Editorial, Mechanical Engineering: Nanotechnology, April 2004

NANOTECHNOLOGY

editorial

Too Small to See,
Too Big to Ignore

by John G. Falcioni, Editor-In-Chief

After decades of toiling in back rooms of R&D centers—much like albino rats awaiting their fate inside basement labs of psychology departments—nanotechnology emerged publicly a few years ago. A former associate editor quipped about nanotechnology: "It's too small to see, yet too big to ignore."

Nanotechnology is not so small anymore. Today newspaper columns contain information about these too-small-to-see devices. Even consumer magazines have joined the nano party. And financial services companies offer white papers advising venture capitalists how to invest in the field.

With the introduction of the first of two nanotechnology supplements this year (the next one will be in September), we're aiming to present to you a cohesive approach to nanotechnology, from research, through development and production to the ultimate big business of nano products.

Mechanical Engineering has been there with the nano engineers who toiled in the back rooms years ago. Now we're sharing our world-renowned sources to tell you what they're telling us about this technology that has gotten too big to ignore

Ball-and-Stick Method
by Jeffrey Winters, Supplement Editor

Most of us probably remember them from elementary school: ball-and-stick models of common molecules. The models promised more than chemists could deliver. After all, a child given enough sticks and red, black, and white balls could quickly construct molecules beyond our powers to synthesize.

That frustration may soon end. Researchers in many fields—physics, chemistry, engineering, and biology—are learning how to manipulate individual molecules and atoms into new combinations. It's thought that once we learn how to use individual molecules as building blocks or assemble our own molecules one atom at a time, we will be able to create powerful tools that will reshape civilization.

Some potential stumbling blocks remain before anyone can make that claim with any certainty. First, no one is sure what researchers will find once they begin probing material at smaller and smaller scales. As Taher Saif explains in this issue, such basic material properties as tensile strength change as the samples being tested get smaller and smaller. For sure, this may lead to some pleasant surprises, but it may also mean that some of today's assumptions about what is possible in nanotechnology may prove unworkable.

Second, and most important, nanotechnology, like any technology, is only as good as the problems it solves. Before nanotechnology becomes a major industry, it will need to develop products that people desire. Two articles in this issue point to just such applications: a new way of producing semiconductor chips that may outperform standard photolithography, and a device that can potentially detect as little as a single virus of a deadly disease.

We stand, perhaps, at the threshold of a new era. With any luck, it will be as limitless as a child's imagination.