Introduction to Nanoscale Science and Technology

Description

Nanoscale science and technology, often spoken of as “nanoscience” or “nanotechnology,” are -9 simply science and engineering carried out on the nanometer scale, that is, 10 meters. Nanoscale science involves understanding the fundamental interactions of physical systems confined to nanoscale dimensions, and when matter is controlled at the nanoscale, fundamental properties of things like temperature, electricity, magnetism, and chemical reactions can change completely. The laws of classical physics describe our cosmic universe: the motions of the planets, the trajectory of a baseball, and the behavior of things we experience everyday. As efforts in the various areas of nanoscale science and technology continue to grow, it is certain that many new materials, properties, and applications will be discovered. Research in areas related to nanofabrication is needed to develop manufacturing techniques, in particular, a synergy of top-down with bottomup processes. Nanotechnology will be a bottom-up technology, building upward from the molecular scale. It will bring a revolution in human abilities like that brought by agriculture or power machinery. It can even be used to reverse many of the changes brought by agriculture or power machinery. But we humans are huge creations with no direct experience of the molecular world, and this can make nanotechnology hard to visualize, hence hard to understand. This is a very hot area of research with large amounts of venture capital as such Nanoscale Science and Technology has a broad appeal based upon an interdisciplinary approach, covering aspects of physics, chemistry, biology, materials science and electronic engineering.