Share
Have more to add? News tip? Tell us
The country¡¯s future prosperity could well be fueled by the science that prompts Robert Magnusson to spend millions of dollars setting up his laboratory at the University of Texas at Arlington.
Magnusson, a native of Iceland, is considered to be among the world¡¯s leading researchers in nanotechnology, the field of tiny things.
By 2015, materials created using nanotechnology and products that include nanotechnology materials will altogether be worth a staggering $2.5 trillion a year in sales, according to Boston-based Lux Research, an emerging technology consulting firm.
That is equivalent to about what the country spends on healthcare a year, said Duane Dankesreiter, Dallas Regional Chamber vice president of business information and research.
Executives and researchers at some of the region¡¯s private companies and at UT-Arlington, the University of Texas at Dallas and the University of North Texas in Denton are determined to make North Texas a major player in this field. To do that, the region must establish itself against leading nanotechnology research institutes, such as Rice University in Houston, and technological titans, such as those in Silicon Valley in California and the greater Boston area, experts say. At stake are billions of federal and investment dollars. China, Japan, Germany and Russia are also in the nanotechnology race.
According to Lux Research, nanotech funding totaled $18.2 billion in 2008, as government spending ballooned to $8.4 billion, corporate funding edged to $8.6 billion, and venture capitalists provided $1.2 billion.
To explain the potential of the science, TechAmerica Texas Executive Director Jeff Clark recalls a scene in the 1967 film The Graduate when a man advises Dustin Hoffman, the movie¡¯s star, that the future is in plastics.
"Nano is the plastics of our generation," said Clark, whose group represents high-tech industries. "Plastics completely revolutionized everything we do, everything we use. Nano is going to be revolutionary on an even larger scale."
Nanotechnology has already hit the marketplace, such as its use in tennis racquets that are lighter and stronger, said Jurron Bradley, who leads Lux Research¡¯s nanomaterials team. Lexus automobile ads brag about the company¡¯s use of plastic made by plants using nanotechnology rather than petroleum.
In 2011 and 2012, consumers will see a spike in healthcare and electronic products that use the science, Bradley said.
For scientists, it¡¯s an exciting time, said Daryl Ussery, Magnusson¡¯s lab manager.
"I tell people that going to work is like going to a toy store every day," Ussery said.
Tiny, tiny
Nanotechnology takes its name from the nanometer, equal to one-billionth of a meter. A sheet of paper or a human hair is about 100,000 nanometers thick . Only the most powerful of microscopes can detect something that size.
Materials at such minute sizes can be manipulated and combined in ways that would be impossible at standard sizes. So the potential for new products and discoveries could be endless.
.gif "@Nyx.AdditionalAuthorInfo@"){kind=tracking}
@Nyx.CommentBody@