[...]... Although these professionals are only on the first leg of the journey, they have made significant progress in synthesizing and understanding the “building blocks” of nanotechnology In the coming years, the ability to utilize these building blocks for practical purposes will greatly increase Let us first survey the building blocks of nanotechnology before turning to the potential applications The Building... longer a question of whether nanotubes will become useful components of the electronic machines of the future but merely a question of how and when.2 Gerstner is convinced While advances in biotechnology and the rise of the Internet dazzled investors and made headlines in the final years of the twentieth century, a quiet revolution was taking place in the field of nanotechnology In 2000, the National Science... of these research goals will take 20 or more years to achieve.” There is always the risk that advocates of nanotechnology, whether in government, industry, finance, or academia, will overpromise and underdeliver What is clear is that we must now address the ethical, legal, policy, regulatory, and business issues associated with the commercialization of nanotechnologies This is why The Handbook of Nanotechnology. .. people’s thoughts on the societal impacts of nanotechnology The report was not comprehensive, and many of the issues identified in this book were not even mentioned Since the report took place in 2000, much of the discussion was also necessarily an “inherently speculative exercise.”5 The lack of well-informed and rigorous academic analysis of the policy issues associated with nanotechnology is problematic... functions because of their small and/or intermediate size.”5 Rather than adopt one of the preceding definitions to confine our discussion of nanotechnology, we survey nearly anything and everything that has been described as nanotechnology and provide a new and useful framework for understanding different types of nanotechnology UNDERSTANDING NANOSCIENCE The dawn of the journey into the nano world can... replies the graduate Nanotechnology ” says the older man The investors are intrigued 1 2 INTRODUCTION Pentagon, Washington D.C.: 2002 In one of the deepest, darkest rooms in the Pentagon, five-star generals and White House officials meet In light of recent international events, there is a great deal of unease—it seems the future has never been more uncertain But today the generals are confident as they... thought of as “rolled-up” layers of interconnected carbon atoms The arrangement of such atoms, because of the electronic structure of carbon, is graphically depicted as a network of hexagons: The lines that form the hexagons represent bonds between adjacent carbon atoms There are two main types of carbon nanotubes Multi-walled nanotubes (MWNTs), discovered in 1991, contain a number of hollow cylinders of. .. Sperling, the head of the National Economic Council, John Podesta, the President’s Chief of Staff, and David Beier, Vice President Gore’s Chief Domestic Policy Adviser In the fall of 1999, the White House staff began to identify possible initiatives for consideration by President Clinton I convinced Gene Sperling that nanotechnology should be one of the priorities in the President’s FY2001 budget, as part of. .. molecules comprised of 60 carbon atoms and have the symmetry of soccer balls The discovery of fullerenes sparked a raging fire of enthusiasm in the scientific community It was predicted that the unique properties of fullerenes could be leveraged in everything from windshields to medicine Although buckeyballs still hold great promise in nanotechnology, the spotlight has shifted to a relative of the fullerene... to the world the importance of his life’s work Dr Smalley declares: But twenty years from now, nanotechnology will have given us specially engineered drugs Cancer—at least the type that I have—will be a thing of the past.1 The politicians are persuaded Silicon Valley, CA: 2003 The investors take their seats in the polished conference room on Sand Hill Road Although still visibly weathered by the . and the rise of the Internet dazzled investors and made headlines in the final years of the twentieth century, a quiet revolution was taking place in the field of nanotechnology. In 2000, the National. imagine “materials with 10 times the strength of steel and only a fraction of the weight; shrinking all the information at the Library of Congress into a device the size of a sugar cube; detecting. But today the generals are confident as they present their vision of the military battle suit of the twenty-first century, a suit enhanced by nanotechnology. It can change color to blend in with the