Jinn of Quality and Risk

People who invested early and wisely in semiconductor companies such as Intel or Texas Instruments multiplied their wealth by a factor of about 1000 (yes, one thousand — as in: ten thousand dollars grows to ten million dollars). That was an electronic rush, as was the dotcom electronic rush (a.k.a. "bubble"). In a rush, whether gold rush or electronic rush, some —not all— smart people make a lot of money. Where to go next?

Nanotechnology is likely to become a very large and profitable industry within the next 10 years. According to the NSF, the annual market for nanotechnology products will reach $1 trillion by 2015. How to profit? Invest early in specific types of companies: equipment providers dealing with instrumentation, such as atomic force microscopes and scanning tunneling microscopes; device makers targeting molecular assembly; and materials manufacturers producing advanced ceramics or nanocarbons.

A good weblog resource for nanotech investment, possibly collaborative, would include: feature stories (what's new in the nanotech revolution, trends, R&D budgets, contributions from academia, patents, start-ups); product news (including capital/manufacturing equipment); money flows (government grants, venture capital, private R&D); companies to watch; stock market information (fluctuations and the word on Wall Street); profiles and interviews (with entrepreneurs, research gurus, and executives); and, maybe, a virtual portfolio.

Here are some helpful searches to start tracking the nanotech revolution:

• news
• investment
• interviews

Here are a few example of current nanotech applications: antifreeze proteins to protect transplant organs during transport, scratch-free lenses, self-cleaning surfaces, and flat-resisting automobile tires. The field of industrial activity will include: instrumentation, computer modeling, molecular manipulation, materials manufacturing, and biological control.