My goal in writing New Tech Investor is twofold: to help educate potential investors in emerging technology before they invest in some of the wild technologies; and to provide a base of reference, sites you can go to for more in-depth information on particular technologies or tech news. The ezine aspires to be a digest of emerging technology (emtech) info and vetting service all wrapped into one.

 Of course, in New World 3.0 and Personal Finance I write about what stocks I like and how to profit from the technologies I discuss here, but they cost money and aren’t for readers who are simply sticking their toes in the tech waters. We also have a blog where I follow some of my favorite emtech companies.

Later this week we’ll have Part 3 of the venture capital series that my newfound VC colleague Hank Heyming has penned over the past couple months. But before that gets shipped out, I wanted to give you the rundown on some interesting emtech developments since the last installment of New Tech Investor.

First off, my colleague Dr. Tim Harper who runs one of the world’s most respected nanotech consulting firms, posted a "blast from the past,” his 2002 Nanotechnology Opportunity Report. Ironically, it’s a very important and relevant read seven years later, since the topics discussed then are finally being discussed in larger public forums. I'd also recommend checking out Tim’sTNTlog. He’s also a very prolific tweeter; just type in his name at the Twitter search page.

Another important and more contemporary report “marks the completion of the first broad, multidisciplinary effort to explore how current laboratory techniques for atomically precise fabrication can be extended, step by step, toward increasingly advanced products and capabilities.”

Productive Nanosystems: A Technology Roadmap is a very important report because of its breadth and depth. And don’t be scared off by the URL; this report is featured on K. Eric Drexler’s site but isn’t a futuristic exploration of fantastical potentialities. It’s hard science for the here and now.

One of my favorite sectors in the nanotech space is microscopy. Now that we can manipulate matter at the atomic level, we have to be able to see what we’re doing and that means microscopes. My favorite is FEI Company (NSDQ: FEIC), which even after the recent pullback is trading close to eight-month highs.

In this space some of the best technical reading material comes from SPIE, an association that deals specifically with photonics and its applications across a broad spectrum of technologies, from solar panels to astronomy to optical networking. A couple interesting articles recently showed up in one of the organization's ezines.

The first article is about new techniques for improving scanning electron microscopy. The other is about nanocones as an antirefractive coating. At first, I thought the story was going to be about making things appear invisible--a cloak of invisibility. How cool would that be? But it isn’t.

And while it’s not kid-fantasy cool, it is grown-up cool. One of the biggest challenges with solar panels is their inefficiency; most photovoltaic (PV) panels don’t absorb all wavelengths of light--some bounce off, some burn off. If you can create a surface that absorbs a broad spectrum of light efficiently, you greatly enhance the PV's potential efficiency. You essentially increase your input value, then work on maximizing the efficiency of the PV materials.

The cool thing is, even if you don’t increase the efficiency of the PV materials, simply by increasing the input you increase the output. This development could be worth following.

On the consumer/industrial product side of the equation there are a couple interesting developments that were featured in an ezine from a cool clean tech site. I like getting the stories but I’m usually disappointed at the stage of development most of the technology is in. Many look very interesting, and then you find out we’re at least a decade away from commercialization.

But sometimes there are ideas that are closer to market or are likely to gain the momentum that will propel them to market faster. These flexible solar-power shingles fall into that category.

Another is a low-wind turbine designed for urban use. Honeywell has licensed the technology from the company that came up with the idea, which means there’s some money behind rolling these things out. Personally, I like Aerovironment’s (NSDQ: AVAV) urban-focused wind turbine technology better, but competition is good thing--this will be a very interesting space in coming years.