By W.A Wijewardena –
Dr. W.A. Wijewardena
Open campaign for learning nanotechnology
When the new students arrived in the Bangkok-based international university, Asian Institute of Technology a month ago, a poster displayed practically on every wall on campus had invited students to offer courses on nanotechnology. It had boldly announced: “Nanotechnology will be the future of the scientific world and students would immensely benefit by offering those courses. Such an open campaign for enlisting students in nanotechnology courses has been very common in universities in advanced countries supported by leading private firms. But it is still a rarity in higher educational institutions in Sri Lanka where the subject matter is not yet known even within the faculties of sciences.”
Initiative by SID Sri Lanka Chapter
To fill the vacuum, an international think-tank – the Sri Lanka Chapter of the Washington DC-based Society for International Development or SID – had organised a conference in Colombo two weeks ago on the apt theme ‘Technology and Development: Can nanotechnology leap-frog the development process?’ The current President of SID – Sri Lanka Chapter Dr. Upananda Vidanapathirana, explained why the conference was initiated: “Looking at emerging global trends and developments in the technology sphere, it is essential to position Sri Lanka to take full advantage of these opportunities for the economy to reach a higher growth momentum. Nanotechnology is considered one of the fastest growing sectors and one that is projected to grow exponentially into the next decade.”
An assembly of a gamut of experts and policy makers
To attain this goal SID – Sri Lanka Chapter had assembled a gamut of policymakers and experts on the subject to address the conference. From the Government’s side, it was addressed by two bigwigs in the science and technology field in Sri Lanka – Senior Minister of Scientific Affairs Tissa Vitharana and Minister of Technology, Research and Atomic Power Patalie Champika Ranawaka.
It was also addressed by Cambridge University Don and Sri Lankan-born top scientist Professor Gehan Amaratunga. Three other experts on the subject – Professor Ajith de Alwis of Moratuwa University, Dr. Bandula Perera of Public Utilities Commission and Anushka Wijesinghe of the Institute of Policy Studies, participated in the subsequent panel discussion.
Sri Lanka’s snail pace march, while the world is moving fast
The initiative by SID – Sri Lanka Chapter to bring both policy-makers and experts on the subject together to a single forum is commendable. When other countries had in fact leapfrogged in nanotechnology a long time ago, Sri Lanka’s track record in that respect had not been that encouraging. Singapore, before the advent of the new millennium, instructed all its higher education institutions to concentrate on research and education in nanotechnology, among others, and supported both the Nanyang Institute of Technology and the National University of Singapore with generous government grants to undertake research in the subject.
South Korea, through government funding, initiated a 15-year nanotechnology development initiative in 2001 with the objective of joining the league of world’s nanotechnology leaders by 2015. Several countries in the region jumped the bandwagon of South Korea to develop partnerships in nanotechnology research and development work. Two such countries are Thailand and India.
A Lux Research Report – an independent research and advisory firm based in Boston, USA – issued in 2010 has categorised South Korea as a dominant nanotechnology nation in the world among three other nations, namely, USA, Germany and Japan. It has also identified the UK – the country which came up with nanotechnology initial research through its University of Sussex with Harry Kroto as the main researcher – as an ivory tower nation with high nano knowledge. Similarly, China and India are emerging nations in the field (available here ).
Public-private partnership in nanotechnology research
Sri Lanka’s nanotechnology initiative bore fruits with the establishment of the Sri Lanka Institute of Nanotechnology, or SLINTEC, a product of indefatigable efforts of Senior Minister Tissa Vitharana. This writer recalls a meeting with him in 2008 at which he explained the enormous difficulties he faced in setting up a research institute in Sri Lanka due to the lukewarm attitude of top policymakers.
Thus, the leftist-policy oriented Vitharana went for a novel model of establishing SLINTEC as a public-private partnership at which research was linked to commercial development through the private sector. Now of course Sri Lanka has gone full way in that direction by establishing a nanotechnology park in a satellite town close to Colombo. Yet, graduates passing out with nanotechnology as the major field do not find suitable employment fitting to their skills.
This writer recently met a first class honours graduate from a local university with nanotechnology as the field of specialisation working as an administrative officer in a government department signing certificates. Her choice of the job in the administrative service was due to her inability to secure a job in her specialised field for nearly three years. That was because there were no private or government nanotechnology-based institutions that could absorb her as a potential employee. In this scenario, the initiative by SID – Sri Lanka Chapter will create the necessary dialogue between the private sector at large and the budding nanotechnology research arm in the country to tap this resource base to design its destiny.
Nano, stronger but lighter than steel
Nano means very small – precisely, one billionth of a thing. A nanometre means one billionth of a metre. Its small size can be gauged by considering the fact that a virus is 100 nanometres large – the current accepted benchmark of the maximum size of a nano-machine. The discovery of nanocarbons of such a small size was the beginning of the subsequent nano revolution that has changed the world today. Nanocarbons are more efficient, stronger and lighter than many materials that have been so far discovered. Hence, as Gehan Amaratunga mentioned in his speech at the conference, nanocarbons will help the world to produce more with less signifying its economic efficiency, definitely a plus point which it presents in this resource-constrained world. A test done in 2010 has revealed that nanocarbon cylinders are 117 times stronger than steel and 30 times stronger than Kevlar used in bulletproof vests (available here ).
The application of nanotechnology in modern production processes are so diverse that there is practically no area where it is not used.
Nano to help you grow your body organs
In medicine, a nanomachine operated through a computer outside can travel along a human vein to a point blocked by solidified lipids and repair the same obviating the necessity for a bypass surgery or an angioplasty therapy. Drugs can be directly administered through the skin – a more portent method than taking them orally as is being done today.
In biomedical and bioengineering applications, nanotubes can be used as biodegradable scaffolds for growing body organs, generating tissues and engineering bones by genetic engineering means. Thus, a patient with a malfunctioning kidney, for instance, does not have to wait for a donor for a kidney transplant but could have his own kidney cultivated in a laboratory.
Structures through nanotubes
In structural applications, nanotubes have come in handy because of their lightness, flexibility and superior strength. The list of application is long from day to day structures like clothing, sports-gear, combat jackets and larger applications like building tall space elevators for astronomers and scientists to travel to satellites positioned in outer space with ease. The current method of travelling to space by getting them shot into space through rockets is not only costly but also risky. One important application of nanotubes is the replacement of steel in building large structures including high-rise buildings.
Nano to help solve global energy problem
In electricity, nanotubes are used for producing nanotube based transistors, lighter but more portent batteries, and electric wires and cables. But the most revolutionary application is the nano-solar – a nanoturbine that can harvest solar energy at a low cost. Current research done in many universities in USA, mainly the University of Notre Dame, has produced a low cost nanoparticle based low cost solar cells (available here ).
A California based company Innovalight is now planning to develop a nano-solar cell like a dot and mix it up with common paints so that it could be applied to outer walls of a building to harvest solar energy. This method will replace the current silicone based solar panels (available here ). Carbon nanotubes are also used as superior conductors of electricity and heat.
Four leading nations in nanotechnology
Thus, nanotechnology is the newest scientific revolution and its applications and uses are numerous. Its commercial harvesting has been the latest breakthrough for business firms. According to Texas Nanotechnology Report 2008, by 2020, the total size of the nanotechnology market will be around $ 2.6 trillion. However, this target has been reached by nanotechnology producers by 2014 and its size today is as big as that of information and communication technology market and much bigger than the biotechnology market.
But this has been attained by world nations by investing heavily in nanotechnology research and development – an enterprise undertaken by both the government sector and the private sector. In 2005, the total investment in R&D in nanotechnology by the four big nations, namely, USA, EU, Japan and South Korea amounted to $ 4.4 billion. By 2009, this has gone up to $ 18 billion.
The world’s largest nanotechnology researcher has been USA where the annual research publications on the subject exceed 18,000. There has been a phenomenal increase in such publications since 1997 and the total of the publications by other leaders combined is well below this figure.
The number of patents in nanotechnology by US entities from 1990 to 2012 has amounted to 23,070 while the combined number of patents by Japan, South Korea and Germany stood at 6,312. The number of nanotechnology based patents by the top 20 countries during this period amounted to 34,402 and of that about two third had been obtained by US institutions.
Sri Lanka should go for a complex economy system
Thus, nanotechnology is the next big thing for the world and it is the next big thing for Sri Lanka. This is because Sri Lanka has to convert its simple economy into a complex economy if it is to sustain its current economic growth and beat the oncoming middle income country trap. This writer has emphasised on this need in a number of articles in this series.
The importance of Sri Lanka to have a concrete road map in order to make it a technologically advanced nation was discussed in an article under the title ‘Becoming a technologically advanced nation’.
The oncoming global technological revolution and its impact on Sri Lanka was presented in an article titled ‘Miracle of Technology: The second industrial revolution is in the offing’.
How Sri Lanka could get into a complex production system was analysed in two articles. One was under the title ‘Complexity Economics: How Sri Lanka could move into a complex production system’ (available here).
The other was titled ‘Sri Lanka’s Future: Convert the simple economy into a high tech based complex economy’ .
Sri Lanka is missing the bus
A general observation made in these articles is that Sri Lanka has already missed the ‘global technology-bus’ by being a passive spectator of the world’s developments in that area. The other countries in the region had teamed up with world’s giants in technology and extracted a high external benefit by being a partner of technological developments. Singapore did so by linking its universities to the best universities in USA and attracting foreign direct investments or FDIs from large corporations which had already developed high technology. South Korea, Malaysia, Taiwan and Thailand had attracted FDIs with high technology. Sri Lanka could have been a breakout nation in early 1980s but the costly ethnic war and the insane reaction of majority Sri Lankans had prevented worthwhile FDIs from coming in. An example often cited, as reported by Saman Kelegama on page 57 of in his ‘Development Under Stress’, is the shifting of the proposed manufacturing plants of two major electronics multinationals, Motorola and Harris Corporation from Sri Lanka to Malaysia and elsewhere, respectively, due to the ethnic riots of 1983. Therefore, it has been suggested that Sri Lanka should now restart its efforts at converting its economy into a complex economy which also includes development of nanotechnology.
The need is for general scientific developments
Holding a similar view, Minister Ranawaka had indicated in his address at the conference that relying on one particular sector will not be suitable for Sri Lanka to map out its future development strategy. The Minister being an engineer himself knew of the limitation which a country will have if it has concentrated only on one industry. Thus, he had suggested that while developing nanotechnology, Sri Lanka should start developing other high tech areas as well. This is indeed a must but it is not without formidable challenges.
With a proper strategy for attracting better FDIs involving high technology and establishing the ground conditions for such FDIs to flow into the country, Sri Lanka could definitely make itself a breakout nation. These ground conditions include, as this writer has been arguing throughout, the protection of property rights, observance of the Rule of Law, maintenance of law and order and establishment of an independent judiciary.
Inventions should be supported by innovation and diffusion
SLINTEC has during 2009-12 filed applications for seven patents in USA and sold two of the patents to commercial manufacturers. As Austrian-American economist Joseph Schumpeter presented in his 1943 book ‘Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy’, three conditions should be satisfied for sustainable economic growth: Invention, Innovation and Diffusion. Inventions – the seven patents which SLINTEC has applied for are examples – they are new creations but they alone are not sufficient for economic growth.
They should be commercially used by entrepreneurs through a process called ‘innovation’ and for innovation to happen, they should be made available to prospective entrepreneurs through diffusion of new knowledge.
The sale of two patents so far by SLINTEC is innovation and what SID – Sri Lanka Chapter has done is helping it to attain diffusion through dissemination of knowledge. Thus, Sri Lanka’s nanotechnology initiative, though belated, is a modest start but it has a long way to go for it to make a real contribution to Sri Lanka’s economy by serving as a ‘leap-frogger’.
Want to leap-frog? Then think of the required ground conditions
The current research initiative in nanotechnology can certainly deliver prosperity to Sri Lanka by establishing suitable ground conditions for innovation and diffusion. Then only it can make a ‘leap-frog’ of the country’s development processes. Nanotechnology is therefore necessary but not sufficient. The necessary and sufficient conditions come from both research on nanotechnology and establishing suitable ground conditions for innovation and diffusion.
Those ground conditions, as outlined above, involve development of human capital on one hand and laying a firm foundation for protecting property rights on the other. An essential prerequisite for the latter is the observance of the Rule of Law, maintenance of law and order and establishment of an independent judiciary in the country. But these are beyond the scope of either SLINTEC or SID – Sri Lanka Chapter.
*W.A Wijewardena, a former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, could be reached at waw1949@gmail.com
BBS REP / September 9, 2014
Sri Lanka can leap frog towards a dictatorship.
That is all.
/
Science Wallah / September 9, 2014
“Nanotechnology will be the future of the scientific world and students would immensely benefit by offering those courses. But it is still a rarity in higher educational institutions in Sri Lanka where the subject matter is not yet known even within the faculties of sciences.”
I pray, Sri Lanka should remain that way.
This nantechnology propaganda designed to promote it as the panacea for all our ills is one great lie similar to the “Green Revolution” in the 60s, the “Biotech Revolution” of the 80s and the 90s (remember the hype about the human genome project?) and other dead ropes that were extended to us by US “Foundations” like the Ford and Smithsonian. Our economies did not develop due to contributions by any of these “revolutions” and it not going to happen with nanotechnology, believe me.
“The Washington DC-based Society for International Development or SID” is just another disguised CIA front formed for the specific purpose.
The search for nanotechnology began as part of Pentagon “research” to find ways of killing the ‘bad guys’ without getting American soldiers to die. It arose due to recruitment problems experienced by the US forces and their racist belief that an American life is worth several thousand others. The cowardly “drone” attack has been a result of this sme project.
Contrary to what the writer is saying, Sri Lanka will miss nothing by not joining the nanotechnolgy bandwagon.
Technology different to the western model have always existed – especially in Sri Lanka where modern science is unable to explain how the perfect semi-spheres of Ruwan Weli Seya were designed and built, or the locations of sluices of Kalawewa were calculated.
Escaping the western traps on our minds is the need of the hour, not joining their mad campaigns that always have military intentions attached to them.
The first non-military application of nano particles in sun creams has now been found responsible for the alarming increase of melanoma (skin cancer) in western societies. The nanotechnology ‘pushers’, of course, keep denying such links.
By the way, I am American trained.
/
Sun / September 9, 2014
Then you should have qualities of Gota. Who was also said to have got the training in petrol sheds OR other getto areas.
Until capable ones are appointed as ministers of EDUCATION, nothing will change in srilanken Uni future. That is like you cant expect from Carpentors to do the job of Surgeons. Unfortuantley, ballige puthas in powers are that low – in analysiing the issue. Just show – to the very same levels of Premadasa is being practised by Rajapakshes. They have to be butchered and hang on lanken street corners to relieve the nation and heal their wounds first before ever making any efforts to improve them selves.
/
Science Wallah / September 9, 2014
Pardon me, I don’t engage in debate fools. Geta brain and re-join the forum.
/
ramona therese fernando / September 10, 2014
Sounds plausible, what you say, Science Wallah…..(but will be good to try out a bit, just in case).
/
ramona therese fernando / September 10, 2014
I mean, if we are to close ourselves from the progressiveness of modern technology (Western, but now China has copied), we might as well become like Burma. But SL has educated too many of her students in the modern scientific technique, and unless we want to close that, we might as well draw back their brains from other parts of the world they migrated to, and do something with them. By the time we design our own scientific systems in line with our own ancient Lankan intellect, it will be another 4-5 generations in passing. In the meantime, with all the money from casinos and hotels, it is good that Gosl is sparing some money for something good.
/
Ane Ape Salli / September 9, 2014
The group of scientists who are working in SLINTEC are just selling balloney. Not a single article is published so far in a well recognized peer reviewed scientific journals. Just few papers in no name journals. And kind of research they do in the SlINTEC is in comparison to present day cutting edge research is basically reinventing the wheel sort of thing. Of course, science team and its leaders are earning their really high salaries, and they haven’t lost financially. But all the money(it is a huge amount of funds they were given to start this initiative) that has been diverted to science research has just gone down the drain. I am not sure if the country is going to benefit from these patents because as far as the public knowledge goes all the investigators(who gets royalty from selling these partners are not Gov of SL or the partners but few sceintists in this team. So they are the ones who are going to get rich in this project. They sold just some slow releasing fertilizer to India but thing but that too is a using a common knowledge prevailed in SL farmers. Of course the top advisers, science team leaders having a great time with tax payers money, Booze, brothels and mistresses. I have no respect for this Oxford prof Don prof Who is actually entertaining his mistress with the money and time he uses to advice the SLINTEC. So I dont see any real science happening in this project to salvage our sinking economy.
/
Wera / September 9, 2014
I too am an American trained engineer and scientist. Most technologies are pioneered in the defence sector, the national labs or thru well funded university research programs. While there are many good areas that can benefit Sri Lanka I will not mention any one of them for one simple reason. I do not want to enable a despot and a murderer. Until he departs or is driven out no good suggestions ought to be made unless like this writer you are a boot-licker behaving like the three monkeys who see no evil hear no evil and speak no evil. For the time being I think Sri Lanka should continue to live in the past singing about how great we were while bashing and denigrating everything that has made the western countries and most of all the United States prosperous.
/
justice / September 9, 2014
Nanotechnology needs resources – men and money – to be entrenched in sri lanka.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanotechnology
We have brains in universities being ‘drained’ abroad and the few left behind trying to increase expenditure on education (plus research) to 6% of the GNP – and being so far unsuccessful.
We have a long way to go to reverse the ‘brain drain’ and for universities to be funded adequately enough to build and maintain laboratories for research.
But, let us dream on – the misfits a.k.a politicians may come to their senses.
/
Science Nerd / September 9, 2014
I agree with all these educated opinions. SLINTEC, give jobs to mediocre people who graduated from perhaps good schools and they are hired basically based on science team leaders contacts. People who started this initiative was few so eager returned young scientists/engineers from US who had worked on the field. They wanted to do some really ground breaking things when country is apparently becoming peaceful and But when it came off the ground(after so much hard work by them) they were discarded and a gp of scientists who has never done anything related to Nano Science were recruited(based on personal contacts of NSF chair). As far as qualifications go, the top science team leaders and directors are not the experts in the field. Thanks to his English knowledge Pf Karunaratne only can speak eloquently about nano technology. He has no hands on knowledge on the subject. Others are even worse they don’t even know how to talk. The top scientists work for the team of course has graduated from good schools(but not a single publication from their graduate studies in UK). So forget about them having a nano technology publication.
There are very qualified people from the field they are not seeking to approach. If an expert tried to join, they welcome it but no matter how qualified he is) they offer to start from the bottom level start up scientist level. So how can you recruit good talent from abroad if you have that kind of attitude? Kind of a seniority tops the expertise in the field sort of culture is ingrained in their hiring policy. So which qualified person wants to come back from US or any other country and work for meager salary to work under less qualified people in such institute? Favoritism of the team leaders hench-women is rampant. Disgusting infighting, sometimes boycotting between scientists and students what culture is that. Previous CEO who was very progressive who tried to change that culture was sacked.
It is correct that SLINTEC has only produced few publications, and they are also in some unknown Indian journals. If their work is good enough for 7 US patents, why aren’t they publishing their work in Science, PNEAS, or other peer reviewed, JOC,top journals in US. These scientists sell BS to ministers to show their progress, and these two dumb ministers sell that BS to rest of the population. When they talk they talk about self cleaning clothes, and nano releasing medicine, state of the art stuff but science wallah says, it is like our previous scientific endeavors( Genome project). Colossal amount of state and private funds are wasted on this. They have very little to show for. All PIs are people in the science team, not the GOSL, so how the country(our economy) is going to earn money/benefit as the author says is not clear. As they drained all the available research finds to this project, but directors, advisers and scientists are having a great time, after pocketing the big salaries for doing nothing much. Promiscuity and drinking, partying at Colombo top places is great. The top adviser Gehan is having a fantastic personal time when he comes to SL to advice SLINTEC, with the mistress he managed to secure while frequenting at high-class brothels of SL, and has no shame parading her at office functions. So this bad culture, trickle downs from top to bottom starting from ministers.
/
DH / September 11, 2014
I am a nanotechnologist, and a Prof. abroad. The two universities I applied to with the intention of transferring knowledge, rejected me preferring recent Ph. D.s. I am not surprised about the brain drain for the way the academics are treated by the heads and deans and even the VCs. Their brains are mostly used for stopping progress of those not in their club and promoting their favorites irrespective of merit, as many academics will tell you.
In the end all the striving would be a waste of life in the universities of Sri Lanka unless the system is reformed to Ivor Jennings’ standards aga.
/
DH / September 11, 2014
I am a nanotechnologist, and a Prof. abroad. The two universities I applied to with the intention of transferring knowledge, rejected me preferring recent Ph. D.s. I am not surprised about the brain drain for the way most academics are treated by the heads and deans and even the VCs. Their brains are mostly used for stopping progress of those not in their club and promoting their favorites irrespective of merit, as many academics will tell you.Many successful academics have been virtually chased off.
In the end all the striving would be a waste of life in the universities of Sri Lanka unless the system is reformed to Ivor Jennings’ standards again.
/