Biotech: Microelectronic and communications firms turn to life sciences.
In the last few years, the biotech industry has set out to establish its own version of Moore’s Law, shrinking the tools of the trade onto postage-stamp-sized “biochips.” The hope is that the smaller/faster/cheaper approach that worked so well for computer-chip manufacturers will be a boon to biotech as well. The success of early biochip startups like Santa Clara, CA-based Affymetrix has helped to establish the field, and now giants from microelectronics and communications are moving in as well.