Commercializing Nanotechnology

The benefits of commercial nanotechnology have been heralded in virtually every industry. It promises profound benefits in healthcare, electronics manufacturing, structural materials and monitoring, homeland defense, consumer markets and more. It promises to expand existing markets and create new ones. It promises riches for savvy investors.

But almost six years since the U.S. federal government launched the National Nanotechnology Initiative, some argue there is little to show for the effort other than stain-resistant pants and tiny startups going public on the over-the-counter market. Where's the major market impact? The financial juggernaut? The groundbreaking cures for disease and other worldly woes?

Well, we're getting there, but it's a long road. And the obstacles in it are hardly just technologies. Rather, they include difficult challenges related to science, marketing, economic development, public and private finance, globalization, regulation, and more. In this talk, Small Times editor-in-chief David Forman discusses the path ahead, the obstacles that lay therein, and what the nanotechnology industry plans to do to address them.