The music of the nanospheres

Abstract

The generally promulgated vision of nanotechnology in the future is all-encompassing. Both its proponents and opponents are united in declaring that significant developments will take place. Assessing what has already been done, one can assert the following: nanodevices are ubiquitous in electronic equipment, especially microprocessor circuits and peripheral equipment, such as random access (RAM) and read only memory (ROM) chips, and other data storage media and their associated writers and readers. That alone is enough to make nanotechnology revolutionary—but only indirectly. Elsewhere, nanomaterials, presently dominated by nanoparticles incorporated into nanocomposites, are already used in a wide range of products, which are either superior to previous versions for the same cost, or offer the same performance for lower cost. Since these products are typically mass consumer items with a global market,
such as razor blades or soft drink canisters, their economic impact may be considerable, but they can scarcely be said to be revolutionary. We should spend more time considering those nanotechnologies still being developed, but which will more clearly offer novel possibilities, such as wearable electronics, and miniature, inexpensive and highly efficient fuel cells. The latter will certainly be a great convenience, reducing emissions from vehicles (in comparison to the internal combustion engine) and allowing laptop computers and mobile telephones to be used for days or even weeks before needing to be recharged, but again, as with electronics, the impact of the nanotechnology is indirect.