Unlocking nano secrets

An open or shut case for nanotechnology secrets

GrapheneShould nanotechnology R&D be more open to allow it to thrive in the commercial world, or should companies working in this field be more secretive? Paradoxically, the answer seems to be that keeping secrets stifles innovation and reduces patent success. According to Associate Professor of Management at Pennsylvania State University Abington, Steven McMillan, companies should adopt an open policy towards publication of their R&D results as is common in research institutes, university research departments and academia in general.

McMillan points out that his team’s earlier research has demonstrated that for the pharmaceutical industry, openness is rather important. In that arena, companies are keen to put results into the public domain, to collaborate with academia, and to publish in the open literature. Of course, the patent work is usually undertaken in parallel and “open” publication is done in such a way that patent protection is not compromised by publication in a scientific journal.

Nevertheless, openness is the convention and the research suggests that those companies who are more secretive tend not to fare as well as their open counterparts when it comes to profitable outcomes from their innovations. McMillan and colleagues previously developed a game-theory model akin to the well-known Prisoner’s Dilemma that demonstrated how openness is superior to secrecy.

McMillan has turned to the emerging, burgeoning and positively thriving field of nanotechnology (also known as nanotech and nano) with a view to uncovering parallel phenomenon among the open and secret companies in that area. He has analysed the NSF funded Nanobank with its database of some 600,000 scientific papers, 250,000 patents, and over 50,000 grants to see if any patterns emerge and demonstrated once again that those nano companies that publish openly seem to be the ones that succeed in terms of their R&D performance. Conversely, eschewing open publication is generally to the detriment of the nano company that takes that stance.

Research Blogging IconG. Steven McMillan (2010). Openness vs. secrecy in nanotechnology International Journal of Technology Intelligence and Planning, 6 (3), 205-209

Current science news

A few grabs from the current science news:

  • My interview with Lucy Marcus on funding blue skies research – My interview with Lucy Marcus on why blue skies research should receive continued funding is now online in The Euroscientist magazine
  • Tabloid reporting goes pear-shaped – The newspapers have extrapolated the findings from this research to reach unsupported conclusions that “curves will make you live longer”. Rather, the research has two key findings:<br />
    Firstly, different mechanisms lie behind weight gain in the abdomen and in the thighs.<br />
    Secondly, adults who put on weight in their lower body are less likely to do so in their abdomen.
  • Latest alchemical happenings – The Alchemist gets a taste for chocolate this week with genomics news that could improve cocoa crops but hopes to avoid the sickly waters of Spain where evidence is trickling out that in one region at least cocaine, ecstasy and heroin are to be found in irrigation water. Viagra looks set to save prostate cancer sufferers from a lot of heart ache while "dry water" could help solve the CO2 problem. Laser cooling of molecules also takes us another step towards the quantum computer. Finally, the latest NIH research award could improve understanding of the chemistry of programmed cell death and open up countless new avenues of disease research.
  • IVF pioneer 2010 Nobel prize – Robert G. Edwards is the 2010 Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine for development of the in vitro fertilization (IVF) procedure, which has so far led to the birth of around 4 million people.
  • Top ten cracked conjectures in science – There are some bizarre theories out there and for some reason the sciencebase inbox seems to attract the attention of their creators. Here's a list of the top ten of recent times…which I generously refer to as cracked conjectures.
  • Loss of science base will hurt economy – Don't worry folks, contrary to headlines in the British papers, sciencebase ain't going anywhere and will keep you up to date on the latest science news as usual throughout the cuts!

Blood pressure anxiety

Is it a sign of hypochondria to get white coat syndrome when measuring your own blood pressure? I asked this question on my personal Facebook page as a little joke with a hint of seriousness. My doctor and I are currently re-evaluating my blood pressure medicine, and I have been instructed to keep tabs on my bp and pulse for a couple of weeks.

Now, I am well aware that a visit to the doctor causes anxiety in a lot of people, especially when they have to have their blood pressure taken. Just the site of a sphygmomanometer’s pumping cuff can cause a hypertensive spike. It’s known in the trade as white-coat syndrome, although I don’t think I’ve ever had a doctor in a white coat measure my blood pressure. Anyway, hypertensive or pensive, I am curious as to whether WCS is a common issue for people taking their own blood pressure as I certainly get tense when I wrap the cuff around my bicep and get pumping (it’s an automated device, as it happens, so the machine does the pumping and recording for me).

Maria Sosa suggested that my anxiety is simply a transference of the fear of the white coat to the inflatable cuff, although Diane Richards suggested that it would only be a sign of hypochondria if I were wearing a white coat. So, maybe I need to get a stethoscope to hang around my neck too, although my handwriting is probably too legible for me to have ever been a practicing GP. Richards added that in the US filling in the health insurance forms is enough to raise anyone’s blood pressure.

The conversation went on…but then it occurred to me that perhaps the only way around the problem, whether it’s hypochondria or not, would be to have a device that could monitor blood pressure continuously. I believe some research has been done in that area, but could not find a portable device for home use that is available anywhere. The problem is that a conventional blood pressure monitor, the “sphyg” with the inflatable cuff, works on the principle of squeezing an artery, usually in your arm to the point where it stops (temporarily) the flow of blood like a tourniquet. The pressure on the cuff is then slowly released and the pressure at which the pulse first returns is recorded. That’s the systolic, pumping pressure of your cardiovascular system. The doctor or machine continues to slowly release the pressure on the cuff until again the pulse cannot be heard/felt (the cuff isn’t pressing hard enough at that point to feel the pulse of blood in the artery), and the pressure is recorded at this point. That’s the diastolic, “resting”, pressure of the system.

A nice healthy blood pressure would be 120 mmHg (millimetres of mercury) systolic over 70 diastolic, but anything up to 140/85 is fine, according to the British Heart Foundation. “If you have heart or circulatory disease, including being told you have coronary heart disease, angina, heart attack or stroke, have diabetes or kidney disease, then your blood pressure should be below 130/80mmHg,” the BHF says.

Even higher is perfectly normal, but epidemiology suggests that the higher the blood pressure the greater the risk of cardiovascular disease (heart problems and stroke, in particular) if the raised blood pressure is left untreated. Meanwhile, I’ve been keeping a record of my home bp readings on BP-Chart.com, an aptly named site. It’s a simple matter to register and then add your readings together with any notes you think pertinent. Not sure whether my GP will want me to turn up with my iPod Touch to show her the readings, so I may have to print them off in advance.

FitBitIn searching for a continuous blood pressure monitor I also spotted FitBit, which looks quite interesting. It’s basically a clip on device with an accelerometer inside (like the ones found in Wii controllers and iPhones) that simply keeps tabs on your activity and sleeping it then converts your movements into an estimate of “calories” burned, steps taken, distance travelled and your sleep quality. You then hook it up to your PC to see how you’re doing in your fitness program or whether you are sleeping well. The FitBit was also mentioned in a recent TED Talk (by Gary Wolf on the quantified self) about how we are heading towards greater awareness of our biometrics as part of improvements in taking care of our own health.

When I mentioned the FitBit on the Facebook page, Richards chipped in with the idea that it would be “cool if a lot of people were wired up and we could begin to correlate blood pressure with national news cycles.” Many a true word said in jest. Continual monitoring of health indicators for a random sample of the population would be very useful for all kinds of epidemiology. Although Robert Slinn thinks he would be panicked if he were being monitored continuously. Continuous monitoring of blood pressure, blood glucose etc might also be coupled to automated drug dispensing, perhaps from an implanted (MEMS type) device to give fine control over one’s vital signs throughout the day and night. Prescribing on auto pilot, you might call it.

New Sciencebase element

I’ve updated the Sciencebase tumblr account, for those of you who would like an alternative one-stop shop for science and technology news and views from David Bradley. The site aggregates the Sciencebase, Sciencetext, SciScoop, and Reactive Reports newsfeeds as well as my “likes” in Google Reader.

To celebrate, I’ve created a new element icon and based it, this time, on an actual chemical element mashed with the tumblr floral logo.

sciencebase delicious bookmarksIn case you missed it there’s also a sciencebase elemental delicious icon floating around on the site somewhere. The links I bookmark in delicious usually include science and technology posts and news items that catch my eye at random times throughout the week.

Science news with a spectral twist

My latest science updates on SpectroscopyNOW.com:

  • Soft solar cell – US researchers have demonstrated that water-gel-based solar devices can act like "artificial leaves" heralding the possibility of soft matter solar energy conversion devices.
  • X-Ray resistance – An X-ray structure determined by US researchers reveals details of the only remaining class of multidrug resistance transporters that remained to be described. The work has implications for antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria, as well as for developing hardy strains of agricultural crops.
  • Ionic liquids are a gas – A gas-phase Raman spectroscopic study of the "green" solvents known as room temperature ionic liquids has been used to offer a clearer understanding of the nature of their underlying chemistry. The study reveals that in the gas phase each ion of the pair exists as a distinct molecule.
  • NMR goes up to 11 (and beyond) – A technique to amplify nuclear magnetic resonance signals 50-fold or more can be applied to the surfaces of solid-state samples, according to research published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.
  • Stable dyes – New dyes that have sharp absorptions and fluorescence emission bands in the red or near infrared as well high molar absorption coefficients and high fluorescence quantum yields could be used widely optical engineering, analytical chemistry, biological imaging and sensors, as well as in materials science.
  • Noble medical thermometer – "Thermometry based on hyperpolarized xenon sensors improves the accuracy of currently available MRI thermometry methods," the researchers conclude, "potentially it could give rise to biomedical applications of biosensors functionalized for binding to specific target molecules."
  • It’s like, okay to say like – Teenage vernacular has always confused adults, particularly when the terminology seems to fly in the face of conventional grammar. Of course, any cunning linguist will tell you that language evolves and that yesterday's perfect grammar rule is often tomorrow's quaintly archaic phrasing. Moreover, the errant use of the word "like", which often like litters youthful conversation is merely the current filler word, the um and ah if you will of street and schoolyard vernacular. It's merely a part of yoof culture, innit? Get over it, Emma, why don't ya?
  • Is chemistry worth it? – One in every five pounds in the UK economy is dependent on developments in chemistry research (£250billion, in other words), according to a new report published today. Science is Vital. It really is. Cut the cuts.
  • Enjoy yourself…it’s later than you think! – There is a 50 per cent chance that time will end within the next 3.7 billion years, according to a new model of the universe.