It is on the nanometre scale where chemists, physicists, materials scientists and engineers, and even biologists will meet to create a new technology – nanotechnology. This book’s cover claims nanotech was “scarcely imagined a few decades ago”, but what about Fantastic Voyage, and, of course, Feynman’s predictions? Well, like they say, don’t judge a book by its cover. Nanotech is likely to dominate the 21st century and affect our lives in ways we have not yet determined. By definition, nanotech is far too small to be visible to the human eye, and so its effects may well catch us by surprise.
Despite nanotech’s science fiction aura, consumer products already exist that rely on its earliest manifestations, although one has to say that most of these are not the nanotech of molecular machines, but generally just particles that are nanometres across or materials with nanoscale features that endow them with their particular properties.
The variety of new products and technologies that will spin out of nanoscience will, nevertheless be limited only by the imagination of the scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs drawn to this new field – The Nanotech Pioneers.
Steve Edwards presents nanotechnology and its leading makers in an easily understandable fashion, suited for all readers regardless of academic background, but with enough facts and details to separate the hype from the real nanotech that is just around the next corner. Edwards brings nanotechnology closer to the science-interested general public as well as scientists, students, organizations, journalists, politicians, and entrepreneurs.