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Russia To Redirect Billions In Major Nanotechnology Push
Moscow (AFP) Jun 06, 2007 Russia is budgeting billions of dollars to spend on nanotechnologies in a bid to catch up with the West, but development of the sector is still held back by a wary business community, experts say. Lawmakers on Monday put forward a draft law to create Rosnanotekh, a state nanotechnology corporation with a budget of five billion dollars (3.7 billion euros) that will inject funds into Russia's long-neglected science establishment. "This is serious money for Russia. This is money that Russian scientists have not seen in a long time," said Mikhail Melnikov, deputy editor of the journal Russian Nanotechnologies. "There's one problem -- interest from the business community. That's why a corporation is being created. Because business does not show great interest in us," Melnikov said, adding that the state would take on development risks. The draft law, passage of which is seen as inevitable, is only the latest sign that Russian officials are beginning to take action as the global nanotechnology market, led by the United States, undergoes rapid expansion. Nanotechnology, a broad term covering many different applications, involves the use of tiny structures scientists can manipulate to create devices such as solar heating panels and improved computer chips. The structures, measured in nanometres -- one-billionth of a metre -- can also be used for medical applications such as repairing a damaged organ. In Russia, some of the nanotechnology applications most frequently cited as having the highest potential are in the metals sector, medicine and molecular chemistry. Private companies in the West are increasingly looking at an even wider range of uses and some market research reports that an estimated 2.6 trillion dollars in manufactured goods will incorporate nanotechnology globally by 2014. The potential has not been lost on Russia's leaders. "Nanotechnologies are becoming a key direction for the development of modern industry and science," President Vladimir Putin said in a state of the nation speech to the Russian parliament in April. Earlier in the year, Russia approved a development programme for nanotechnology running until 2015 aimed at "achieving and sustaining equality with leading countries in a series of key technologies and sciences." Putin said in his comments that the nanotechnology corporation would receive five billions dollars (3.7 billion euros) in funding and that the sector would get two billion dollars more from other government initiatives. The US government spends around one billion dollars a year on nanotechnology research and the European Union has committed more than three billion euros from 2007 until 2013, not including funding from individual EU member states. These figures for state funding are backed up in the West by ever higher levels of private investment in nanotechnologies, which is lacking in Russia, experts said. "I think what Russia is doing is trying to catch up" with the European Union, Japan and the United States, said Mark Morrison, scientific manager at Britain's Institute of Nanotechnology. Russia also has an eye on up-and-coming China and India, which are making major inroads in nanotechnology, and wants to ensure it is developing its own technology instead of buying it from other countries, Morrison said. "Russia's got a good research base but it needs to capitalise on that, Morrison said. "Russia sees it has to carve out a niche for itself in the market."
Source: Agence France-Presse Related Links British Institute of Nanotechnology Nano Technology News From SpaceMart.com Computer Chip Architecture, Technology and Manufacture
Using Light To Remotely Operate Micromachines
Riverside, CA (SPX) Jun 01, 2007A research team led by Umar Mohideen, a physicist at the University of California, Riverside, has demonstrated in the laboratory that the Casimir force - the small attractive force that acts between two close parallel uncharged conducting plates - can be changed using a beam of light, making the remote operation of micromachines a possibility. |
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