April 2006 Mechanical Engineering: Editorial

editorial

too small ... for now

By
John G. Falcioni,
Editor-in-Chief

It's a provocative question we ask on the cover: How Small Is Its Brain? Ask that question of you or me, and we would think the query was bordering on rude. But in the world of microsystems, which is the focus of this month's issue, the smaller it is, the better it is.

There are applications, however, in which smaller systems may still be too small to be taken seriously, at least right now. Our cover story, "MEMS Across the Valley of Death," in this issue, tells us that an interesting set of circumstances exists in the aerospace industry.

Right now, small (as in microelectromechanical systems-small) is too small to help power the Boeing C-17 Globemaster III that we illustrate on the cover—or, for that matter, any other aircraft its size. The reason, however, doesn't rest on whether MEMS pack the necessary punch to power the venerable giant aircraft that roam the world's skies.

Associate Editor Alan S. Brown tells us that MEMS, which have infiltrated markets from consumer electronics to automotive, are having a difficult time expanding their scope in the aviation industry. The odd thing is, aeronautics gave birth to the first microsystem 50 years ago.

Accelerometers, gyros, and pressure sensors remain industry standards. But MEMS developers face the problem that these products and their use have remained largely unchanged for years.

Part of the reason is that with thousands of lives at stake each day, the aerospace industry remains very conservative. Brown gives us perspective on both the aviation industry, which is generally resistant to change, and on developers, who are working to increase fuel savings and enhanced guidance systems—all while relying on microtechnology.

In our story, teams of engineers are working on microsize technology to change a huge industry. And while we don't report on it in this issue, it's hard to ignore that other engineers and physicists at CERN, the Geneva-based European Organization for Nuclear Research, are working night and day on the French-Swiss border to meet a summer 2007 deadline. That deadline is for the start of operations at the Large Hadron Collider, the biggest supercollider in the world and the largest machine of any kind, containing one million components.

When the 10-year project is finally completed, this particle accelerator will have more than 1,200 magnets weighing up to 37 tons each. At a price tag of $8 billion, the aim is to unlock the secrets behind the origins of the universe.

As dizzying as it is to consider the magnitude of this project, which stretches along a 17-mile-long circular tunnel buried as deep as 500 feet underground, it's similarly difficult to conceive of an atomic force microscope that can prove the properties of materials on the nanometer scale and that also can modify matter on that scale.

In the article, "More than a Feeling," also in this issue, applications scientist F. Michael Serry tells us that this microscope is laying the groundwork to manipulate the very building blocks of matter and to construct nanoscale machines and materials. And Associate Editor Jeffrey Winters, tells us of a film made of carbon nanotubes that rivals the strength of Superman's cape (honest to goodness).

Somehow, all this fits together perfectly in the engineering environment—a world where there is continual discovery on all levels of magnitude, and where there is enough imagination to create the biggest machine in the world, and the smallest.