Big Money For NanotechBig Money For Nanotech

President Bush is seeking a significant increase in funding for nanotechnology research. The budget he sent to Congress last week requests 17% more, or $679 million, for the federal National Nanotechnology Initiative, which funds university grants.

"It's a nice healthy jump, particularly in some tight budgetary times," says Mark Modzelewski, executive director of the NanoBusiness Alliance, a trade group that seeks to advance the nascent field of research striving for devices a fraction of the diameter of a human hair.

Among the fields affected are quantum computing, which would create tiny, efficient computers thousands of times faster than today's supercomputers; advanced lithography, allowing smaller circuits to be printed on computer chips; and the construction of carbon nanotubes, which have potential uses from manufacturing semiconductors to producing high-quality flat-screen monitors.

Higher budgets in other areas, such as for NASA, climate-change studies, and research and development in networking technologies, will also support nanotech research, Modzelewski says. "There are aspects where nanotech can even apply to homeland defense," he says, such as the construction of high-tech emulsions capable of killing anthrax spores.