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Actually, Analog Devices probably has a larger MEMS rollout and probably for a longer time. MEMS is incorporated into airbag systems (about 200 million units and the largest market share at around 60%), IBM's Active Protection System for Thinkpads and of course Nintendo's Wii controller. I would assume that this fatigue would be something worthy of further examination. Disclaimer: I work for Analog Devices, but not as a product designer.

What about this? ... one day as non-volatile memory based on carbon nanotubes becomes more prevalent and cheaper they'll slap that on the "CPU" die as well... Remember this company? Nantero. What you'll have in the mobile market is a CPU core, a GPU core, and probably a good 512MB non-volatile memory all in one die. Also, with stuff like the PPC chip PA Semi is working on, see here, we'll probably see pcie, sata, gigabit ethernet controllers built-in as well. So what do you have? ... quite the small system with low latency and power consumption. And for a bonus, you'll probably eventually have carbon-nanotube memory off-die as well in place of a hard drive. So those "yeah, that's fake" computers we see in movies that look like a medical tricorder with gigs of storage, will actually be real. Now, of course, this is years off, but I like the direction. I especially like the idea of 10's to 100's of gigs in a single carbon-nanotube based DIMM (or whatever is out then) or flash-drive replacement. Then we can finally shed hard drives, optical drives, and the like for purely non-mechanical devices (w/ the exception of course that tape-backups and such will likely still be present, but less so for the consumer market).

OK, time to stop dreaming and get back to work.

UV light is required to activate TiO2 coatings. Even with the silver particle addition you still need natural sunlight (i.e. lower levels of UV light) for activation. So unless the mouse is going to be outdoors... you really can't beat regular handwashing as someone already pointed out in this thread. My friend Brent who knows a lot more chemistry than I pointed out this inconsistency when I inquired about this very mouse a couple of days ago. He sent me this link: http://www.nanotechwire.com/news.asp?nid=833 Also, the implication is that this mouse is suitable for "public" environments (libraries, doctor's offices...) It sounds strange for a wireless mouse.

This particular method has more to do with processing bulk quantities of nanotubes, rather than producing them. The closest connection to advanced electronics applications of NTs, is that selectively coating NTs with polymers and/or biomolecules is considered a promising route for purification and separation between conducting and semiconducting ones (the former are good as connectors, but the latter are needed for diodes and transistors). Selective attachment of a few biomolecules can also be useful for making self-assembling circuits. This particular method, however, produces a rather thick (30-50 nm) coating and not very specific attachment sites for biomolecules, so it lacks the features that would make it useful for electronics applications. The thick polymer layers are also likely to degrade contacts either between NTs or NTs and CMOS devices, which of course will reduce the possible operational frequencies for such hypothetical electronic components. Just a couple of reasons why using thinner polymers and/or biomolecules, such as DNA, to wrap NTs is currently considered as a more promising approach for electronics applications.

On the other hand, using these coated NTs for biosensors is indeed promising. The requirements for biosensing are significantly different compared to those for electronic components, and having a relatively thick polymer layer, which can be functionalized with many biomolecules, is in fact an advantage.

I recently graduated from Louisiana Tech University. During my last quarter there, the university was offering a NanoSystems Engineering intro course similar to the one the parent thread talks about. LaTech has actually been approved for a Nanotechnology Undergraduate degree, the first in the U.S. I belive.

I read the diamond dust article at NanoInvestor News, and frankly it still seems mid to long term.

If you want a WORKING flat display, check this out this experimental flat display (picture) using carbon nanotubes as the electron emission source. I just glimpsed over it, but I think this was done by Motorola. At least, the dates fit (2003).

Recently, Samsung's Korean research achieved the same goal, and apparently they're ready for mass production. I told this in an earlier post elsewhere. They plan to distribute their nanodisplays around 2006.
Here's a PDF about Samsung's nanotech displays.

(Unfortunately for me, on the very same day, some guy posted a story about a _DIFFERENT_ kind of "ultra-flat" displays, also by Samsung, that would be available in 2005. I guess the mods confused the articles - bad luck, heh).

Anyway, the diamond dust tech seems too young for now. Samsung's nanotube displays already exist (at least experimentally).

To follow up further, this article suggests that the accumulation of buckyballs can cause brain damage in juvenile fish. If such turns out to be the case, it will be interesting to understand the mechanism by which carbon, which is fairly non-reactive, and buckballs in particular, which are quite stable once formed, cause the damage.