Its only a trickle, that perhaps may become a dribble rather than a flood, but from LOreal claiming to know nothing about nanotech to companies dropping the nano from their name, perhaps the hype is fading. Nano has been one of the buzz words of the noughties, and very poorly understood apart from the perception that nano is either good (lets pop a nano in the name and see if we can IPO when it pops) or bad for business (lets drop the nano quickly before people start demonstrating outside our stores).
Nanocure chairman James R. Baker comments on their name change Avidimer Therapeutics refers to our focus on cell-specific targeting of therapeutics and diagnostics through the use of novel branch-like polymers known as dendrimer, which avidly target diseased cells, essentially changing the name to reflect the business the company is in.
We have long maintained that we will reach a point where people stop talking about nanotechnologies as a magic ingredient that can fix anything, from data storage to cancer, and simply look at how companies can exploit our newfound understanding of nature.
Well be doing nanoscience for along time to come, but nanotechnologies will quietly fade away.