Aren’t nanotubes grand? Sure, you can build space elevators with them. Create electronic components and faster computer chips. Nanotubes can one day build stronger skyscrapers and betterbody armor.
But did you know they could smell cancer? Deliver drugs to cancer? And, now, burn cancer. Funky.
The reason I bring this up is that I have been thinking about how innovation might be driven by the government grant process, and how that might be a good thing. As I probably wrote a thousand times in press releases, nanotech is on the scale of life, so some of the first applications of nanotechnology — outside of Dockers’ pants and the realm of materials science — will be (is) in life science.
And, while I can’t prove it, I think what is driving some of this thinking is the grant process. Funding is tight, so researchers look to put in practical uses for their work when writing their grant applications. Cancer is a biggie, so…if you write it into the grant, it might get more interest. If it isn’t building better widgets, nanotech researchers are building better cancer killers. I only wonder how many of these ideas fall flat because the engineers aren’t getting the chance to work with biologists. But of course, that’s not always the case.