Asia's rising star: Nanotech
By Jayanthi Iyengar
PUNE, India - High-technology innovations such as semiconductors and information technology (IT) over the years have generated new income and hope for Asia, which still reaps the advantages and is again poised for techno-liftoff. Now the next technological revolution is beginning, generating intense and widespread interest in what Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian calls "the new century's rising star": nanotechnology.
While most of the big spending is in the United States and the West, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan are making major investments. China has plans as well, and India sees huge benefits from its existing expertise, technological advances and low labor costs. India and China, Asia's promising technology giants, however, spend very little on this technology of the future.
Mass production of hardware has yet to take off - this is still in the rapidly evolving research and development (R&D) stage - but nanotechnology applications include soldiers' lightweight impenetrable suits of armor, sensors, computers, military hardware, substances that eat through metal and plastic, durable coatings, rock-fuel additives, telecommunications advances, new, better-targeted drugs and delivery systems, artery and capillary replacements - and new fashion and utility fabrics, even better sunscreen, now a hot seller in Australia.
Global spending is projected to be at least US$1 trillion over the next six years.The United States spent $610 million on nanotechnology in 2002, and scaled up this budget by 39 percent to $847 million in 2003 - a big chunk goes to defense.
Billed as the next revolution in technology after semiconductors and IT, nanotechnology is a whole new field, working with materials that are smaller than small: a nanosecond is a billionth of a second; a nanometer is a billionth of a meter. As new players increasingly are drawn to this burgeoning field, experts are projecting a nanotechnology products and services market worth $1 trillion by 2010, and possibly double that amount by 2015. This is roughly 10 percent more that the world's total global manufacturing output.
With its potential in defense - or offensive - applications, a nanotechnological edge also aids the geopolitical ambitions of nations. As in the case of IT, this field could provide new opportunities in which Asia could excel, using its low labor costs and technological advantages.
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