Nanotech Advancing, One Tiny Step at a Time

Is nanotechnology -- once richly fertilized by hype, then left for dead by investors after it failed to deliver a single hot IPO -- finally starting to deliver on its promise?

A recent report from U.K.-based research firm Cientifica suggests that it just might be. And if so, it will have little to do with all that investment and hype a few years back.

First, some perspective: Back in the 1990s, research firm Gartner outlined the five stages of hype: Technology trigger, peak of inflated expectations, trough of disillusionment, slope of enlightenment, and plateau of productivity. ...