NANO, NANO: The speakers at NEOSA's "Futures Forum" last week were all pretty interesting, but the guy I wanted to corner after the show was Scott Rickert of Nanofilm, who asserts joyously that the Great Lakes Rustbelt is well on its way to becoming the NanoBelt. Nanotech, Rickert says, is all about a new generation of materials that are inevitably going to replace the metals, plastics, etc. that now surround us. The U.S. and the Great Lakes states in particular have a big lead in this technology -- says Rickert -- and there's no reason to think it can't become NE Ohio's big new manufacturing sector.

After the session Rickert elaborated: nano materials are so light that shipping from anywhere to anywhere is cheap; the only raw material needed in quantity is water; and labor is only 2-3% of production cost, so labor cost is immaterial. Hmmm, I asked, so is that because nanotech production needs very few workers? Yes, Rickert replied; very few and very well educated.

So there's a possibility to chew on -- a future NE Ohio with lots of high-tech manufacturing that pays high wages but employs almost nobody.

Chris Seper advises me not to take Rickert's image of jobless manufacturing too literally, pointing out that Nanofilm has a real workforce at its Valley View facility. So... who knows? A story worth following...

And speaking of Chris and nanotech, his blog today features this helpful Infograph on the subject from the Onion. Mmmmm, ice cream!