Nanotechnology, as a multi-disciplinarian, system level arena of scientific and technical development, is rapidly evolving away from the realms of academic obscurity, and into becoming the transitional threshold of an emergent industrial revolution. Nanotechnology is a collection of molecular scale manufacturing systems, which collectively should be viewed as a gateway to an entire new industrial infrastructure.

Nano-industrial infrastructure development, even in its current, early formative stages, already has significant economic implications affecting industries and markets ranging from computing, telecommunications, and aerospace, to medicine, energy, and ecological applications, but most importantly, nano-industrial infrastructure development represents a gateway to products, processes, and applications that are not possible via any other manufacturing means.

The "Moore's 2nd Law" imperative:
Molecular Electronics Corp.  (Texas) is utilizing its patented process to “grow” biomolecular interconnects for nano-electronic circuits.   Molecular Robotics is another new company which operates simultaneously in biotechnology and self assembling electronics.  HP, IBM, Seimens, Motorola, and a number of collaborating research institutions  utilizing DNA, and other nanobiological materials, are exploring the realm of “growing” molecular circuitry.   The main motivation for this is more critical than many may realize.  The cost of investment into current chip manufacturing systems is rapidly outpacing the profit potential of the chips that these systems produce.  At this start point, today, the biotech industry provides much of the self assembling, self organizing biomolecular materials which enables the first “layer” of nanotech applications, among which is the next generation of nanocomputing platforms.  This next generation of computing capacity folds directly back into the biotech industry, where the most robust supercomputing platforms on earth are already being utilized.      

The infotech / biotech / nanotech operational ecology is emerging, as a highly complex, hierarchical system of interrelated elements and processes, not necessarily confined to biological elements, but behaving as a biological system

Key transition points in the emergent nano-industrial infrastructure
1)    Biological materials and systems are being leveraged from the biotech industry base and forming a foundation of biomolecular building and nano-mechanical manipulation components
2)    Bio-electronic materials, and other forms of conductive nanotubes and “nano-forms” are being leveraged into nano-electronic applications
3)    Nano-photonic materials, many of which also come out of the biological arena, are currently being investigated for future computing, storage, and sensory applications
4)    Infomatics, CAD, materials and molecular modeling, and other forms of software engines are being integrated into unified nano, micro, and meso scale design platforms    
Major criteria for the measurement for nano-investment ROI potential:  
1)    A molecular scale manufacturing modality which greatly improves the performance and production metrics of existing products / markets
2)    Manufacturing processes which create new marketshare not possible via any other means