Gov. Kathleen Blanco saw the future unfold as she toured Louisiana Tech’s Institute for Micromanufacturing on Thursday and witnessed nanotechnology’s commercial applications for forestry, dairy farming and medicine.

After meeting with Tech President Dan Reneau and viewing a film highlighting Tech’s biotechnology research, the governor gathered with faculty and student researchers at the IfM. There, she observed demonstrations of research in the field of nanotechnology, which is the science of creating new things from single atoms and molecules.

“I think you’re moving in the right direction,” Blanco said after handling prototypes and peering into microscopes. “We have to be creative.”

Among the demonstrations she viewed were efforts to make paper white by cheaper and more environmentally friendly means than by bleaching, and non-invasive ways of determining calcium depletion in cows, glucose levels in diabetics, and the onset of seizures.

Earlier in the day the governor visited nearby Grambling State University and also attended a Ruston Kiwanis luncheon. During those visits, the governor focused on education and economic development.

She said tax burdens on businesses were being decreased by more than $1 billion. “That creates opportunities for them to reinvest more than $1 billion in things like jobs that benefit all our citizens.”

She attempted to salve area feelings about Union Tank Car Co.’s choosing Alexandria over Monroe and also about what she called the “heartbreaking” loss of giant area employer State Farm.

Blanco said she took Union Tank Car to 11 different locations and that after the choice was narrowed to two sites and then to one, she learned from the company’s CEO that there had been dissent in the company over which site was best.

“Different ones saw certain values in each,” she said. “It’s important for you to know this region was a close second. You can compete, and we’re going to have a success story here before we’re done.”

The governor then turned to education, saying it goes hand in hand with economic development. Along with stressing the importance of pre-K programs for at-risk children, she said strides made in education demand an evaluation of teacher wages so that the progress is maintained.

She emphasized higher education goals as well, saying the state must focus on building up its community and technical colleges and its universities. “Our universities are so pivotal in building technologies which need to be commercialized,” she said.

As the state offers more opportunities, such efforts will help retain even young residents who must first go off in search of “adventure,” the mother of six said.

“We want to build an atmosphere here that when they want to come home, they’ll have something to come home to,” she concluded.