Abstract
The world of nanotechnology is the world of the very small. According to Eugene Wong in his testimony to the Subcommittee on Basic Research of the US House of Representatives Committee on Science in June 1999,
One nanometer is 1-billionth of a meter. To get an idea of the size, we can compare some familiar things. The diameter of an atom is about 1/4 of 1 nanometer. The diameter of a human hair of 10,000 nanometers. The protein molecules, which are so important, so critical to life, are several nanometers in size. Moving to man-made things. The smallest devices on commercially available chips are about 200 nanometers, whereas the smallest experimental chips are approximately 10 nanometers in their smallest dimension. (page 3, Nanotechnology: The State of Nanoscience and its prospects for the next decade.)
Originally appeared in Discovering the Nanoscale, edited by Joachim Shummer, Alfred Nordmann and Davis Baird. ISO Press. 2004.
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Notes
- 1.
It is an interesting feature of undergraduate science education that undergraduate students are rarely, if ever, taught the latest, most up-to-date theories. The textbooks, I would argue, are out of date by the time they are published. This is one reason why getting undergraduate science students involved in research in an active laboratory is so important to the future of the scientific enterprise.
- 2.
It is important to note that this is as far as we can go in miniaturization given our current state of technology since the next level down is the quantum level, where stability of the material is itself in doubt.
- 3.
For an elaboration of this theme see my Thinking About Technology.
References
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Dobell, C. 1932, 1958. Antony van Leeuwenhoek and his “Little animals”. New York: Russell and Russell.
Pitt, J.C. 2000. Thinking About Technology. 146 pp. New York, NY: Seven Bridges Press.
Bud, R. and Warner, D. eds. 1998.Instruments of Science. 709 pp. New York, NY: Garland Publishing, Inc.
Rasmusen, N. 1997. Picture Control: The Electron Microscope And the Transformation of Biology in America, 1940–1960. 338 pp. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
(1999) Nanotechnology: The State of Nano-science and its Prospects for the Next Decade. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.
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Pitt, J.C. (2011). The Epistemology of the Very Small. In: Doing Philosophy of Technology. Philosophy of Engineering and Technology, vol 3. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0820-4_17
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