Small is bountiful
Published: August 05, 2003
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Low pressure-chemical vapour deposition system in the Washington Technology Center's Microfabrication Laboratory – a micro- and nanotechnology processing facility on the University of Washington campus in Seattle |
Nanotechnology is evolving fast and commercialisation is a priority. With so many centres of excellence around the world, the race to win the title of “Nanotech Valley” is on. Karen E Thuermer reports.
The world of nanotechnology is akin to Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland. Everything becomes very small and fantastic things begin to happen.
Nanotechnology involves working with materials on the nano-scale, 80,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair, a practice that has been around for centuries. Remember the alchemists? Yet, ever since IBM invented the Scanning Tunnelling Microscope and researcher Don Elgler arranged 35 atoms to spell “IBM” at the IBM Zurich Research Laboratory in 1989, the world has seen an unprecedented land grab for nano-technology intellectual property.
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