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Billions of dollars have poured into nanotechnology research in recent years in hopes of developing everything from better lightbulbs to tinier transistors to more-effective drugs. Yet most nanotech companies are still years from bringing actual products to market. NanoOpto is one of the rare exceptions. The tiny company early this year began shipping its first optical components used in camera-equipped cell phones and telecommunications equipment. Since then, the Somerset, N.J.-based company also has started using nanotechnology to make optical waveplate components that modify signals in optical drives, which it says will enable cheaper, more durable DVD players. By year's end,...

The number of scientific papers published by researchers in the Asia-Pacific region could exceed the number from the United States within six or seven years, says a US report published in the July/August issue of ScienceWatch. Asia-Pacific nations, led by China, South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan, produced 25 per cent of the world's scientific papers in 2004, just below the United States with 33 per cent. European researchers produced 38 per cent of the papers. In contrast, Asia was responsible for just 16 per cent of global scientific output in 1990. A US National Science Foundation analysis in 2004 found...

They say the view never changes when you're in second place. By many economic measures, Europe has been trying to catch up with the U.S. for decades and, more recently sometimes, with Japan. This obsession may be blinding the Europeans to a China fast approaching from behind. This rising Asian power is on pace to pass an EU stuck in place. A European Commission report released this week, on R&D spending, sounded the latest warning. As a share of GDP, combined public and private spending on research in the 25 EU member states amounted to 1.9% in 2003, up just...

India and Israel have signed an agreement to set up a joint industrial Research and Development fund to encourage investment and joint ventures. Minister of State for Science and Technology, Kapil Sibal, and Israeli Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Trade and Industry, Ehud Olmert, signed the agreement under which each side will contribute USD one million each initially to provide risk-free grants to entrepreneurs from both sides. The two ministers outlined cooperation in the areas of nano-technology, bio-technology, water management, non-conventional energy and space and aeronautics as five priority areas of "common interest" for enhanced collaboration. "We have collaborated...

India and Israel have signed an agreement to set up a joint industrial Research and Development fund to encourage investment and joint ventures. Minister of State for Science and Technology, Kapil Sibal, and Israeli Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Trade and Industry, Ehud Olmert, signed the agreement under which each side will contribute USD one million each initially to provide risk-free grants to entrepreneurs from both sides. The two ministers outlined cooperation in the areas of nano-technology, bio-technology, water management, non-conventional energy and space and aeronautics as five priority areas of "common interest" for enhanced collaboration. "We have collaborated...

SAN DIEGO -- The California biotechnology industry recently gathered for its annual CALBIO conference. Participants were excited at the prospect of developing new medical miracles. But the ever-present potential of government interference hung over the proceedings like dark clouds on the horizon. Much is at stake. Nearly $50 billion was spent last year in pharmaceutical and biotech R&D. The big drugmakers devoted $38.8 billion to finding new cures. Biotech companies, in the main smaller and more dependent on investors willing to risk their money on unproven ventures, spent another $10.5 billion. The U.S. dominates the biopharmaceutical industry worldwide. America's big...

I am in favor of space access: the sooner the better, the more the better, and, especially, the cheaper the better. Here are some policy options that I have ranked according to the benefit/cost ratio. 1. Encourage other nations to sell their launches at marginal cost instead of just for “government launches” as espoused in the U.S. Space Transportation Policy (STP). Russia has surplus ICBMs. We should be grateful they are beating their swords into plowshares. We should encourage them to harvest their surplus equipment for cash to worthy Western buyers who want access to space so that they do...

WASHINGTON - The voice of science is being stifled in the Bush administration, with fewer scientists heard in policy discussions and money for research and advanced training being cut, according to panelists at a national science meeting. ... Rosina Bierbaum, dean of the University of Michigan School of Natural Resources and Environment, said the Bush administration has cut scientists out of some of the policy-making processes, particularly on environmental issues. "In previous administrations, scientists were always at the table when regulations were being developed," she said. "Science never had the last voice, but it had a voice." Issues on global...

It's fair to say none of us would be here if it wasn't for an engineer. John Logie Baird. A bit of a crackpot. But if it weren't for him - and several other inventive engineers - there would be no television.Without TV, the BBC might not exist. In which case, I wouldn't have joined millions of viewers watching the Queen's Coronation in June 1953. Stuck in remote north Norfolk, it was the first time I'd seen a television. The experience was made all the richer by Richard Dimbleby's commentary. Over the next few years, he became a regular fixture...

Bright Ideas for Boosting Innovation A prominent group has lots of advice on how America can renew its focus on R&D and science education to keep ahead in this global race When the Soviet Union launched Sputnik I on Oct. 4, 1957, it was a space shot heard around the world. The basketball-size satellite awakened the U.S. to the threat of Soviet technological superiority. In response, America created the National Aeronautics & Space Administration (NASA), set a goal of improving science education, and boosted government research and development spending to nearly 2% of gross domestic product by 1965.

  Are Drug Price Controls Good for Your Health? John A. Vernon, Rexford E. Santerre, and Carmelo GiaccottoCenter for Healthcare and Insurance Studies, University of Connecticut, School of Business Executive SummaryNow that the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement and Modernization Act (MMA) of 2003 provides senior citizens with drug insurance coverage beginning in 2006, several political and special-interest groups have expressed the opinion that the Medicare program should use its immense bargaining power to negotiate prices directly with drug manufacturers. While the MMA, as enacted, forbids such direct negotiation, a modification allowing direct Medicare negotiation is now under consideration. Specifically,...

November 27, 2004:  According to a U.S. Department of Defense Industrial Base Capabilities Study, six technology areas need to be targeted for further investment while two others need close monitoring. There is also a proposal for an investment fund of $20-30 million to stimulate technical innovation. Various military customers have expressed in certain areas, such as high-altitude endurance UAVs, but none of them are willing to put up the funds necessary to further develop the technology.  Six of the watch areas are places where the industrial base is "insufficient." It recommends the Small-Diameter Bomb (SDB) program find a second supplier....

THE CASE AGAINST CANADIAN DRUG RE-IMPORTATION by Timothy Rollins, Editor and Publisher October 21, 2004 The funny thing in all the hysteria of the campaign this year is that John Kerry, John Edwards and all their liberal idiot friends have been extolling the virtues of re-importing cheaper drugs from Canada (flag, right). Clearly, this is but another scare tactic designed to prey on perhaps one of America's most vulnerable elements of society - the elderly. People who prey on others are justifiably called predators. Yet "Botox Boy" - who wants be America's gigolo-in-chief - fails to realize this is a...

RD: What's your position on embryonic stem cell research? Reeve: I advocate it because I think scientists should be free to pursue every possible avenue. It appears though, at the moment, that embryonic stem cells are effective in treating acute injuries and are not able to do much about chronic injuries. Snippet

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--Few people know it, but the invention of the microwave oven can be traced back to an inquisitive engineer's sweet tooth. It happened one day in 1946, the story goes, when Percy Spencer noticed that a candy bar had melted in his pocket while he was testing a new magnetron vacuum tube for Raytheon, as part of its radar research that began during World War II. Intrigued, he placed some popcorn kernels near the tube, and an egg, the next morning--and discovered that the intense heat had similar effects. Percy Spencer, inventor of the microwave oven "Scientists familiar with...

As corporate America becomes increasingly comfortable with offshore development, it's sending substantially more sophisticated IT work overseas. Companies such as Google Inc. are turning to foreign workers not for their willingness to work for lower wages but for their technological prowess. Google is advertising for highly skilled IT help at its recently opened research and development facility in Bangalore, India. These employees will be involved in all aspects of Google's computer engineering work: conception, research, implementation and deployment. "Bangalore is the so-called Silicon Valley of India, and there is a large pool of talented software engineers there," said Krishna Bharat,...

Technology and Economic Analysis Group February 2002 U.S Department of Commerce Technology Administration R&D and Long-Term Competitiveness: Manufacturing’s Central Role in a Knowledge-Based Economy Gregory Tassey Senior Economist National Institute of Standards and Technology Technology Administration Department of Commerce tassey@nist.gov 301-975-2663 February 2002 Abstract The “Internet Revolution” induced an unbalanced perspective on future economic growth strategies. Because information technology (IT) largely constitutes an infrastructure upon which other economic activity is based, its economic role is to facilitate the productivity of investment in a wide range of products and services that meet final demand. Other economies around the world can and...

Pfizer layoffs detailed furtherFriday, September 26, 2003BY AL JONESKALAMAZOO GAZETTE Jobs in research and development accounted for all but about two dozen of the 459 positions Pfizer Inc. is eliminating in downtown Kalamazoo. And a company spokesman said the job losses in the city of Portage, set at 329 to date, will eventually reach at least 500. "We have said all along, there will be more separations (layoffs)," company spokesman Rick Chambers said. "And, yes, we have been keeping a constant dialogue with the city of Portage and all affected community officials." According to a breakdown of the jobs affected...

Drug Reimportation is Bad Policy Medicine In a clear example of the “cure being worse than the disease,” the House of Representatives recently passed legislation that gives the impression members believe that cheap prescription drugs are more important than safe drugs and that cheap drugs today are more important than new drugs tomorrow. Just before leaving for the August recess, the House approved by a vote of 243 to 186 the Pharmaceutical Market Access Act of 2003--a bill that allows consumers to import prescription drugs from 26 countries, including Canada and Europe. The lawmakers rejected a more sweeping proposal that...