What do pants and the space shuttle have in common?
BYLINE: Hiawatha Bray, The Boston Globe
Nov. 13--An idea born at Harvard University and nurtured at a small company in Woburn could transform the multibillion-dollar market for memory chips. But it's unclear whether Massachusetts or some other part of the United States will get the lion's share of the economic benefit.
That's because this next-generation memory chip, from Nantero Inc. of Woburn, relies on nanotechnology, the science of ultrasmall materials. While Massachusetts is a leader in nanotech research, states like California, Illinois, Missouri, and Texas are hustling to catch up. And some technology experts say Massachusetts leaders aren't doing enough to keep the state's nanotech know-how at home.
It's a criticism that doesn't sit well with Secretary of Economic Development Ranch Kimball. He noted that Massachusetts boasts 175 nanotechnology firms and that Governor Mitt Romney's administration has funneled millions of dollars to local universities for nanotech research. "We convened the state's first nanotech summit" in 2005, Kimball said. "Nano is a sector where I personally and the governor personally have been very involved."
Still, Nantero set up a major research laboratory in Springfield, Mo., in response to an aggressive bid by that state's politicians.
"We didn't see the opportunity to do something similar at the same cost and on the same time scale in Massachusetts," said Nantero's president, Greg Schmergel.
Nanomaterials already are found in everything from casual clothing to insulation for the space shuttle. Familiar materials like carbon, silver, and sand develop remarkable new properties when broken down into particles thousands of times thinner than a human hair. Some materials become stronger, others lighter, others better able to kill bacteria or insulate against heat and cold.
The National Science Foundation expects the market for nanotech products and services to reach $1 trillion by 2015.
Much of that money could end up in Massachusetts, a world center of nanotech research. There are major nano laboratories at Harvard, Northeastern, the University of Massachusetts and other universities, a steady flow of federal and state funding, and excellent access to venture capital. But aggressive recruitment efforts from other states could drain away Massachusetts' most talented nanotech scientists and entrepreneurs.
"People are graduating from MIT or Harvard and going elsewhere," Schmergel said. "The trend could well accelerate."
Nantero makes chips that use tiny nanotubes of carbon to store data, instead of the magnetic fields used by today's memory chips. Nantero chips are expected to run faster than the chips in today's computers, but will retain data even when the power is switched off, allowing computers to start up instantly, without a lengthy "boot-up" process. Nantero memory could replace the chips now used in desktop PCs, high-powered server computers, and digital cameras and music players. The company estimates a potential market worth $100 billion a year.
Perhaps that's why Nantero was vigorously courted by Missouri US Representative Roy Blunt, a Republican who's working closely with Missouri state officials to turn the state's third-largest city, Springfield, into "Silicon Holler," a hotbed of high-tech industry. The deal with Missouri features inexpensive laboratory space, and a research collaboration with Missouri State University. Thanks to a deal brokered by Blunt, Nantero will get to keep a large share of patent royalties on technologies it codevelops with the university.
"The welcome mat really isn't out in Massachusetts," said Matthew Nordan, president of Lux Research, a New York company that studies the global nanotech industry. In a 2004 report, Lux ranked Massachusetts as the top US state for economic development in nanotech. But today, the state is slipping, Nordan said, due to a lack of official efforts to integrate nanotech know-how into the larger economy.
But Texas, for example, has a high-profile nanotech initiative to help connect scientists and entrepreneurs with companies that could benefit from the latest nanomaterials. The Massachusetts Technology Collaborative has a nanotechnology initiative, but it's a pale shadow of the more aggressive efforts in other states, Nordan said.
Pat Larkin , director of the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative's John Adams Innovation Institute, said the criticism has some merit. It's not a question of money; state officials have come up with millions of dollars to boost nanotech research centers at the University of Massachusetts. In June, Romney signed legislation that provides $35 million for the UMass-Lowell nanotech center, which is also a major recipient of federal research funds.
But, Larkin said, these investments aren't part of a coordinated nanotech strategy: "In Massachusetts, we don't have an office that orchestrates and designs all these investments. We don't package it up like a big campaign. . . . Can we integrate it better? I think the answer's yes."
Kimball said it's hard to coordinate a state strategy, because nanotech technology can be used in nearly every industry, from medicine to textiles to automotive manufacturing.
"It's not vertically integrated, like biotechnology," he said. Besides, "I don't think it's necessarily the job of state agencies to organize industry."
Kimball said it's the responsibility of nanotech companies to create their own organization that could work with government to coordinate strategy.
But Nordan said the sheer diversity of nanotech applications is the very reason the state should organize the industry. Even if a company invents a new nano-based metal with special properties, the inventors may not know about manufacturers who need such a metal. A state-sponsored forum could generate millions in new revenues for nanotech companies, by linking buyers and sellers.
"It's conspicuous for its absence in Massachusetts," Nordan said.
It's unclear whether the administration of Governor-elect Deval Patrick will emphasize nanotechnology in its economic development plan. But Patrick spokesman Richard Chacon said, "The governor-elect frequently promoted the idea of more deeply cultivating and encouraging many aspects of what he calls Massachusetts' innovation economy, including nanotechnology."
Chacon added that Patrick believes "nanotechnology, along with other industries such as life sciences and alternative and renewable energy, is exactly the kind of promising sector the state can and should encourage in Massachusetts."
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