Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Nanotechnology: Don't forget the big picture

Nanotechnology: Don't forget the big picture EDITORIAL V ol 2 No 3 March 2003 www.nature.com/naturematerials Nanotechnology: Don’t forget the big picture It is now three years since Bill Clinton announced the National Nanotechnology Initiative. Not since John F. Kennedy’s announcement of the US government’s intentions to put a man on the moon has a scientific discipline so captured the imaginations of politicians, venture capitalists and pulp-fiction writers alike. But at the dawn of a so-called new era for science and technology, is there a danger that we could be letting our imaginations run away with us? Some pundits dream of a future free from disease, in which the human body is continuously repaired by legions of medical nanobots, or super materials that neither break nor corrode, and manufacturing technologies in which everything from televisions to hamburgers is constructed atom by atom with zero waste and optimal energy efficiency. It seems that about the only thing that nanotechnology won’t deliver is the eradication of taxes. To anyone with even a modicum of scientific training, such claims are obviously hype. As Nobel laureate Richard E. Smalley has pointed out , the world of the nanometre is not simply a scaled-down version of the macroscopic world. And as http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Nature Materials Springer Journals

Nanotechnology: Don't forget the big picture

Nature Materials , Volume 2 (3) – Mar 1, 2003
Download PDF
1 page

Nanotechnology: Don't forget the big picture

Abstract

EDITORIAL V ol 2 No 3 March 2003 www.nature.com/naturematerials Nanotechnology: Don’t forget the big picture It is now three years since Bill Clinton announced the National Nanotechnology Initiative. Not since John F. Kennedy’s announcement of the US government’s intentions to put a man on the moon has a scientific discipline so captured the imaginations of politicians, venture capitalists and pulp-fiction writers alike. But at the dawn of a so-called new era for science and...
Loading next page...
 
/lp/springer-journals/nanotechnology-don-t-forget-the-big-picture-N56Ux0EBD3

References (1)

Publisher
Springer Journals
Copyright
Copyright © 2003 by Nature Publishing Group
Subject
Materials Science; Materials Science, general; Optical and Electronic Materials; Biomaterials; Nanotechnology; Condensed Matter Physics
ISSN
1476-1122
eISSN
1476-4660
DOI
10.1038/nmat848
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

EDITORIAL V ol 2 No 3 March 2003 www.nature.com/naturematerials Nanotechnology: Don’t forget the big picture It is now three years since Bill Clinton announced the National Nanotechnology Initiative. Not since John F. Kennedy’s announcement of the US government’s intentions to put a man on the moon has a scientific discipline so captured the imaginations of politicians, venture capitalists and pulp-fiction writers alike. But at the dawn of a so-called new era for science and technology, is there a danger that we could be letting our imaginations run away with us? Some pundits dream of a future free from disease, in which the human body is continuously repaired by legions of medical nanobots, or super materials that neither break nor corrode, and manufacturing technologies in which everything from televisions to hamburgers is constructed atom by atom with zero waste and optimal energy efficiency. It seems that about the only thing that nanotechnology won’t deliver is the eradication of taxes. To anyone with even a modicum of scientific training, such claims are obviously hype. As Nobel laureate Richard E. Smalley has pointed out , the world of the nanometre is not simply a scaled-down version of the macroscopic world. And as

Journal

Nature Materials – Springer Journals

Published: Mar 1, 2003

There are no references for this article.