December 2003

Threshold News

Science & technology research services expand

Alison Taylor, Ph.D., has joined Threshold as Project Director for Science and Technology Research, significantly expanding our capabilities in this area. Alison will lead the Threshold team focused on patent, chemistry, and other science and technology related research. Alison is a biochemist and information scientist with 15 years experience in the pharmaceutical industry and related fields. Most recently, she was manager of chemical and patent information scientists at Pfizer Inc. (formerly Pharmacia). Her major clients included scientists, patent attorneys, and strategic research teams. From 1995 to 1999, she was a technical information scientist and information center manager at the NutraSweet Kelco division of Monsanto, where she gained valuable information skills in the areas of food chemistry and API (active pharmaceutical ingredient) manufacturing. She also spent six years as a research biochemist at Abbott Laboratories focusing on microbial screens for new drug targets and gene sequence analysis.

Ken Des Jardins will continue as Project Director for Business Research.

Opportunities In Business

RFID is all the buzz

Radio frequency identification, or RFID, has become a hot topic among some of our clients. And according to the publications we read, the technology appears to be gaining momentum toward replacing bar codes in a variety of tracking applications.

RFID is a way of tracking physical objects using tags that consist of a small strip of plastic containing a computer chip and a radio antenna. The major retail chains, particuarly Wal-Mart, are pushing their suppliers to adopt RFID. According to a recent article from Harvard Business School, those that move quickly to adopt the technology will see greater costs than those who wait (due to decreasing technology costs over time), but also stand to see the biggest gains in market share.

Opportunities in Technology

Nanotechnology: REALLY tiny machines

In 2001, Scientific American highlighted the promise of nanotechnolgy and asked whether the burgeoning scientific field could meet its ambitious goals. (Click here to learn more about nanotechnology from Scientific American.) Two years later, we're seeing a flood of articles in this area, particularly with Congress just last month passing legislation to increase federal funding for nanotechnology research to $3.7 billion over the next four years.

Nanotechnology is the science of building matter on a very small scale, using building blocks less than one-70,000th the width of a human hair. (Nancy McGuire describes how such nanostructured solids are formed in her article "The Architecture of the Very Small," in the November issue of Today’s Chemist at Work.) Federal research experts have predicted that the market for nanotechnology devices could reach $1 trillion a year within a decade or so. Examples of potential applications include quantum computers, lightweight bulletproof armor, and tiny cameras that can be inserted into the body.

Nanotechnology research does have its critics, especially in Europe, where stricter controls on scientists are in place. In the United States, environmentalist and social critic Bill McKibben, in his recent book Enough: Staying Human in an Engineered Age, warns of the dangers of introducing nano-sized particles into the environment. Also, Chemical & Engineering News recently published a dialog between two nanotechnology advocates (Rick Smalley and Eric Drexler) on the feasibility of "molecular manufacturing" and its implications for humanity. However, wide approval of the U.S. nantechnology bill may be a signal that efforts by groups trying to raise concerns about potential dangers have yet to take hold here.

For more on the national nanotechnology initiative, visit http://nano.gov. You can also learn more about the actual chemistry behind these inventions from the American Chemical Society (ACS) and its publications.