Nanotechnology: saviour or curse in today’s environment?

Abstract

Nanotechnology, however one might define it, is perceived by many as synonymous with the dawn of a new age of technology similar to that of the Industrial Revolution of the 17th century in terms of its effect upon society. Certainly it is an area receiving much interest and funding in the developed world. Ever since Feynman threw down the gauntlet to scientists following his advances in quantum electrodynamics, with the statement that there was plenty of room at the bottom, giant strides have been made in both the understanding and manufacturing of objects of micrometre and nanometre scale. Most obvious of these, perhaps, is in the electronics advances of the last four decades, which have given rise to personal computing and mobile telephones to the extent that the rate of progress is now encapsulated in Moore’s law, which states that computing processing power and memory will double every 18 months. This is not really a law subject to rigorous scientific proof, but on average has proved to be true and shows no conspicuous signs of failure. Strictly speaking, the advances in electronics are only just entering the nanoscale; the latest generation of semiconductor silicon is 60 nm thick with 30 nm forecast within five years.