Nano: The Emerging Science of Nanotechnology : Remaking the World-Molecule by Molecule - Hardcover

Regis, Edward

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0316738581 ISBN 13: 9780316738583

Publisher: Little Brown & Co, 1995

Synopsis

It's the ultimate technology: nanotechnology--the attempt to build ordinary objects from the atoms up, molecule by molecule. So named because its building blocks are the smallest pieces of matter, nanotechnology will give us complete control over the structure of matter, allowing us to build any substance or structure permitted by the Laws of Nature. Placing atoms as if they were bricks, nano-machines could turn grass clippings into prime sirloin--directly, without cows. They could turn coal into diamond, & sheets of diamond into rocket engines. Suitably reprogrammed, the tiny machines could repair all of your body's ailing cells. Science fiction? Actually, scientists have already isolated individual atoms and moved them at will, even using them to spell out words on a scale so small that the entire ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITANNICA can be written on the head of a pin. Conceived by Nobel Prize winning physicist Richard Feynmen & pioneered by the remarkable K. Eric Drexler, who earned the first Ph.D. in the field he created at MIT more than a decade ago, nanotechnology is astoundingly near. In NANO, acclaimed science writer Ed Regis introduces us to the visionary engineers & scientists--as well as the critics--of this imminent technological revolution & shows how their work may soon begin changing the world as we know it, with fleets of molecular assemblers churning out essential commodities without human labor, the world economy would be transformed, famine & poverty banished forever. With cell-repair devices coursing through the human body, aging could be postponed, even halted, common diseases eradicated permanently. But would this new world be a return to Eden or a rash step into a dangerous future? Programmed differently, those same molecular machines could become agents more potent than the deadliest viruses. Articulate, intelligent, & entertaining, Regis reports on the wonders and perils of this new technology, & traces its philosophical implications.

About this title

Review:

K. Eric Drexler envisions a world in which poverty and hunger no longer exist, because food can be made out of thin air, and we never grow old, because cells can be regenerated as swiftly as they "age." Nanotechnology, the manipulation of matter at the molecular level, is what he's betting will make it happen. Ed Regis tells the story of Drexler's forays into this new science, showing the scientist's attempts to convince his colleagues that he hasn't descended into pulp fiction. He also fills in a lot of the historical and technical background, from the 19th-century arguments over whether atoms exist to modern experiments that have isolated and manipulated single atoms. Regis's prose is clear and straightforward, but not without a sly sense of humor. Apart from Drexler's own Engines of Creation, this is the book on nanotechnology to read.

From the Back Cover:

Nano tells the gripping story of how K. Eric Drexler and other scientists pioneered this emerging science and explores what it could mean for our future.

About this edition

• Publisher: Little Brown & Co
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 0316738581
• ISBN 13: 9780316738583
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 325