Nano & Cleantech Blog

9th Annual NanoBusiness Alliance Conference: September 27 - 28, 2010

J. Steven Rutt — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 12:02:54 -0600

Join nanotech and cleantech industry leaders for the 9th Annual NanoBusiness Alliance Conference taking place September 27 - 28, 2010 at the McCormick Place in Chicago, Illinois. This program will be held concurrently with the annual Water Innovations...

Learning from LeBron: Pennsylvania's Latest Efforts in Nanotech & Cleantech

J. Steven Rutt — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 15:55:35 -0600

Nanotech and cleantech innovation have important national and international implications. It's global! However, regional and state interests are also critically important. For example, my impression is that regional and state interests tend to focus more acutely on job creation. They are...

Nanotech's First Decade: Celebration, Innovation, and Patent Metrics

J. Steven Rutt — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 19:38:35 -0600

Nanotech has come a long way just ten years into our new century. A celebration of the ten year mark is being planned for later this year, December 8-10, in the Washington DC area. What provides the starting point for this ten year period? The (formal) starting of the NNI,...

Potential Bombshell in the Making Over Patent March-In Rights ?! Give Us Drugs or Give Us...

J. Steven Rutt — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 20:41:11 -0600

A potential "bombshell" is in the making which could ultimately impact nanotech and cleantech: On August 2, 2010, several persons with Fabry disease petitioned the federal government (NIH) to effectively break an exclusive license held by Genzyme for the drug Fabrazyme®. To...

A Greening of Nanotech in Media - What is Needed...

J. Steven Rutt — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 17:36:56 -0600

The EPA has many things on its mind these days related to the Gulf Oil Spill, the largest environmental disaster in U.S. history, many have concluded. Although nanotech does not appear to be at the top of the EPA's priority list, for now at least, we do note one EPA...

New Innovation Prize for "Stuck" Cleantech: Oil Spills (About Time?!)

J. Steven Rutt — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 09:25:50 -0600

The X PRIZE Foundation announced this week $1.4M in prize money for developing new ocean oil spill cleanup technology. http://www.xprize.org/media-center/press-release/x-prize-foundation-announces-wendy-schmidt-oil-cleanup-x-challenge. Will nanotechnology play a role for any team that...

Nanotech Sensors, NDA's, and Joint Development Risks (The Case of the "Self-Serving" NDA)

J. Steven Rutt — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 12:43:48 -0600

We wanted to review a case which we can call the case of the "self-serving" NDA. Let me explain: One critical application of nanotechnology is in sensing, whether used for medical diagnostics or cleantech. For example, the NNI has recently produced a fifty page report on...

Pushing the Nanotech Gas Pedal: Molding the NNI

J. Steven Rutt — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 11:29:29 -0600

Meetings were held recently in the Washington, DC area to discuss revising the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) strategic plan (July 13-14, www.nano.gov). President Obama’s Office of Science and Technology Policy is also seeking input on nanotechnology's future (for...

The Blue Footprint™: Measuring the Critical Impact of Your Water Consumption

Barry L. Grossman — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 15:25:59 -0600

A new model for assessing a combined carbon – water - economic footprint was unveiled at the Milwaukee Water Summit held on July 19, 2010 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Laurent Auguste, President & CEO of Veolia Water North America presented a fascinating study on “The Blue...

July 29, 2010 Webcast: Rewards and Risks of "Green:" How to Make Your IP Assets Work Double-Duty While Minimizing the Risks of Disputes

Edouard LeFevre — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 14:54:24 -0600

Register for July 29, 2010 at 12:00 p.m. Central Foley's Rewards and Risks of “Green” Web Conference Series explores ways for executives in green technology industries to identify and leverage market opportunities while navigating legal and regulatory uncertainties. Your...

U.S. Government: Electric Cars Also Need Advanced Structural Materials. See BMW.

J. Steven Rutt — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 11:11:53 -0600

Recent news confirms that electric cars also need innovation in advanced structural materials, particularly carbon fiber. For example, the Economist reports that BMW plans to launch a new plug-in electric car in 2013 including carbon fibers as a core structural material (see July 10, 2010...

Baseball, Hot Dogs, Apple Pie, and .... Obama's Batteries

J. Steven Rutt — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 21:09:17 -0600

2010 is now more than half over, and cleantech continues to progress at a startling rate during this hot summer. The Gulf oil spill flow is stopped for now; but there is more. Last week, for example, President Obama made another visit (his fourth) to a manufacturing facility in...

$14 Billion Spent on Nanotech: Now the U.S. Government Wants Your Input—by August 15

J. Steven Rutt — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 17:57:42 -0600

Did you know the federal government has spent $14 billion on nanotech since 2001 via the NNI? As noted recently by InformationWeek, the government (OSTP) now wants to hear your ideas on how best to push into the future with nanotech. OSTP expresses particular interest in how nanotech can...

Catching Up & Cleaning Up: Oil Spills and Nanomaterials

J. Steven Rutt — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 22:49:22 -0600

The Washington Post reported this week how the federal government (and the governed private sector) failed to learn enough and take sufficient action following the Exxon Valdez spill twenty years ago. In particular, official recommendations were made twenty years...

Summer Reading on Water Technology, A Few Knowledge Thirst Quenchers

Barry L. Grossman — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 08:49:46 -0600

The warm summer months have officially arrived, which means many people are compiling their summer reading lists for the beach, pool, or just sitting at home and enjoying a good book. Quench your thirst for knowledge about water with some of these books, magazines, and articles. Robert...

Cleantech's Prizes, Heroes, and Now Solar-Powered Airplanes

J. Steven Rutt — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 23:01:12 -0600

The news today was good for cleantech: in Switzerland, a solar powered plane heroically piloted by André Borschberg and powered by 12,000 solar cells was flown for more than 24 hours! Borschberg’s team apparently is pushing solar powered airflight as part of a larger push for...

Stimulus Needed? Patent Office Releases New Stats on Green Patent Filing Program

J. Steven Rutt — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 16:55:47 -0600

The PTO continues to execute on its Green Patent Pilot Program, recently releasing statistics in a report dated June 28, 2010. However, this program now more than a half year old appears to continue to suffer from insufficient use and needs further adapting to customer needs, based...

Nanotechnology Commercialization Update News

J. Steven Rutt — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 21:34:10 -0600

Nanotechnology commercialization updates are important in view of the large federal government investment in nanotechnology research (both past and on-going investment). Hence, it is important that the government will soon be meeting to update the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI)...

Tesla Motors: Exciting Developments in Nanotech (?!) and an IPO

J. Steven Rutt — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 22:41:58 -0600

Tesla Motors, leading seller of luxury electric vehicles, is directly located at the intersection of nanotechnology and cleantech (even though few associate Tesla with nanotech). For exampe, lithium ion batteries found in the Tesla cars will continue to advance only...

Florida Innovation Hub

Shine Tu — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 09:43:40 -0600

The University of Florida has started construction on the “Florida Innovation Hub.” This building will house a number of growing high-tech businesses in Florida. It also has drawn a number of companies that could provide services to these start-up companies, such as venture capitalists,...