On the homepage
Cranes
Out There
Valentine's
NewsBreak
Honing the Edge
Nanotechnology: A risky frontier?
RUSHFORD, MINN. -- Inside a cramped back room at Rushford Hypersonic, a start-up headquartered in southeastern Minnesota, sits a cube-like machine that throws a mean atomic fastball.
At the push of a button, the reactor hurls atoms toward a substrate material at eight times faster than the speed of sound.
The result is a coating that significantly strengthens industrial tools such as knives and drill bits. Rushford's technology, licensed from the University of Minnesota, is just one example of how local companies, from corporate giants such as Medtronic Inc. and Seagate Technology to start-ups like Rushford, Vixar Inc., and BioCee Inc., are embracing nanotechnology.
"It's the next generation," said Rushford CEO Daniel Fox, who bills his start-up as the first nanotechnology company in rural Minnesota. "It's what's coming. Nanotech does not need to be done by just big corporations like IBM and Ford. If we don't do it, we're going to be left behind because the rest of the world is really pushing it."
Broadly defined, nanotechnology is the science of coaxing special properties out of matter less than 100 nanometers. At that small size -- one nanometer equals 1/10,000 the width of a human hair -- some matter displays unique characteristics, such as greater surface size, electrical conductivity and resistance to liquids like water. The result is batteries that pack more juice, light bulbs that use less energy, and, further down the road, medical devices that can deliver drugs and stem cells to diseased tissue anywhere in the body. In Rushford's case, the coating's nanoparticles bind closer together, increasing hardness, resisting fracture and better tolerating heat.
Read more...
A bio border battle
Part 1: Wisconsin has biotechnology investment down to a science, bounding ahead of Minnesota with a broad, tax-friendly strategy. Coming tomorrow, part 2: Badger State's tech boom.
Photo right: Harry Norris, president and CEO of Rapid Diagnostek
Badger State's tech boom
Part 2: A look under the hood at Wisconsin's biotech start-up machine reveals a powerfully successful combination of academic and commercial cooperation.
More from this series:
-
U project looks to future
The first phase of the school's ambitious biotech park opens in October near TCF Bank Stadium. -
UEL still finding its feet
The St. Paul facility is having trouble with its identity amid a recession and a diluted relationship with the U. -
Evolutionary ideas shape technological revolutions
Sometimes the most innovative technology already exists. It just means using it in a different way. -
Biotech's third wave
Green chemistry start-ups in the Midwest ramp up to prove they can move from the lab to the factory. -
Five for the future: Minnesota's emerging industries
As Minnesota's medical device industry matures, state and industry officials worry what new technologies are in the pipeline. Here is a closer look at some promising possibilities. -
Clean contender sets up shop in Minnesota
If Minnesota becomes an alternative-energy powerhouse, Doug Cameron will likely have played a key role. -
Willmar finds a way to innovate
A former state psychiatric hospital campus has become a hub for technological innovation in a small city. -
Biotech companies follow the money
Cool investor response to one firm's diabetes therapy underscores the state's medical-technology dilemma. -
As economy sours, some clipped wings
Start-ups are caught in a fiscal purgatory as falling real estate values and a sinking stock market have angel investors pulling back. -
A Swedish solution for biofuels
Clean-tech opportunities from Sweden? You betcha. -
Quiet confidence, proven competence
Bonnie Baskin just seems to know the next big thing and gets into that business before others catch on. She founded and sold two successful medical-services companies and now raises racehorses for profit. -
Truly, a battle-tested leader
As a 19-year-old Lebanese Red Cross volunteer, Nadimi Yared, CEO of Brooklyn Park-based CVRx Inc., dodged car bombs, raced into war zones and negotiated with armed militia groups. -
Money is his weapon of choice
Venture capitalist Tony Miller prescribes an attack of radical change to reform the nation's health care system ... and he backs it up with money. -
Idea man: 270 patents
Minnesota's most prolific inventor -- creator of a stopwatch-sized ICD and much, much more -- just keeps tinkering. -
Angel investor tax credit again bedeviled at Legislature
The state of Minnesota's attempt to win passage for a bill to lure start-up investors with tax credits was stripped down. -
Venturing to be No. 1 in hit products
Scouting for Best Buy's future hot sellers has led the nation's big electronics retailer into the venture-capital arena. It's also a way to help get new products onto shelves first and exclusively. -
His job: Magician
The University of Minnesota's research VP brings his experience honed in Madison to jump-start innovation in the Gopher state. -
U's transfer problem
The University of Minnesota needs more eggs ... and more baskets. With time running out on its royalty income stream, the U is scrambling to find the next Medtronic.
