Wine, Aspirin and Nanotech Pseudo-Mergers

A couple interesting items across my desk this week.

One from the nanotech safety-mavens at Rice University made me smile. Seems that manufacturing buckyballs, quantum dots, carbon nanotubes and the like, is about as risky as making wine (I love wine) or aspirin (take a little one everyday) and much less dangerous to the environment than oil refining and other common industrial processes. Just remember, this study assessed manufacturing and raw material risks, not human risks associated with contact, inhaling or in vivo usage. EPA and NSF-funded Rice and the insurance industry, led by Swiss Re have been instrumental in driving research in this important area.

In the "things are not always what they seem" catalog, San Diego biotech powerhouse, Invitrogen took over not one, but two, small tech private companies, Quantum Dot and and BioPixels. Clearly, Invitrogen wants to dominate cutting-edge technologies related to fluorescent nanoparticles, and the nanotech community is greeting the news with hosannas. It speaks highly of the science, but I don't know if investors made any money on this; no one is talking $$$s or details. "Don't let the good news spoil all the fun." I see this (call me a cockeyed optimist, I guess) as more evidence that - A. private nanotech company valuations are coming DOWN - B. some good companies CAN'T get another VC round on their way to IPO-heaven (if they coulda, they woulda) and C. larger companies will buy good small technology companies at the right price - LOW.