Word: nanos
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With Prey Crichton goes from dino to nano: the baddie comes from the currently hot field of nanotechnology, the science of building microscopic machines. The hero is an unemployed computer whiz named Jack Forman, a likable blank who has the misfortune to be married to Julia, a workaholic exec at Xymos, a shady Silicon Valley start-up. Xymos builds tiny nanorobots that possess no intelligence of their own but can assemble themselves, insect-like, into swarms capable of solving complex problems, reproducing and even evolving. Since the thoughtless hubris of scientists is Crichton's Big Theme, all this must...
...they have undergone a special chemical treatment to give them "nanowhiskers"--millions of tiny fibers one hundred-thousandth of an inch long--that help them repel spills. Eddie Bauer and Lee, among others, are gambling that the fabric will give them a leg up on the competition. INVENTOR Nano-Tex, LLC AVAILABILITY Now, $35 for Lee Performance Khakis TO LEARN MORE www.nano-tex.com...
Nanotubes could be the first commodity in the nanotech economy. Dozens of companies around the world already pump out mounds of the stuff--affectionately called soot--and sell it to some of the world's largest companies and labs for research: IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Samsung and NEC. Nano-Lab, in Brighton, Mass., is one of the few nanotech companies turning a profit. It sold $200,000 worth of made-to-order nanotubes in 2001 and is on track to more than double that amount this year. Last week HP researchers unveiled a way of manufacturing molecular-scale circuitry that will...
...efficiently. Elan Drug Delivery, located in King of Prussia, Pa., pulverizes existing drugs to a size that maximizes the body's ability to absorb them. Naproxen sodium, a pain medication found in products such as Aleve, can take as long as two hours to exert its pain-relieving effect. Nano Systems has developed a crystal version of naproxen, still in clinical development, that works in 15 to 20 minutes. "Using NanoCrystals has not made naproxen a better drug"--just seven to eight times as fast as the commercial product, says Larry Sternson, president of drug delivery at Elan, the Dublin...
Detection and analysis are also enhanced by small technology that is not strictly nano-scale. MesoSystems, a young but profitable firm, sells to fire departments handheld devices that collect biological particles 0.5 to 10 microns across--anthrax, for one--and preserve them in a liquid for identification. MesoSystems supplies Lockheed Martin with an air sampler it uses in its Biomail Solutions product, a biohazard detector in field testing at some federal agencies. MesoSystems made about $250,000 last year on revenues of $7 million and this year hopes to gross more than $10 million...