| Nanotechnology: Exploring the Fashion of Thinking Small |
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bridges vol. 14, July 2007/ Nanotechnology Focus by Milan Polak and Alexander Hölbl "Scales and magnitudes are part of the stuff that scientists love," Science Magazine wrote in one of its issues in the early '90s. Cosmology and megascales on the one hand, and atoms and microscales on the other, give you a sense of how grand nature is and how consistent the physical pictures are. Today, science still loves scales and magnitudes and the direction is clear: Make it small and beautiful, make it nano. 
Richard Feynman
The world was still a big place then. Feynman swam against the stream as he dared to think small. Today, thinking small has become fashionable. The buzzword nanotechnology stands for this fashion, a fashion that explores the room at the bottom, a fashion that is beginning to catch on. Feynman was not afraid to consider the question of whether scientists can arrange atoms the way they want - the very atoms all the way down to subatomic particles. "What would happen if we could arrange the atoms one by one the way we want them? What would the properties of materials be?" Let's try to answer the most natural of questions first: What is nanotechnology? Access to the full article is free, but requires you to register. Registration is simple and quick – all we need is your name and a valid e-mail address. We appreciate your interest in bridges. |
