Readers and editors of 'R&D Magazine' pinpoint technologies that are likely to experience rapid growth and high investments in 2005. Fuel cells, nanotechnology, and anti-bioterrorist devices take the top three spots, followed by carbon nanotubes, battery/chemic energy, lab-on-a-chip, drug delivery systems, automation/robotics, drug discovery, bioinformatics, RFID systems, smart materials, wireless remote sensing, and automated surgery. Lux Research, a research and consulting company that concentrates on nanotechnology, predicts that global R&D spending on nanotechnology will rise 10% to $8.6 billion in 2004. The U.S. government will spend $4.6 billion, and leading nanotechnology startups concentrating on specialty chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and semiconductors presently report between $10 and $20 million in annual revue, says Lux. On average, hot technologies will become commercially viable products in about 4.5 years, but developers have already been working on them, on average, for almost six years. Biotechnology reviews were not nearly as good as those of nanotechnology, with stem cells regarded as a hot technology by only 12% of respondents. Proteomics was also a choice of 12%, and genomics and cell biology garnered 11% each. Semiconductor and telecommunication markets and technologies are also tepid for much of the world, but in Asia, large investments are being made in production abilities for semiconductor and telecommunication devices.