 George M. Whitesides: Big in Nanotechnology
The standard line about nanotechnology is that it is a vision in search of a reality. The term is widely used to describe structures and materials ranging from 1 billionth to 100 billionths of a meter, which means future nanotechnological advances—the promise of which, so the optimists like to say, is sure to rival that of the transistor or electricity—might emerge from physics, chemistry, biology, materials sciences, or some sci-fi-like combination of all four.
"Twenty years ago one never would have guessed at things that are now possible with surfaces," says George M. Whitesides of Harvard University. "Many, many new technologies are emerging."
At the moment, however, the breakthroughs have been modest as researchers struggle to come to grips with the challenge of creating three-dimensional structures and functional tools on a nanoscale. It's because of this gap between reality and promise that the most influential research has been on technologies that make it possible to create simple nanostructures and to study those structures once they've been laid down on surfaces. This has made Harvard chemist...
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