In turn, that would cut carbon-dioxide emissions by 11 billion pounds. Researchers at the California Institute of Technology think they're close to cracking Nature's codes. Still, many questions remain, he admits. We don't know enough about that to mimic it artificially,'' so for now the sniffer will sound the alarm with silicon circuits. But in a year or two, he predicts, Caltech will know how to do a far broader imitation of life.
Some scientists smell commercial payoffs and are forming companies.
Earlier this year, Smalley of Rice teamed up with Bob G. Gower, former chairman of Lyondell Petrochemical Co., to create Carbon Nanotechnologies Inc. in Houston to produce nanotubes. Minnesota's Stein recently co-founded MicroSurfaces Inc. in Minneapolis to market mesoscale coatings. The new century is off to a good start in nanotech. It will be years before nanotubes and nanocomposites become as familiar as silicon. But the Nano Age should be in full swing around 2010.