Reading time: 3 – 5 minutes

I just finished a book last night that was incredible. If you are a physics geek like I am or even if you just want to know more about a theory that could possibly explain everything than The Elegant Universe by Brian Greene is for you! Greene writes in such a way that anyone can understand the gist of what he is talking about so it is great book for anyone. With that said, it is a pretty intense book and not a book I would recommend for light reading. I took quite a bit of time with the book myself since I really wanted to try and wrap my head around the concepts.

In the book Greene takes readers on a journey through the history of physics from Newton to Einstein and on to String Theory (M-theory). The background you get in the beginning of the book is a perfect primer to the more advanced string theory. Basically, string theory says that, rather than point particles, the universe is in fact made up of microscopic strings that vibrate in different manners and that the vibrations actually correspond to what we see as electrons, protons and so on. Not only that, string theory also provides for 11 dimentions and possibly parallel universes! Fascinating stuff…

Even more fascinating is the fact that string theory explains all, or most of, the physical properties (relativity, quantum mechanics, etc.) that we already observe. String theory implies that they should be there! Basically, if string theory was the first thing that was found, everything else we (and by we I mean physicists) have discovered would have been a given. String theory also gives rise to some interesting black hole explanations but I don’t want to give too much away. Well, OK, I’ll give a little bit away but you’re going to want to read the book to get the full picture.

The center of black holes actually have the same characteristics that physicists think were in place before the “big bang.” They have been able to figure this out, more or less, through string theory. The interesting conclusion that can be drawn is that the centers of black holes are actually universes or universes before the big bang. Why don’t we see them you may ask… well, the black holes event horizon shields us from seeing anything inside. The event horizon is the point of no return. No light can escape past it and out of the black hole and all matter that passes the line will be sucked in forever.

The book seriously blows the mind. It is an incredible piece by one of the people on the forefront of string theory but it is still written in a way that “regular people” (who are willing to put in the time) can understand the big concepts. I recommend giving it a read if you want to take a look at the BIG picture through a very small lens.

For more on the Elegant Universe and string theory please visit the Elegant Universe webpage. Also, you can watch the entire NOVA special hosted by Brian Geene himself and entitled the Elegant Universe online. Enjoy!

– I am going to put a piece up in my “normal” style very soon as I was inspired to write on google and yahoo through a piece written by Jason at 37 signals today. Look out for that or, better yet, if you are not already subscribed please subscribe and you’ll get my posts automagically!

Reading time: 2 – 2 minutes

In a follow up to the piece I wrote a couple of days ago about AI I had to mention the DARPA Grand Challenge. The competition, completed on Saturday, October 8th, was designed to accelerate research and development in autonomous ground vehicles to help save American lives on the battlefield. The Stanford team’s entry, Stanley (below), won the contest and was sponsored by chip giant Intel and VC powerhouse Mohr Davidow Ventures.

To sum up the event I will quote the same New York Times lines that SiliconBeat did:

The Stanford scientists who led the 18-month effort to build Stanley said they saw their victory as a significant leap forward in the field of artificial intelligence, a discipline that has long suffered from big promises that did not pan out.

“This is for people who say, ‘Cars can’t drive themselves,’ ” said Sebastian Thrun, the director of the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and co-leader of the Stanford team. “These are the same people who said the Wright brothers wouldn’t fly.”

Congrats to the Stanford team for their amazing accomplishment. To win a grueling 132 mile race through the Nevada desert and be one of only 5 finishers out of 23 entries is truly something nevermind the fact that the car drove itself! The Stanford team walks away with a well deserved $2mm prize for their advances in AI technology.

Reading time: 6 – 9 minutes

I have been hesitant to evangelize nanotech on my blog because I know VCs are still a little timid about investing in the area. Quite frankly, they should be. Nanotech hasn’t made sense for VCs until recently because the bubble isn’t expected to hit until around 2010 putting nano far outside many VCs acceptable time-to-exit area (for those who don’t know, generally VC funds are set up as 10 year limited partnerships with investing being done within the first 3 – 5 years and exits coming before the 10 years are up). Also, nano isn’t the traditional model many VCs are used to. Nano is an enabling technology. Essentially, nano is a way to make things better than they already are or enable things that were impossible without it. This means that you would invest in, let’s say, a materials company like Nano-Tex or a pharma company like QuantumDot rather than a “nanotech company.” In English, Nano needs to be used in convergence with other scientific disciplines.

How did a business guy get into nano you may ask. Well, for one, I am a tech/science geek and proud of it. However, the real answer is that in my senior year of college I did a lot of work with a professor of mine, Dr. John McIntosh, on nanotech with the intent of forming an advisory company (finding funding, strategy, etc.) to small nano upstarts called Nano-Oracle. In fact, if you click on the link you’ll see our web shell my friend Rick built that was never populated with real data. Anyhow, John ended up moving to Boise to teach at Boise State while I stayed in Boston which put a halt on things and some big connections didn’t pan out so the venture died. However, it left me with a love for all that is nano. With that said, I was recently inspired to continue my nanotech evangelization by Steve Jurvetson’s blog where he is always talking nano and the latest edition of Small Times Magazine.

The new Small Times cover story was about nanotech’s role in the fight against cancer. Now, I absolutely love the materials end of nano which is already being used (textiles, carbon nanotubes, etc.) and is making things like the space elevator a real possibility (self promotion alert: I wrote a piece in LiftPort’s SE book about the SE finances so stay tuned for that). I even have an artists conception of the space elevator hanging on my wall. However, the part about nano that always got me going was the fight against disease.

The first thing that got me excited was work on gold nanoshells being done at Rice by Naomi Halas, PhD and Jennifer West, PhD who have since spun out their innovation into a company called Nanospectra Biosciences. Their patented Nanoshell particles allow for non-invasive medical therapies. The interesting thing about nanoshells is that they can be tuned to absorb or scatter light at desired wavelengths, including where human tissue is relatively transparent. This allows specific cells, cancerous tumors for example, to be targeted. Once the nanoshells reach the tumor they can be heated through infrared light, which isn’t harmful to surrounding tissue, eventually killing the cancer cells. Here are the benefits of “nanoshell-based tumor ablation” found on Nanospectra’s website.

• Targeting to specific cells and tissues to avoid damage to surrounding tissue;
• Superior side effect profile than targeted chemotherapeutic agents or photodynamic therapy;
• Repeatability because of:
• no “tissue memory” as in radiation therapy, and
• biocompatibility and superior side effect profile; and
• Ability to treat non-spherical tumors, such as glioblastomas, metastases, and inoperable tumors.

Nanospectra is just one of the amazing companies using nanotechnology to do great things. However, VC funding hasn’t been easy to come by. As with other nanotech companies, Nanospectra is solely funded by grants as VCs investment horizons haven’t meshed with nano. However, this is beginning to change. There are about 700 nano companies in the US with about 75 of them receiving some type of venture capital investment. VC investing in the sector in 2002 and 2003 was robust with about $700mm invested. This investment pace slowed in 2004 due to VCs exit opportunities being called into question by the Nanosys IPO pull out. However, more big names are getting back into the game.

Kleiner Perkins, Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Venrock Associates are leading the way with smaller firms like Global Catalyst Partners and Israeli firm MMT Funds investing in nano. MMT Funds, or Millennium Materials Technologies, is dedicating a lot of their fund to nano investing. They can do this because they are focusing on materials which get to an exit much quicker than bio-nano companies. MMT has actually invested in a company called Power Paper which produces batteries that integrate into paper products. The company is initially targeting the electronic greeting card market, games and other consumer products. Clearly a simplified path to revenue compared to Nanospectra.

Before I close out my initial nanotech column I just want to touch on another hot space for nano innovation, cleantech. Cleantech has been thrown into the spotlight again though the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina and the well known aging of the grid in the US. Small Times did a whole issue on the energy crisis and innovation. It was a great issue and I suggest giving it a read. The major thing that nanotech is enabling today in the space is fuel cell creation. There is one company in particular that is worth a look, Integrated Fuel Cell Technologies (IFCT).

IFCT is currently funded by a small venture capital group out of Massachusetts, not too far from where I write this blog, called Echelon Ventures. I had the pleasure of speaking to some of the GPs at Echelon a while back and I heard great things from them about this company. I am not sure what is public so I will just include the company description from Echelon’s website.

Integrated Fuel Cell Technologies, Inc. (IFCT) has created, patented, and successfully tested in prototype, a breakthrough design for a fuel cell. With this design, IFCT will make not only the world’s smallest fuel cell but also the first fuel cell design to be mass manufactured at an economically viable price. Potential markets for economically viable fuels cells, which are extraordinarily broad and deep, include the market for portable power, stationary power, and, potentially, automotive.

Small doesn’t even begin to describe it. These fuel cells are incredible! They will revolutionize portable power and many other spaces.

Well, that is all for my initial nanotech sermon but I will have more coming in the future so be sure stay tuned (i.e. please subscribe to my feed)! As always, feedback is encouraged and appreciated.