GLOBAL TECH GURU: Andrew Black, of Bet Fair
To find Kim Hyung Gyoon's office in Samsung's R. and D. complex, just follow the baskets of dirty clothes. No, Kim is not running the company laundromat. As chief of Samsung's Washing & Cleaning Technology Group, he's the man behind a new washing machine that deposits tiny silver particles — about 1/10,000 the thickness of a human hair — onto clothes to make them bacteria- and odor-free without the need for hot water. The device represents the first mass-produced application of this type of nanotechnology — the science of very small structures — to home appliances. "In summer of 2002, I asked everyone in the office to take off their socks," says Kim, 48, a short, talkative man with large glaring eyes. "I took one sock from each person and placed it in a regular washing machine; the others were washed in a machine with the Ag+ Nano System. The next day, I asked everyone to check the odor of their socks after a day's wear. One began to stink, and the other was odorless."
Kim says he came up with the idea five years ago while on a business trip to Japan, where he learned of a brand of socks that retained their freshness even after many days of unwashed wear and tear. Tiny strands of silver with disinfectant qualities were woven into the fabric. When he got back to Seoul, Kim applied the principle to washing machines.
Here's how it works: a grapefruit-sized device near the tub uses electrical currents to nano-shave two silver plates the size of chewing-gum sticks. The resulting silver particles are sprayed into the tub during the wash cycle. According to the
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No wonder: consumers seem to like a little silver in their spin cycles. Since Samsung's nano-armed products were first launched, they have brought in an estimated $779 million in revenue. Overall, nanotech has been one of science's fastest-growing fields in recent years, with potential applications in fields as diverse as energy production and toothpaste manufacture. The nanotech market is projected to be worth $1 trillion by 2015.
Nanotechnology has its detractors, though. Lee Jo Won, director of Tera-level Nanodevices, a Seoul-based state-run R. and D. organization, believes "there is always danger with new technologies. We've done testing in laboratories with rats, and certain nano-sized particles ended up imbedded in rats' lungs after consistent exposure. However, with silver, I don't foresee problems, as it's a disinfectant."
Because this is such a hotly competitive field — Daewoo has introduced air conditioners that spray vitamin C into the environment — Kim isn't about to divulge what other nanotech projects he's working on. But one thing's for sure — from now on, even his dirtiest clothes will have a silver lining.
Andrew Black Betfair | Britain
In 1999, Briton Andrew Black was making a decent enough living as a professional gambler, concentrating mainly on playing bridge and betting on horses. But he was dissatisfied with traditional bookmakers. By the time they build in their margins, says Black, 41, "you've got to be 20% smarter to make money. And if [you] make a mistake, [you] can't trade out of it. I thought, There's got to be a better way."
So he made a better way by co-founding London-based Betfair, the peer-to-peer cybercasino that's done for gambling what eBay did for garage sales. On Betfair, there's no "house": the site's 250,000 registered customers simply post their bets and wait for someone to take them on. Betfair charges a commission on each winning bet; the more you bet, the lower the commission. When the site launched in 2000 with $1.8 million raised from Black's and co-founder Ed Wray's network of contacts, it was taking less than $90,000 a week in bets; now that figure stands in excess of $90 million a week in matched bets, about 13% of the estimated $35 billion global annual online sports-betting industry. From April 2002 to April 2003, Betfair's pretax profits rose from $1.9 million to $15.5 million. The site has registered users in 85 countries: 70% of their bets are placed on horse races. And if a company can judge its success by the number of people it's upsetting, then Betfair is thriving. The U.K.'s traditional bookmakers are still hugely profitable, but they're grumbling because Betfair permits users to "lay" bets (to back a horse, competitor or team to lose rather than win). Some charge the practice encourages corruption. Says Graham Sharpe, spokesman for old-style bookies William Hill, "If you have a bet on an exchange, you don't know who it's with; if [the person] is offering extravagant odds, you don't know why."
Black counters that his site actually makes strange betting patterns easier to identify. He points out that Betfair has signed agreements with, among others, the Jockey Club in Britain and the English Football Association, promising to inform them of any suspicious wagers. And last month the British government said it didn't think it was necessary to license or regulate those who lay bets — to the chagrin of traditional bookmakers, which had been pushing for such a move.