Product Description
Everyone in the modern world knows what technology is. But what is nanotechnology? Taken from the Greek, nano means "one billionth part of" a whole. In modern parlance, it means very, very small. Nano-tech is the next step after miniaturization. Cell phones are miniaturized versions of traditional landline phones. Wristwatches are miniature versions of clocks. Desktop computers are miniature versions of the original analog calculating machines. Miniaturization is commonplace in today's world. In tomorrow's world, nano-tech will be the new common technology. It will affect everyone on the planet, and may change civilization as it is now known.Scientific American's UNDERSTANDING NANOTECHNOLOGY presents the cutting edge of a new technology that will find usage in medicine, space exploration, communications, manufacturing, and almost every other aspect of modern society. Imagine getting an injection of "smart" molecules that can seek out cancer cells and destroy them without harming any of the surrounding tissue. Imagine a simultaneous space launch via the Shuttle of thousands of robotic probes, each no bigger than an insect, and each programmed to do a single task in concert with all of the others. And that's just the beginning.

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.5 based on 9 reviews)

Nonetechnology is cool!

Good book for a common reader. It is not very scientific, but gives a good understanding of what nanotechnology is and where it applies. I am a scientist who currently works in this field, and even for me it was interesting to see this kind of simple prospective without too many details.
May 14, 2008

Understanding Nanotechnology, a compilation of articles from Scientific American

"Understanding Technology", a compilation of articles from Scientific American, is an excellent book for the layperson to find out about nanotechnology. It's not too lofty or heavily technical - a big help in introducing someone to this field who might not have a background in science. Very readable and interesting. Unfortunately, the field of nanotech is changing so rapidly that many discoveries have been made since this book was first published.
January 03, 2007

Nanostructures Boast Superior Results

Nano structures boast superior electrical, chemical, mechanical, or optical properties. Improvements may include circuit lines less than 100 nanometers in distance and nanoelectronic devices replacing existing electronic devices.

In 1987, Theordore A Fulton and Gerald J. Dolan of Bell Laboratories constructed the first single electron transfer. It had the advantage of low power usage and heat leapfrogging past the 2014 heat problem. In 1998 Cees Dekker's group at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands created a transistor from a carbon nanotube. In 1999, James M Tour and Mark A Reed demonstrated that single molecules could act as molecular switches. Exxon Mobile created Zeolites, minerals with pores of less than a nanometer which serve as an effective catalyst to break down or crack large hydrocarbon molecules to form gasoline.

Nanotech's vision is to assemble complex machines and circuits atom by atom. The author predicts the top down approach will be the most likely method of choice for building complex devices (electronbeam lithography, Zyvex, Quantum Dot Corporation)

Nanomechanical signal processing is constructed from a million nanomechanical elements with the advantage of only dispating a millionth of a watt of energy. Low powered Nanomechanical devices will create a proliferation and distribution of cheap, ultraminiture smart sensors.

October 05, 2005

A good introduction

If you want to know what Nanothechnology is this book will tell you. It is aimed at the "intelligent layman" and as such succeeds rather well.

I found it easier going from a stylistic point of view than Ratner's "Nanothechnology: Gentle Introduction to the next big idea". If I were to buy only one of them I should buy this one.

September 20, 2005

An excellent introduction for the new technological bang

Materials Science usually offers an unique opportunity to test our scientific models. The search for new properties in the mesoscopic realm has open such expectatives in several scientific fields -from physics and chemistry to biology and medicine- that an introductory text is a great help in order to obtain a wide view of the next scientific and technological trends. Scientific American has made this recopilation of several essays that bring together the main ideas for the new technological revolution, at a level usefull for the expert and understandable for the lay man. As a Materials Scientist I enthusiastically recommend it.
July 09, 2005

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