billion as a new investment chief extended a long   run of beating its benchmark.
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The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded $7.5 million over five years to establish the Center for Probing the Nanoscale (CPN) at Stanford University.
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Big changes are coming from the marriage of medicine and nanotechnology, the new branch of science that deals with things a few millionths of an inch in size.
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The guidelines are the most extensive effort yet to address a vexing issue surrounding the rapidly expanding field of nanotechnology.
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K. Eric Drexler was the godfather of nanotechnology. But the MIT prodigy who dreamed up molecular machines was shoved aside by big science -- and now he's an industry outcast. By Ed Regis from Wired magazine.
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Biotech and high technology, two key Massachusetts industries, are often seen as allies -- innovation-driven businesses that depend on a highly educated workforce. But this week they're on opposite sides of a fight playing out in Washington: How to overhaul the nation's patent system.
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Harvard University is embarking on a collaboration with Google that could harness Google&#39;s search technology to provide to both the Harvard community and the larger public a revolutionary new information location tool to find materials available in