Big disruptions keep coming in smaller packages. Take the handheld ultrasound machine from Butterfly Network, a startup out of Connecticut that has basically turned a smartphone into a digital medical imaging device. The company found a way to squeeze ultrasound technology onto a single silicon chip – and charge less than $2,000 in the process. The […]
The lines between biology and computing are becoming increasingly blurred, something that was predicted by Saint Steve Jobs before his untimely demise. It’s now been more than 17 years since George Dubyah Bush created the 21st Century Nanotechnology Research and Development Act which brought nanotechnology into the limelight. Since then, the terminology has changed, but the […]
We’re all familiar with the concept of Gartner’s Hype Cycle which says that any given disruptive technology will experience a great deal of hype before everyone forgets about it and real progress starts being made. As technologies progress through the cycle, business models change, and leaders often end up becoming laggards. – the evolution of 3D […]
The ability to modify genes may be one of the most promising disruptive technologies there is today. As the general public learns about the potential of gene editing, retail investors will be looking for stocks that provide some exposure to it. In the case of gene editing, there are three stocks that would be considered pure plays on the theme […]
Disruption is one of those words in the tech world lexicon that is used as both a noun and verb. It’s also perhaps one of the most overused. It should be used to denote a true breakthrough in a technology or process that could upend an entire industry. A handheld ultrasound device for your smartphone […]
The premise of nanotechnology is that once you start looking at things smaller than 100 nanometers, you’ll notice that the normal rules of physics don’t apply. This means that you can start manipulating things to your advantage, such as creating materials that have superior properties. One desirable property is called “the hydrophobic effect” which means that a material can […]
In our recent article on DNA nanotechnology, we looked at a paper co-authored by George Church that refers to the “staggering” progress being made in gene editing. While it used to be that gene editing seemed to be synonymous with the acronym CRISPR, that’s not the case. CRISPR is just one of many methods one can use […]
As famous philosopher George Carlin used to remark, “Think about how stupid the average person is, and then realize that half of ’em are stupider than that.” One reason for the prevalence of stupidity is that mainstream conversation topics don’t revolve around anything intelligent, so we should hardly be surprised when only the nerdy kids are […]
They say good things come in small packages. Like Herve Villechaize, the French actor who played Tattoo on Fantasy Island. The idiom also applies to drugs. No, we’re not talking about the little envelope that Nick at work slips you in the breakroom every other Friday. This is about nano drug delivery – using nanoparticles […]
There’s a time in our lives when we start going to more funerals than weddings. Friends start complaining about aches and pains. They can’t remember stuff as well as they could. Diseases like cancer start picking them off like a sniper in an action movie. It’s no wonder that our recent series on “When Will […]