Sandia flew him to Battelle labs in Columbus, Ohio, where he proved in front of the then reigning world sol-gel expert that his paper creation worked in real life.

FORBES: The Science of Small

This year he showed how, by injecting the cells into a matrix made from silica nanotubes wrapped in a sol-gel, he was able to keep a cell alive for six months.

FORBES: The Science of Small

His first task: create an extremely viscous sol-gel glass.

FORBES: The Science of Small

The company expects to develop branding for its Sol-Gel product in the same way that 3M (nyse: MMM - news - people ) has with Scotchgard and Intel (nasdaq: INTC - news - people ) with PCs.

FORBES: Nanotechnology: A New World Is Born