By Porter Wright on The New Haven Independent regularly covers the nanotech field, from the latest experiment in using nanoparticles to deliver medications more efficently to discussions of how nanoindustry will affect the national and regional economies. Recently the New Haven Independent posted an edited transcript of an internview with Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR), a long time advocate of Nanotech … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on Today’s issue of the Federal Register carries a "Notice of Public Meeting", announcing the 2012 Regional, State and Local (RSL) Initiatives in Nanotechnology workshop, to be held 1-2 May in Portland, Oregon. This workshop will bring together leaders of regional, state, and local organizations to engage in dialog with the Federal government; economic development groups; … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on The National Nanotechnology Coordination Office, in a "Notice of Public Meeting" published in the Federal Register of 02/02/2012, announced that on March 27-28 of this year, it would be holding an "International Symposium on Assessing the Economic Impact of Nanotechnology". The symposium, organized by the National Nanotechnology Initiative and theOrganization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on On 01/13/2011, the Office of Science and Technology Policy published a notice in the Federal Register extending the time for filing comments for the Draft NNI Strategy for Nanotechnology Related Environmental, Health and Safety Research to 01/21/2011. The 2011 Draft Strategy is designed to replace and update the 2008 Strategy and is the product of a series … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on UPDATE The House agreed to the Senate amendment to HR 5116 on 12/21/2010. We’ll discuss the implications of this in more detail after the Xmas holiday. The Senate unanimously passed H.R. 5116 on Friday 12/17/2010, after first adopting an amendment in the nature of a substitute. As opposed to the version of H.R. 5116 that was … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on Monday’s Federal Register carried a notice from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and the Nanoscience, Engineering and Technology Subcommittee of the National Science and Technology Council inviting the public to comment on the 2010 National Nanotechnology Initiative Strategic Plan. The NNI Strategic Plan is the framework that underpins the nanotechnology work of the … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on In an article in the September issue of Nature ("Nanotechnology: Small wonders"), Corie Lok reviews the beginnings and accomplishments of the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) over the last ten years. The article attributes the creation of the NNI to four factors: – A booming US economy, particularly in the high tech sector – Support from the Clinton … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on The Congressional Research Service, in March of this year, released a report, "Nanotechnology: A Policy Primer", written by John F. Sargent, Jr., a specialist in Science and Technology Policy. The primer’s first section focuses on a review of the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI). A table showing funding from various government agencies and departments for NNI shows … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on This article originally appeared on the National Nanomanufacturing Network’s InterNano website earlier today. It is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported. Maxine Savitz[1] and Ed Penhoe[2] provided a recent presentation summarizing the highlights of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST)[3] report on the status of the US National Nanotechnology Initiative … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on For anyone who might be interested, I will be speaking on nano-related insurance issues at the opening plenary of the National Nanotechnology Initiative’s upcoming Oct. 6 -7 conference and workshop on Nanomaterials and the Environment & Instrumentation. The draft agenda for the conference can be found here, and the plenary is also supposed to be broadcast … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on Chemical Business NewsBase recently published an article comparing global private funding to government funding for nanotechnology research, development, and commercialization. The article cites Lux Research figures indicating that private funding for nanotechnology reached $9.6 billion in 2008, while government investment was $8.6 billion. According to the article, this was the first year that private spending … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on The April issue of Environmental Health Perspectives carried an interesting article by Charles W. Schmidt, "Nanotechnology Related Environment, Health, and Safety Research: Examining the National Strategy". The article looks at what could be a disturbing development, that Experts in nanotoxicity and risk assessment have become increasingly polarized, represented on one side by the National Research Council (NRC) and … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on The NNI Reauthorization bill is officially in the Senate, and housed in the Committee on Science Commerce and Transportation.… Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on Earlier today, the House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed its version of the National Nanotechnology Initiative reauthorization amendments, H.R. 554. The passage was by "voice vote," meaning there is no record of who may have voted for or against the reauthorization. This is the next step towards complete reauthorization of the NNI.… Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on Yesterday, Rep. Bart Gordon (D-TN), Chairman of the House Committee on Science and Technology introduced H.R. 554, the National Nanotechnology Initiative Amendments Act of 2009. This is a bill identical to the 110th Congress’s H.R. 5490, which passed the House by a 407 to 6 vote, but stalled in the Senate. According to the Committee’s … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on The saga of the status of the NNI Reauthorization Bill in the Senate, S. 3274, continues. Remember we provided information previously about the status of reauthorization and the dangers involved in letting the legislation lapse. The NanoBusiness Alliance is reporting that the markup for the bill is now scheduled for September, but no further information is … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on Today’s lesson is: never count your chickens before they hatch. You’ll remember a few months back, the House overwhelmingly passed legislation reauthorizing the National Nanotechnology Initiative, and slightly modifying some of the work they do. At the time, I surmised (to myself) that passage through the Senate was likely to be quick. Perhaps not.… Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on We previously discussed the pending National Nanotechnology Initiative re-authorization here, and we’re back today to let you know that the House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed the bill.… Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on On May 7, 2008 the House Committee on Science and Technology unanimously approved H.R. 5940, the National Nanotechnology Initiative Amendments Act of 2008. The bill now moves onto the full House, and then Senate for full consideration. As stated by the Committee, "H.R. 5940, does not substantially alter NNI, but makes adjustments to some of the … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on The House Science and Technology Committee will hear testimony on the NNI Amendments Act of 2008 on April 16, 2008. Those scheduled to speak before the committee include: Floyd Kvamme, co-chairman of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology; Sean Murdock, executive director of the NanoBusiness Alliance; Joseph Krajcik, associate dean for research … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on The 2009 budgets for the US Environmental Protection Agency and National Nanotechnology Initiative have been released, and the numbers are interesting. Both agencies have funds available for nano research, however note that NNI’s numbers are to help that office coordinate efforts among 26 federal agencies while EPA’s portion is only a small piece of the … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on In a strange twist of bureaucratic overkill, Congress directed EPA to contract with the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) to develop a federal strategy for researching the environmental, health, and safety risks of nanotechnology. Did you get that? Congress is telling EPA to tell NAS to develop the research strategy.… Continue Reading
