Close followers of Howard Lovy's NanoBot know that I'm naturally attracted topeople who are considered on the fringe. Good writers are often"outsiders," themselves. But even within that crowd, I'm often anoutsider among outsiders. I explained it best in an interview I gave toNeofiles:

"So, my natural inclination is to look at any issue of publicconcern --especially ones in which there appears to be a monolithic opinion — andfind those who begin with a whole different set of assumptions orbeliefs. I've always thought that was the role of journalism — not toconfirm for the majority what they already believe, but to make themconstantly question their own assumptions by exposing them to theminority opinion. That's the only way a free society can be certainit's making the right decisions, by being forced to defend it."

It's probably a sure way to make a fool of myself, but given mynatural contrary nature, I just can't help it.Besides, I find that the people who march on the "wrong foot" are usually farmore interesting.

Thisis all just a navel-contemplating way of linking to thisstory on Michigan Small Tech, the latest chapter in the Tale ofTomalia.

Don Tomalia had his eureka moment back in 1979, when the Dow chemistfirst figured out how to make a synthetic molecule grow somescary-looking tendrils — actually, dendrites. Thus, Doc Tomalia (thepicture at right is one I snapped of him at a Foresight Instituteconference last fall) introduced the world to the dendrimer. If I werea Hollywood casting director, I'd pick the dendrimer shape (not theneatly uniform buckyball) for my evil molecule. In reality, though, thedendrimer is far from evil. It might hold a key to fightingHIV or — and I think this is especially cool — can be set to self-destructat the right moment for use as a targeted drug-delivery device.

The trouble was, it was just too expensive to grow the littlethings. So, Dow finally sent the IP packing in 1992, leaving Tomaliaand his tiny tendrils out in the cold for almost a decade. A couple ofyears ago, though, somebody at Dow must have been rummaging through theIP basement and found the little beasts again. This time, though,nanotech had finally caught up with Tomalia's creation. Dow snatchedthe little toys back and began its marketing push. Our lone hero,though, had already moved on. His company, Dendritic Nanotechnologies Inc.,is the pride and joy of Starpharma,which is going to pump more resources into the firm.

That's good for Michigan. Good for dendrimers. And good for DonTomalia, who is finally coming in from the fringe.

More background here,here,and here.