Understanding Nanotechnology

by Scientific American

Taken from the Greek, nano means 'one billionth part of' a whole; or very, very small. Nanotechnology is the next step after miniaturization. This book explores the cutting edge of a new technology that will find usage in almost every single aspect of modern society.

Genres: Science, Engineering

160 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2002

About the author

Scientific American , as an institutional author, is a popular science magazine founded by Rufus M. Porter and controlled by Nature Publishing Group since autumn, 2008. Mariette DiChristina has been editor-in-chief since December, 2009.

Reviews

[Gendou · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is a horrible lecture on an interesting topic.
Half of it has nothing to do with nanotechnology in the first place.
Instead, time is spent covering HIGH SCHOOL topics such as THE METRIC SYSTEM, of all things.

Regarding the audio version of this lecture:
Deborah Sauder, the author, is a very poor speaker.
She haltingly stumbles through her manuscript with flat affect.
There are many-second pauses before polysyllable words, and at what I guess to be the end of lines.
This is absolutely infuriating, and totally ruined the lecture for me.
Maybe he has severe dyslexia, or has had a stroke, because she reads the way a 3rd grader does when called upon in school.
It's just painful to listen to.

The last chapter attempts to cover the ethics of nanotechnology.
She uses a lot of political buzz words, but manages to say nothing beyond, "let's be careful".
She makes no effort to apply scientific prospective to the (many times misguided) fears some people have about nanotechnology.
I felt this was academically dishonest and a bit alarmist.

[Remo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tras tres años trabajando para la Comunidad de Madrid en asuntos de nanotecnología (NT), algo he aprendido. Y es que no se puede dejar que los periodistas hablen de ella sin tener que entrar a matizar después. Les desafío a que encuentren un artículo periodístico sobre nanotecnología que no contenga la palabra “revolución”. La NT es, a grandes rasgos, el conjunto de tecnologías que para su funcionamiento requieran que una de las dimensiones de los dispositivos mida entre 1 y 100 nanómetros. En un milímetro entra un millón de nanómetros en fila india, por lo que estamos hablando de dimensiones muy reducidas. Para ser sinceros, a día de hoy hay muy pocos objetos que incorporen nanotecnología de forma perceptible. De momento, los avances se han realizado sobre todo en el campo de la ciencia de materiales, logrando aleaciones y compuestos que pesan menos y resisten más que sus contrapartes “macrotecnológcas”. Por ejemplo, Toyota usa desde hace unos años un compuesto de polímero y arcilla (Polymer-clay Nanocomposite) para los estribos de los todoterrenos, que no sufre apenas desgaste. Los proyectos a medio y largo plazo de la nanotecnología son, de momento, parte de la ciencia ficción: robots que entran en el torrente sanguíneo y destruyen las células cancerígenas una a una, superficies que se limpian solas… miles y miles de aplicaciones que parecen, de momento, lejanas. En este libro se nos instruye en los rudimentos de la NT (sin entrar en la mecánica cuántica que subyace) a través de varios artículos disjuntos. El libro no está mal, es básico, introductorio y sencillito. Mi nota: Interesante

[Behrooz Parhami · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this imminently accessible book (even for younger readers), a number of scientists write chapters on scientific notions and technology topics comprising the important field of nanotechnology. Even though the field has come a long way since 2002, this book is still useful for learning about the fundamentals of a branch of technology that deals with dimensions and tolerances of less than 100 nanometers, which is 200-1000 times the diameter of an atom.

The book's table of contents follows.

Foreword: Understanding Nanotechnology; Introduction (p. 1); Little Big Science (p. 6); Plenty of Room, Indeed (p. 18); The Art of Building Small (p. 36); Less Is More in Medicine (p. 56); Making Molecules into Motors (p. 72); Nanobot Construction Crews (p. 86); The Incredible Shrinking Circuit (p. 92); Machine-Phase Nanotechnology (p. 104); Computing with Molecules (p. 110); Nanotubes for Electronics (p. 124); Conclusion (p. 139)

[Oullie · Rating 3 out of 5]

One reads a book called Understanding Nanotechnology in hopes that upon finishing the book one is able to understand nanotechnology. Well, I understand a little more about nanotechnology but not a lot. It's a start. Learning about carbon nanotubes was cool and as this book was written a few years ago the technology has grown and some of the things are a bit outdated. It was nice to learn that nanotechnology is a buzzy concept that politicians and laymen like to plunge their hopes into but this technology is still very new and may not be the cure to all that ails the future.

[Hieu Cao · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really informative!

[Ryan Link · Rating 3 out of 5]

High level introduction in the form of a series of articles written by researchers.