Monthly Archives: December 2011

Special issue on nanotechnology and regulations from EJLT

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The European Journal of Law and Technology (EJLT) is featuring 15 articles on the theme of nanotechnology and regulations in a special issue. From the Dec. 12, 2011 news item on Nanowerk,

The issue contains 15 contributions that canvass some of the most pressing philosophical, ethical and regulatory questions currently being debated around the world in relation to nanotechnologies and more specifically nanomaterials.

The EJLT is an open access journal so you can view these articles or any others that may interest you. Here’s the Table of Contents for the special issue,

Table of Contents

Editorial

Editorial
Philip Leith, Abdul Paliwala

Introduction to the Special Issue

Why the elephant in the room appears to be more than a nano-sized challenge
Joel D’Silva, Diana Meagan Bowman

Nano Technology Special Edition

Decision Ethics and Emergent Technologies: The Case of Nanotechnology
David Berube
Justice or Beneficence: What Regulatory Virtue for Nano-Governance?
Hailemichael Teshome Demissie
Regulating Nanoparticles: the Problem of Uncertainty
Roger Strand, Kamilla Lein Kjølberg
Complexities of labelling of nanoproducts on the consumer markets
Harald Throne-Holst, Arie Rip
Soft regulation and responsible nanotechnological development in the European Union: Regulating occupational health and safety in the Netherlands
Bärbel Dorbeck-Jung
Nanomaterials and the European Water Framework Directive
Steffen Foss Hansen, Anders Baun, Catherine Ganzleben
The Proposed Ban on Certain Nanomaterials for Electrical and Electronic Equipment in Europe and Its Global Security Implications: A Search for an Alternative Regulatory Approach
Hitoshi Nasu, Thomas Faunce
The Regulation of Nano-particles under the European Biocidal Products Directive: Challenges for Effective Civil Society Participation
Michael T Reinsborough, Gavin Sullivan
Value chains as a linking-pin framework for exploring governance and innovation in nano-involved sectors: illustrated for nanotechnologies and the food packaging sector
Douglas Robinson
Food and nano-food within the Chinese regulatory system: no need to have overregulation.Less physicality can produce more power.
Margherita Poto
Regulation and Governance of Nanotechnology in China: Regulatory Challenges and Effectiveness
Darryl Stuart Jarvis, Noah Richmond
How Resilient is India to Nanotechnology Risks? Examining Current Developments, Capacities and an Approach for Effective Risk Governance and Regulation
Shilpanjali Deshpande Sarma
Toward Safe and Sustainable Nanomaterials: Chemical Information Call-in to Manufacturers of Nanomaterials by California as a Case Study
William Ryan, Sho Takatori, Thomas Booze, Hai-Yong Kang
De minimis curat lex: New Zealand law and the challenge of the very small
Colin Gavaghan, Jennifer Moore

I notice that the last article was authored by the same people who produced a review of New Zealand’s nanotechnology regulatory framework in Sept. 2011. The Science Media Centre of New Zealand noted this in a Sept. 6, 2011 article about the review,

The “Review of the Adequacy of New Zealand’s Regulatory Systems to Manage the Possible Impacts of Manufactured Nanomaterials” by Colin Gavaghan (in Dunedin) and Jennifer Moore (in Wellington) lists three possible levels of regulatory gaps, but points to a lack of consensus on just what constitutes a “gap”.

The authors note where such nanomaterials are not covered by existing regulation, and where these regulations are triggered by the presence of the nanomaterials. They focus on first and second generation products and say that as nanomaterials evolve, more work will need to be done on regulation.

“Some reviews of this topic have suggested that subsequent generations of nanotechnologies are likely to present a much more significant challenge to existing regulatory structures,” the authors say.

The EJLT special issue looks like it has a pretty interesting range of articles representing nanotechnology and regulations in various jurisdictions. I’m thrilled to see a couple of articles on China, one on India, and, of course, the piece on New Zealand as I don’t often find material on those countries. Thank you EJLT!

Nobel prize winners bigger than Justin Bieber in Sweden?

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This year’s Nobel prize winners received their awards in Stockholm (Sweden) on Saturday, Dec. 10, 2011.  Simon Frantz, a former senior editor of Nobelprize.org and current blogger at Nobel Prize Watch, offered six tips to Nobel Laureates for surviving the festivities in a Dec. 8, 2011 posting on the Guardian science blogs,

3. Enjoy being a celebrity

Photographers and autograph hunters line up outside the Grand Hotel eager to catch a glimpse of laureates as they are whisked in and out of their limos. The 2009 medicine laureate Elizabeth Blackburn recalls the autograph hunters jostling and even fighting outside the hotel for prized signatures. Fellow 2009 medicine laureate Carol Greider says her son was more concerned that she was signing too many autographs, in case it would affect their price on eBay.

Even laureates who consider themselves to be anonymous in their own institutions are recognised on the streets, thanks to the constant TV and press coverage of the scientists and their achievements.

That tip was one of my favourites and inspired this posting’s title. Here’s something I never suspected about the actual prize-giving night,

5. Pace yourself … it’s going to be a long night

After the Nobel prize ceremony, it’s straight to a banquet at the City Hall, which is undoubtedly the social event of the year in Sweden. Invitations for the 1,300 seats are like gold dust. Swedish families gather around their TVs at home to follow proceedings live.

Laureates and their family members are interviewed as they enter the building. TV style pundits rate ladies’ fashions, as do the daily newspapers the following day. Food pundits rate the food being served, which has been created by 45 chefs, delivered by 260 servers, and washed down with 400 bottles of champagne and 400 bottles of red wine.

…

Once the traditional ice-cream dessert has been tabled, and the banquet speeches have been made by a laureate (usually the eldest) from each prize area, the diners make their way upstairs for a spot of dancing and the laureates are granted an audience with the royal family.

But that’s far from being the end of the evening. There’s a special after-show party called the Nobel Nightcap, hosted by a different university in Stockholm each year, where laureates, banquet guests and students mingle until the wee hours. [emphasis mine]

Here’s one last tip,

… it’s worth staying a few days longer, because on the morning of 13 December things become much more informal and surreal. Laureates are woken up in their hotel beds by girls dressed in white carrying candles, celebrating the feast of St Lucia, the patron saint of light and vision who illuminates the midwinter darkness.

These tips shed a whole new light on winning a Nobel prize.

Plans to spend more on Canadian R&D in 2011

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The Dec. 9, 2011 news item on CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) News provides a hint of relief in what has become a rather dismal performance in industrial R&D spending. Canadian companies planned to spend more on R&D in 2011 than they had for years. From the news item,

Research and development spending by industry is expected to increase in 2011 — the first time in four years that has happened in Canada.

“The 2011 industrial R&D spending intentions suggest that recovery is underway after three consecutive years of declining R&D spending that occurred across almost all industrial sectors,” said a Statistics Canada report Friday.

If you look at the CBC’s news item today (Dec. 12, 2011), you’ll see this correction,

Canada’s R & D spending-to-GDP ratio in 2009 fell to the level it was in 1994, not 2004 as originally reported.

If I understand things correctly, there was a precipitous fall in 2009 and now in 2011, we’re enjoying a modest increase in plans for R&D spending.

From the Statistics Canada Daily, Dec. 9, 2011 issue,

2011 (intentions)

Businesses in Canada anticipated spending just over $15.6 billion on industrial research and development (R&D) in 2011, up 5.0% from 2010.

Almost half (49%) of this industrial R&D spending is anticipated to be spent in the manufacturing sector ($7.7 billion), an 8.0% increase from 2010. In 2011, about 43% of industrial R&D is anticipated to be spent in the services sector ($6.8 billion), up 3.1% from the previous year. The remaining 8% of R&D spending is anticipated to be spent in primary industries, utilities and construction.

The 2011 industrial R&D spending intentions suggest that recovery is underway after three consecutive years of declining R&D spending that occurred across almost all industrial sectors. However, total R&D spending intentions are still below the $16.8 billion spent in 2007. [emphasis mine]

You can read the bulletin and article,

The article, “Industrial research and development, 2007 to 2011,” is now available in the service bulletin Science Statistics, Vol. 35, no. 4 (88-001-X, free), from the Key resource module of our website under Publications.

Having seen some very questionable definitions of R&D, I checked one of the descriptions that Statistics Canada used, from the Data quality, concepts and methodology: Data quality, concepts and methodology page,

Generally speaking, industrial R&D is intended to result in an invention which may subsequently become a technological innovation. An essential requirement is that the outcome of the work is uncertain, i.e., that the possibility of obtaining a given technical objective cannot be known in advance on the basis of current knowledge or experience. Hence much of the work done by scientists and engineers is not R&D, since they are primarily engaged in “routine” production, engineering, quality control or testing. Although they apply scientific or engineering principles their work is not directed towards the discovery of new knowledge or the development of new products and processes. However, work elements which are not considered R&D by themselves but which directly support R&D projects, should be included with R&D in these cases. Examples of such work elements are design and engineering, shop work, computer programming, and secretarial work.

If the primary objective is to make further technical improvements to the product or process, then the work comes within the definition of R&D. If however, the product, process or approach is substantially set and the primary objective is to develop markets, to do pre-production planning or to get a production or control system working smoothly, then the activity can no longer be considered as part of R&D even though it could be regarded as an important part of the total innovation process. Thus, the design, construction and testing of prototypes, models and pilot plants are part of R&D. But, when necessary modifications have been made and testing has been satisfactorily completed, the boundary of R&D has been reached. Hence, the costs of tooling (design and try-out), construction drawings and manufacturing blueprints, and production start-up are not included in development costs.

Pilot plants may be included in development only if the main purpose is to acquire experience and compile data. As soon as they begin operating as normal production units, their costs can no longer be attributed to R&D. Similarly, once the original prototype has been found satisfactory, the cost of other “prototypes” built to meet a special need or fill a very small order are not to be considered as part of R&D.

Here’s what they specifically will not include,

Research and development should be considered to be “Scientific Research and Experimental Development” as defined in Section 37, Regulation 2900 of the Income Tax Act; this section specifically excludes the following:

  1. market research, sales promotion,
  2. quality control or routine analysis and testing of materials, devices or products,
  3. research in the social sciences or the humanities,
  4. prospecting, exploring or drilling for or producing minerals, petroleum or natural gas,
  5. the commercial production of a new or improved material, device or product or the commercial use of a new or improved process,
  6. style changes, or routine data collection

My fingers are crossed that these good intentions became reality.

Music, math, and spiderwebs

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I pricked up my ears when I saw the word ‘analogy’. As a writer, I tend to be quite interested in analogies and metaphors, especially as they relate to science. I certainly never expected to find an analogy established by mathematical rigour—it never occurred to the poet in my soul. Thankfully, mathematicians at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) were not constrained by my lack of imagination. From the Dec. 8, 2011 news item written by Denise Brehm on Nanowerk,

Using a new mathematical methodology, researchers at MIT have created a scientifically rigorous analogy that shows the similarities between the physical structure of spider silk and the sonic structure of a melody, proving that the structure of each relates to its function in an equivalent way.

The step-by-step comparison begins with the primary building blocks of each item — an amino acid and a sound wave — and moves up to the level of a beta sheet nanocomposite (the secondary structure of a protein consisting of repeated hierarchical patterns) and a musical riff (a repeated pattern of notes or chords). The study explains that structural patterns are directly related to the functional properties of lightweight strength in the spider silk and, in the riff, sonic tension that creates an emotional response in the listener.

The Dec. 8, 2011 news release at MIT goes on to explain,

While likening spider silk to musical composition may appear to be more novelty than breakthrough, the methodology behind it represents a new approach to comparing research findings from disparate scientific fields. Such analogies could help engineers develop materials that make use of the repeating patterns of simple building blocks found in many biological materials that, like spider silk, are lightweight yet extremely failure-resistant. The work also suggests that engineers may be able to gain new insights into biological systems through the study of the structure-function relationships found in music and other art forms.

The MIT researchers — David Spivak, a postdoc in the Department of Mathematics, Associate Professor Markus Buehler of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) and CEE graduate student Tristan Giesa — published their findings in the December issue of BioNanoScience.

Here’s part of how they developed the analogy between spider silk and music using mathematics (from the MIT news release),

They created the analogy using ontology logs, or “ologs,” a concept introduced about a year ago by Spivak, who specializes in a branch of mathematics called category theory. Ologs provide an abstract means for categorizing the general properties of a system — be it a material, mathematical concept or phenomenon — and showing inherent relationships between function and structure.

To build the ologs, the researchers used information from Buehler’s previous studies of the nanostructure of spider silk and other biological materials.

“There is mounting evidence that similar patterns of material features at the nanoscale, such as clusters of hydrogen bonds or hierarchical structures, govern the behavior of materials in the natural environment, yet we couldn’t mathematically show the analogy between different materials,” Buehler says. “The olog lets us compile information about how materials function in a mathematically rigorous way and identify those patterns that are universal to a very broad class of materials. Its potential for engineering the built environment — in the design of new materials, structures or infrastructure — is immense.”

“This work is very exciting because it brings forth an approach founded on category theory to bridge music (and potentially other aspects of the fine arts) to a new field of materiomics,” says Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering Joyce Wong of Boston University, a biomaterials scientist and engineer, as well as a musician. “This approach is particularly appropriate for the hierarchical design of proteins, as they show in the silk example. What is particularly exciting is the opportunity to reveal new relationships between seemingly disparate fields with the aim of improving materials engineering and design.”

I always like to have a visual,

Graphic: Christine Daniloff

You can get more details from either the Nanowerk website or the MIT website.

Since it’s a Friday I thought I’d include a video of a song about spiderwebs and found this on YouTube,

Happy Friday!

Action Science Explorer (data visualization tool)

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There’s a lot of data being generated and we need to find new ways to manage and navigate through it. The Dec. 8, 2011 news item by Ellen Ferrante and Lisa-Joy Zgorski on phsyorg.com describes a data visualization tool designed by the Human-Computer Interaction Laboratory (HCIL) at the University of Maryland,

The National Science Foundation- (NSF) funded Action Science Explorer (ASE) allows users to simultaneously search through thousands of academic papers, using a visualization method that determines how papers are connected, for instance, by topic, date, authors, etc.   The goal is to use these connections to identify emerging scientific trends and advances.

“We are creating an early warning system for scientific breakthroughs,” said Ben Shneiderman, a professor at the University of Maryland (UM) and founding director of the UM Human-Computer Interaction Lab.

“Such a system would dramatically improve the capability of academic researchers, government program managers and industry analysts to understand emerging scientific topics so as to recognize breakthroughs, controversies and centers of activity,” said Shneiderman. “This would enable appropriate allocation of funds, encourage new collaborations among groups that unknowingly were working on similar topics and accelerate research progress.”

I went to the HCIL website to find more about the ASE project here where I also located a screen capture of the graphical interface,

A large-screen window layout of the overall interface of ASE. Credit: Cody Dunne, Robert Gove, Ben Shneiderman, Bonnie Dorr and Judith Klavans. University of Maryland

There’s also a video explaining some aspects of ASE,


For those who can’t get enough data, there’s a technical report here.

I expect we will be seeing more of these kinds of tools and not just for science research. There was this April 6, 2011 news item by Aaron Dubrow on physorg.com describing the US National Archives and Records Administration’s (NARA) new data visualization tools,

At the end of President George W. Bush’s administration in 2009, NARA received roughly 35 times the amount of data as previously received from the administration of President Bill Clinton, which itself was many times that of the previous administration. With the federal government increasingly using social media, cloud computing and other technologies to contribute to open government, this trend is not likely to decline. By 2014, NARA is expecting to accumulate more than 35 petabytes (quadrillions of bytes) of data in the form of electronic records.

“The National Archives is a unique national institution that responds to requirements for preservation, access and the continued use of government records,” said Robert Chadduck, acting director for the National Archives Center for Advanced Systems and Technologies.

…

After consulting with NARA about its needs, members of TACC’s [Texas Advanced Computing Center] Data and Information Analysis group developed a multi-pronged approach that combines different data analysis methods into a visualization framework. The visualizations act as a bridge between the archivist and the data by interactively rendering information as shapes and colors to facilitate an understanding of the archive’s structure and content.

I’d best get ready to develop new literacy skills as these data visualization tools come into play.

Portable x-ray machine

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It’s all about the adhesive tape according to the researchers at Tribogenics. Yes, they can create x-rays by unrolling scotch tape in a vacuum. Neal Ungerleider’s Dec. 8, 2011 article for Fast Company,

Tribogenics’ products rely on a counterintuitive discovery: X-rays are generated when unrolling Scotch tape in a vacuum. In a Nature article, UCLA researchers Carlos Camara, Juan Escobar, Jonathan Hird, and Seth Putterman detailed how Scotch tape can generate surprisingly large amounts of X-rays thanks to visible radiation generated by static electricity between two contacting surfaces. The research encountered challenges thanks to the fact that Scotch tape and generic brand adhesive tapes generated slightly different energy signatures; the composition of Scotch tape adhesive is a closely guarded 3M trade secret. …

Fox [Dale Fox, Tribogenics’ Chief Scientist] told Fast Company that “every other X-ray source in the world uses a high-voltage transformer connected to a vacuum tube. In contrast, we’ve harnessed the power of the immense voltages in static electricity to create tiny, low-cost, battery-operated X-ray sources for the first time in history. It’s like the jump the electronics industry took when it moved from vacuum tubes to transistors.” According to Fox, Tribogenics has already developed X-ray energy sources the size of a USB memory stick. While Tribogenics representatives declined to discuss pricing for upcoming products, the firm “very comfortably” promised that the cost would be less than 10% than that of any existing X-ray technology.

This technology can be traced back to DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) in 2007 when the agency funded the company’s first research, according to the company website. There have been other military funds as well, the US Army Telemedicine and Advanced Research Center in 2010.

The company describes itself this way (from the home page),

Tribogenics patented technology enables portable, compact x-ray solutions for applications in precious metal, mining, military, medical imaging, security and other industries. By miniaturizing X-ray sources and eliminating the need for high voltage, we can create products and solutions unattainable using existing X-ray technology. Tribogenics revolutionary X-ray solution emerged from DARPA and TATRC-funded initiatives at UCLA and was developed by prominent scientists.

Ungerleider notes that the company has not launched any commercial products yet but this one sure looks interesting,

… ultra-portable X-ray machines show the greatest potential for becoming a disruptive medical technology. Tribogenics’ methods have revolutionary ramifications for catheterized radiation therapy, which currently poses significant radiation risks for patients, doctors, and nurses. According to Fox, the company’s products eliminate the need for radioactive isotopes.

If you are interested in this technology, I would suggest reading Ungerleider’s article for additional details.

Grow Christmas tree, grow Christmas tree

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I found a delightful item posted by GrrlScientist this morning (Dec. 8, 2011) on the Guardian science blogs,

The holidays are stampeding down upon us. Everyone is excited and busy. But maybe you wish to take a little time to do something special with your family? Here’s a sweet little kitchen science project that you can do: grow your own snow-covered Christmas tree through the wonders of chemistry!

Here’s a video demonstrating this Christmassy home project,

You can find this video and others here on Steve Spangler’s YouTube Channel. You can also find a full set of written instructions for the ‘Magic Crystal Tree’  here on Steve Spangler’s website.

3-D and self-assembly

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Here’s an intriguing approach to self-assembly for manufacturing purposes from scientists at Brown and Johns Hopkins Universities, respectively. From the Dec. 7, 2011 news item on Nanowerk,

In a paper published in the Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences (“Algorithmic design of self-folding polyhedra”), researchers from Brown and Johns Hopkins University determined the best 2-D arrangements, called planar nets, to create self-folding polyhedra with dimensions of a few hundred microns, the size of a small dust particle. The strength of the analysis lies in the combination of theory and experiment. The team at Brown devised algorithms to cut through the myriad possibilities and identify the best planar nets to yield the self-folding 3-D structures. Researchers at Johns Hopkins then confirmed the nets’ design principles with experiments.

Here’s the magnitude of the problem these scientists were solving (from the news item),

Material chemists and engineers would love to figure out how to create self-assembling shells, containers or structures that could be used as tiny drug-carrying containers or to build 3-D sensors and electronic devices.

There have been some successes with simple 3-D shapes such as cubes, but the list of possible starting points that could yield the ideal self-assembly for more complex geometric configurations gets long fast. For example, while there are 11 2-D arrangements for a cube, there are 43,380 for a dodecahedron (12 equal pentagonal faces). Creating a truncated octahedron (14 total faces – six squares and eight hexagons) has 2.3 million possibilities.

Associate professor of applied mathematics at Brown University, Govind Menon, says (from the news item),

“The issue is that one runs into a combinatorial explosion. … How do we search efficiently for the best solution within such a large dataset? This is where math can contribute to the problem.”

Here’s how they solved the problem (from the news item),

 

“Using a combination of theory and experiments, we uncovered design principles for optimum nets which self-assemble with high yields,” said David Gracias, associate professor in of chemical and biomolecular engineering at Johns Hopkins and a co-corresponding author on the paper.

“In doing so, we uncovered striking geometric analogies between natural assembly of proteins and viruses and these polyhedra, which could provide insight into naturally occurring self-assembling processes and is a step toward the development of self-assembly as a viable manufacturing paradigm.”

“This is about creating basic tools in nanotechnology,” said Menon, co-corresponding author on the paper. “It’s important to explore what shapes you can build. The bigger your toolbox, the better off you are.” While the approach has been used elsewhere to create smaller particles at the nanoscale, the researchers at Brown and Johns Hopkins used larger sizes to better understand the principles that govern self-folding polyhedra.

The news item on Nanowerk features more details, a video of a self-assembling dodecahedron, and an image of various options for 2-D nets that can be used to create 3-D shapes.

“Using a combination of theory and experiments, we uncovered design principles for optimum nets which self-assemble with high yields,” said David Gracias, associate professor in of chemical and biomolecular engineering at Johns Hopkins and a co-corresponding author on the paper. “In doing so, we uncovered striking geometric analogies between natural assembly of proteins and viruses and these polyhedra, which could provide insight into naturally occurring self-assembling processes and is a step toward the development of self-assembly as a viable manufacturing paradigm.”
“This is about creating basic tools in nanotechnology,” said Menon, co-corresponding author on the paper. “It’s important to explore what shapes you can build. The bigger your toolbox, the better off you are.”
While the approach has been used elsewhere to create smaller particles at the nanoscale, the researchers at Brown and Johns Hopkins used larger sizes to better understand the principles that govern self-folding polyhedra.

Cientifica’s white paper on nanotechnology in drug delivery (NDD)

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The white paper, not to be confused with the full market report which will set you back 3000 GBP (or 5000 USD), offers an 18 pp. overview of  nanotechnology in drug delivery (NDD). Excerpted from the NDD white paper,

The advantages over current treatment modalities include lower drug toxicities, improved bioavailability, reduced economic costs of treatment, and increased patient adherence to treatment. The medical management of malignancies has already been greatly impacted by nanotechnology, but soon other medical specialties will utilize these novel forms of drug delivery to achieve optimal treatment success. Additionally, innovative research and development of more therapeutically effective carriers will continue including improved forms of polymer– drug conjugates, liposomes, dendrimers, micelles, polymeric vesicles and nanocapsules. Finally, implantable drug delivery systems will open up many more opportunities for nanotechnology utilization. (p. 6 PDF)

The promise of lower toxicities and better performance is compelling both from a potential user’s (patient) perspective and a healer’s perspective. As for investors, opening up new therapies can be a lucrative business as Cientifica notes in its white paper,

Forecasts indicate the nanotechnology market will reach close to a trillion dollars by 2015, presenting investors with a unique opportunity. However, the market for applications of nanotechnology is complex to understand, multi disciplinary and highly segmented. It is therefore vital for any would-be investor to gain an understanding of which market sectors nanotechnology is likely to impact most profoundly in the near term.

Since we now know most (if not all) biological processes occur at the nanoscale, the application of life science principles – studying the causes of biological phenomena at the molecular level – means that medical and biomedical research is increasingly using a bottom-up (rather than the topdown) approach. The low bioavailability resulting from traditional oral and intravenous drug delivery methods and the market forces at work in the pharmaceutical industry, where patents expire after a relatively short period of time unless a novel form of drug delivery is developed that will extend the patent, are two major forces that will fuel the growth of the nanotech drug delivery market. The third factor at play is a combination of improved global health and a correspondingly dramatic increase in the size of the global aging population. [emphases mine] (p. 4 PDF)

I’m a little more conservative than the folks at Cientifica; I’m not yet ready to say that we ‘know’ most biological processes occur at the nanoscale since we are not yet able to test the hypothesis at smaller scales. I am convinced by the ‘low bioavailability’ and ‘global health/aging’ trends and I’m happy to see the shorter patent period mentioned.

Brief overview: Patents are a problematic area as there are arguments that current patent regimes are stifling innovation (Do Patents Encourage or Hinder Innovation? The Case of the Steam Engine; Patent Law Is Highly Controversial) while others suggest longer patent periods are needed (Drug Patents Stifling Innovation by Financially Straining Pharmaceutical Companies).

I don’t entirely buy the argument that pharmaceutical companies pour all of their profits into research and struggle financially as a consequence. (Are there any large pharmaceutical companies in serious financial trouble? Please let me know as I’ve not heard of any.) In fact, this shorter patent period seems to be stimulating the current interest and research into nanotechnology-enabled therapies. This is exactly what the patent system was designed to do in the first place, stimulate innovation.

In general, I found the white paper quite useful in that it helped me to better understand some of the material I scan on a daily basis. I particularly appreciated this breakdown,

The report has discovered that there are three areas of medicine where nanotechnology shows the greatest promise:

i. Nanotechnology in drug delivery;

ii. Nanotechnology in medical and biomedical diagnostics;

iii. Nanotechnology in regenerative medicine and tissue engineering (p. 5 PDF)

I am surprised that Cientifica considers nanotechnology in drug delivery as the most promising area for investors as it seems to me that the diagnostics area has more products close to commercialization but my view is limited, there are other factors at play and, also, investing is not my area of expertise.

From a marketing perspective, my hat’s off to the folks at Cientifica for writing a white paper that provides a good overview and acts as a teaser for the full report.

Any other quibbles I have with this material are philosophical and addressed to the industry sector. I wish there was less military-influenced language used. For example (excerpted from the white paper),

The “magic bullet” concept, first theorized by Paul Ehrlich in 1891, represents the first early description of the drug-targeting paradigm. The aim of drug targeting is to deliver drugs to the right place, at the right concentration, for the right period of time. As drug characteristics differ substantially in chemical composition, molecular size, hydrophilicity, and protein binding, the essential characteristics that identify efficacy are highly complex. All of these factors are investigated to bring a new compound to market although only a fraction reaches active clinical use. (p. 13 PDF)

The ‘magic bullet’ and drug-targeting concept is from the 19th century (or possibly earlier). Can’t we find a language that is more reflective of our own age and our current understanding of biology and technology? That challenge is for writers, artists, scholars and others who help to define our understanding of the world and our place in it.

Touching Mendeleev’s business card

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The folks at the Periodic Table of Videos (University of Nottingham) strike again. Videographer, Brady Haran, writes about his latest project for the group in a Dec. 7, 2011 posting on the Guardian science blogs,

Dmitri Mendeleev has an almost god-like status in the pantheon of science. Many people probably picture the creator of the earliest version of the periodic table as a bearded genius hunched over papers and textbooks.

In his native Russia, the legend is if anything even greater. There the periodic table is widely known as “The Table of Mendeleev” and his image has been immortalised in everything from stamps to statues.

Mendeleev is unquestionably on the scientific A-list, despite being famously snubbed by the Nobel prize committee in the early 1900s. But like all great figures from history, we occasionally get to see past the legend. We hear a story or glimpse an object that betrays a comforting level of normality.

The object of normality is a business card. Here’s a video Haran and Prof. Martyn Poliakoff made about the card and Mendeleev,

I love the way the envelope containing the business cards (one offering an introduction to another scientist and one being included as a business card) was addressed to London, Professor Thorpe, Fellow of the Royal Society. No street address, no country, nothing—just a city, a name, and an association. (I did find it surprising that Poliakoff was allowed to touch the materials with his bare hands rather than using protective gloves.) Here’s an image of the envelope,

Envelope addressed by Mendeleev to 'Monsieur le Professeur Thorpe' at the Royal Society. Photograph: The Periodic Table of Videos

Haran’s posting features images of the business card and Mendeleev and another video, this one about Ernest Rutherford’s childhood potato masher.