Nanotech Is Living Large

The first big nanotechnology success story may be already sitting in the portfolios of millions of investors.

Some traders have soured on the search for a nanotech start-up that can repeat the success that Intel saw in semiconductors, Microsoft saw in software and Google has seen in Internet search. Judging from the scarcity of big names that have emerged after decades of nanotechnology research and years of hype, some have concluded that the science is just one big fizzle.

Reading between the lines of a new report by New York-based market research firm Lux Research, it's hard to avoid the conclusion that those frustrated investors are simply looking in the wrong place. It's the large, established companies that are investing in nanotech, doing the homework to turn the science into marketable products -- and they're the same ones that will be the first to harvest the results. ...