Venture capitalists are once again funding nanotech start-ups, but their overall investment is small compared with government funding and corporate R&D spending, says to a new report.

In his first interview since taking up the job, Bruno van Pottelsberghe, the 37-year-old newly appointed chief economist at the European Patent Office, bemoans the failure to create a single EU-wide patent.

"With engineering I view this year's failure as next year's opportunity to try it again...." Gordon E. Moore, co-founded Intel in 1968

Scientific Generics, the technology consultancy based in Cambridge, UK, has exported its 'Innovation Angels' methodology to Oslo in a pilot programme supported by the industrial development agency Innovation Norway.

Marc Van Montagu, Europe's founding father of genetically modified crops and a powerful advocate for their acceptance in Europe, speaks to Science|Business News Editor Thomas Lau.

Lein Applied Diagnostics, a British company that develops blood glucose measuring for people with diabetes, has announced it has received further investment from its shareholder Seven Spires Investments. The company is seeking more investment to put a non-invasive blood glucose meter into clinical trials.

The concept of angel investing - in which individuals devote both their time and money to nurturing young companies - has evolved over the past decade from an unknown or poorly understand phenomena in many parts of Europe to an established form of finance.

Spanish researchers have developed a technology that allows even the tone deaf to pick music with the right rhythm and tempo to keep the mass swaying.