| Bibliography |
Social Context |
Method |
Theory Agent |
Data Statistics |
Related Research |
Relevance |
| 1997-01. Nash, Eric. 2/2/97. Is it Going to be a Smaller World, After All? NYT. P. 4.6 | Xerox Corporation engineers | MEMS are still in the modeling stage. | "A society's technology always reveals its deepest desires."; "MEMS [micro-electromechanical systems] are all about doing more with less, about being lean, mean and next to invisible." (4.6) | None listed | social stratification, aviation, electronic systems, societal impacts of nanotechnology | Nanotechnology may not stratify the culture of the future, but may amalgamate it into something new and unrecognizable. |
| 1997-02. Belluck, P. 2/16/97. A Fine Hour for Squishy Sciences. NYT. P. 14 | Westinghouse Science Talent Search | Scientific award | The Talent Search is moving from 'hard' sciences like "near-field photolithography and nanotechnology" (14) to social sciences | Report on different awards | photolithography | nanotech is seen as a 'hard' science |
| 1997-03. Crenson, M. 2/16/97. There's Something in the Way that Nothing Behaves. LA. P. 13 | Steve Lamoreaux, Los Alamos National Laboratory | "Lamoreaux incrementally moved a pair of metal plates closer and closer to one another, to distances a hundredth the thickness of a human hair…" (13) - test of the Casimir effect | "so-called virtual photons, which spontaneously burst into existence like kernels of popping corn and then disappear almost instantly, ought to push two narrowly separated metal plates together." (13) | quantum electrodynamics - describes how particles behave in electromagnetic fields | quantum electrodynamics | "…in the future, nanotechnology will rely on understanding the Casimir force and similar effects." (13) |
| 1997-04. Kanaley, R. 2/20/97. Teeny-Tiny technology/researchers expect big things from little nanomachines they're hoping to build. PI. P. F01 | Ralph Merkle, nanotechnologist at Xerox Corp.'s research center in Palo Alto; Richard Smalley, heads Nanotechnology Institute at Rice U; Paul Green, chairman of Nanothinc-nanotech info clearinghouse in San Fransisco; Chris Peterson, executive director of Foresight Institute in Palo Alto; Al Globus, a computational nanotechnologist for NASA; Drexel U. futurist Arthur Shostak, Nadrian Seeman, NYU chemist | Seeman uses "small lengths of DNA - the natural genetic material for all life - to make nano-scale geometric structures." (F01) | "nanotechnology, whose aim is to build computerized machines - nanomachines - as small as a few atoms that could be put to almost any use." (F01) | 400 US companies are involved in searching for ways to make money with nanotech, "nanorevenues" | engineering, biotechnology, computer science, medicine, environment | "solar collectors designed with nanotechnology might mimic photosynthesis to capture the sun's energy so efficiently and economically" (F01)
"from self-building and self-mending materials for making skyscrapers or space shuttles, to medical devices that travel through the bloodstream to bulldoze cholesterol from clogged arteries, repair damaged tissue, or reverse the aging process." (F01) |
| 1997-05. Glaser, M. 2/27/97. Obsidian Lives up to the Hype. LA. P. 37 | Obsidian - computer video game | Video game review | Plot - nanotechnology is used to restore the ozone layer | Plot - the molecular nanobots disperse through the atmosphere, repairing the damage caused by pollution and fluorocarbons | environmentalism | This gives the picture of a future where nanotechnology is used for environmental means to rectify the damage caused by humans. |
| 1997-06. Romenesko, J. 4/28/97. Visionaries Ponder effect of their innovations predictions vary from doom to joy. Miami Herald. P 17BM | MIT professor Michael Dertouzos; Robert Seidel, director of Charles Babbage Institute at U of Minnesota; virtual reality guru Jaron Lanier; Bill Gates | Predictions about future technology | mostly speculation about the future and what we can do with speech-understanding software, nanotechnology, computers, etc. | prediction in 1930's said that we would all be flying around in individual mini planes by now, but that obviously did not happen | computers, future, sci-fi, virtual reality | in 500 years maybe nanotech will solve the unrealistic dreams of Lanier, whose mind is "overdosed on imagination" |
| 1997-07. Yemma, J. 5/4/97. Plastic Makes perfect. Boston Globe. P. 10
| Thomas Russel- University of Massachussetts @ Amherst | "..Russell's research is not on the industrial properties of plastics but
on the surface qualities of polymers." (10)
| What he has discovered, along with his colleages, is that things built out of polymers can be fine tuned. As he puts it: "We can change the composition of a surface with the precision of turning a knob." (10) | "..it turns out that you can attach two blocks of polymers that are incompatible and they fight each other like two dogs with their tails tied together…That tension causes the polymers to organize themselves in different patterns when they are heated and laid on a foundation, or substrate." (10)
| "…polymers are big enough to manipulate without the aid of expensive and cumbersome devices such as electron microscopes." (10) | "..you can fundamentally alter the structure of an object if you can get it small enough. This can give you a new material with valuable new properties- a substance that can alternately absorb and repel water…" (10) |
| 1997-08 Schwartz, J. 6/28/97. Nanotechnology: Great things in tiny packages. Washington Post. P. A02 | Scientists at the Nanofabrication Facility at Cornell University- Dustin W. Carr, Harold G. Craighead | Carved a guitar out of crystalline silicon by using a fine high-voltage beam of
elections to etch patterns | Use of electrical charges | Crystalline silicon | One recent creation looks like a paddle suspended at the end of a wire; the researchers send it aflutter with electrical charges and use it to modulate the intensity of a laser beam. | Microelectromechanical wonder might one day be used to pass information along fiberoptic lines, in display or sensors, or in other uses yet unimagined. |
| 1997-09. Jul 97 Vol 18 Iss 7. The Lure of the Very Small. Discover. P. 56 | James Gimzewski, physicist at IBM's Zurich Research Laboratory; Nadrian Seeman, chemist | Gimzewski - built a microscopic abacus by using a scanning-tunneling microscope to push atoms to form grooves for 'buckyballs' to follow; Seeman - "Working with DNA… he has constructed objects so tiny it would take several million of them to stretch across a dime." (56) | IBM researchers theorized that a scanning-tunneling microscope tip can be made to "scrape up globs of atoms like a plow and leave behind microscopic furrows." (56); | theoretically, the abacus could store "a billion times more information than the memory in a conventional computer can." (56) | computers, medicine | "If scientists ever do realize their dream of building machines the size of molecules, then someday miniature robots could roam your bloodstream and heal injuries, fight off infections, or deliver medication directly to your liver or heart or other body part in need." (56) |
| 1997-10. Browne, M. 7/29/97. A Guitar the Size of a Cell. NYT. P. C4 | Dustin Carr, Cornell graduate student; Dr Harold G. Craighead, professor at Cornell University | "The nanoguitar… was etched from a solid block of crystalline silicon…" (C.4) | Electron-beam lithography "will be used to probe matter on a tiny scale." (C.4) | the nanoguitar could be plucked using an atomic force microscope, but the resulting notes would not be within the human-audible frequency range | communications, electronics | "The system could be adapted for improved communication over optical fibers." (C.4) |
| 1997-11. Flam, F. 8/4/97. Tiny Instrument, big implications. PI. P. D01 | Dustin Carr, Cornell student/rock musician | "drew the guitar on a computer, and it took just a fraction of a second for a machine to etch the layers of the pattern into the silicon chip. The machine uses a technology called electron-beam lithography, in which a beam of electrons works like a tiny etching tool, cutting into the chip. The beam makes a chemical change between the parts of the guitar and the areas surrounding them. Carr then uses a solvent to dissolve the silicon around and under the guitar pattern, leaving small columns of silicon underneath to hold up the guitar." (D01) | to rebuild diseased organs, to help bring back cryogenically frozen people, to aid in communication technology | guitar length about 10 micrometers, each string about 50 nanometers - 100 atoms across. | communication, medicine, music | making tiny guitar is a big breakthrough for nanotech, and broadens the use of applications from nanotech |
| 1997-12. Flam, F. 9/1/97. Fanciful Nanoguitar Rocks Scientists' Minds. HC. P. 3 | Dustin Carr, Cornell graduate student | Carr created a nanoguitar, which he drew on a computer, and then etched layers of the pattern onto a silicon chip (using a machine) | Nanotechnology "has spawned dreams of making any resource - food, clothing, diamond rings - by building it atom by atom." (3) | the nanoguitar is 10 microns long, and has strings about 100 atoms across; the etching process took a fraction of a second and used electron-beam lithography | medicine, cryogenics, electronics, communications | Carr's "micro-artistry" can be applied to communication technology, allowing for the creation of a device which modulates light pulses, sending data through fiber-optic cable at 10 million cycles/second. |
| 1997-13. Reifenberg, A. 9/17/97. Rice University Scientists Build Future on Buckyballs. Wall Street Journal.P. T1 | Rick Smalley, Rice University Nobelist (Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology) | Report on university center | The Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology "will be a launching pad for the real-life application of inventions and discoveries that will shrink to smaller-than-infinitesmal size the building blocks for most every manufactured thing around us." (T.1) ;"'a computer more powerful than anything imagined today… will fit in the palm of your hand.'" (Smalley, T.1) | buckyballs - "composed of 60 atoms, are the foundation of a whole class of nanoscale… carbon structures that could change the way we live." (T.1); nanotubes - "cylindrical carbon fibers… 100 times stronger than steel, and expert conductors of electricity." (T.1) | automotive industry, medicine, architecture, electronics, transportation, power generation, computing | Nanotechology will revolutionize nearly every conceivable industry in the future, but will not realize the implausible uses as seen in science fiction shows such as "Star Trek: The Next Generation"; the Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology will serve as an impetus for these pioneering fields. |
| 1997-14. Wolfe, G. 10/5/97. The Urth Man Cometh Where NASA Has Cautiously Explored. CT. P. 18 | Biographical article on science fiction author Gene Wolfe | Biographical | Nanotechnology will "do everything from building houses to creating fabrics that are a hundred times stronger than today's." (18) | nanotechnology - "miniaturized, self-replicating robots working on the molecular level" (18) | space exploration | Nanotechnology will broaden our scientific horizons and make manufacturing more reliable and efficient. |
| 1997-15. Palmer, V. 10/31/97. The Women of the Court; Female Refs in the NBA: It's the Principle of the Thing. LA. P. 8 | National Basketball Association | Nanotech used as cultural reference point to illustrate intellectual difficulty | With the introduction of female referees, the author says, "Amazing, isn't it, how jobs suddenly attain the complexity of nanotechnology or brain surgery when it's time to open up the ranks?" (8) This is the only mention of nanotechnology in the article. | Nanotech as cultural marker | N/A | seen as a complex science to be compared at the level of brain surgery |
| 1997-16. Fisher, A. Nov 97 Vol 251 Iss 5. The Littlest Guitar. PS. P. 37 | Scientists at Cornell University (Nanofabrication Facility) | Used a high-voltage electron beam to create a guitar the size of a blood cell; it is sculpted out of crystalline silicon on oxide substrates | Perfecting nanotechnology and the creation of remakably tiny structures will lead to "microscopic devices that could eventually be used for everything from fiber-optic communications to controlling the flow of air over a plane's wing." (37) | the nanoguitar is 10 microns long; each of its six strings is about 100 atoms wide (50 nanometers); this technology is replacing that of photolithography and chemical etching which were used to make computer circuits and micromachines | communications, computing | This sculpting technology is the basis for actually creating the nanomachines which will be essential in applying any current nanotechnological theory. |
| 1997-17. Pescovitz, D. 11/17/97. Scientists Pursue an Atomic Bricklayer. LA. P. 3 | Richard Smalley, Rice University Nobelist | Interview, | Though nanotechnology was first proposed in 1959 (by Richard Feynman), practical applications are still few; "'The dream here is to build machines, functional devices, things that go bump in the night, with molecular perfection.'"(Smalley,3) | nanotechnology - "an approach to engineering where individual atoms are positioned to build practical structures" (3); two assembler requirements for building nanotechnological structures: "fingers" that are smaller than the bricks (atoms) being constructed, and "fingers" with the ability to let go of those bricks | molecular electronics, communication, computing, micro- assembly | "'…with molecular perfection, we'd have computers vastly faster and tremendously more powerful in terms of their memory. All the computers ever build would have all the knowledge of human civilization.'" (Smalley, 3) |
| 1997-18. 12/3/97. Science presentation is available to schools. Allentown Morning Call. P. B09. | Lucent Technologies, National Science Teachers Association | No information provided | Science Screen Report is an educational system where 30 top schools in country receive video based learning in science | Science Screen Report has been around for 30 years and has won numerous awards | education - science, engineering, mathematics | nanotech will be used in the 1997-98 learning series, making nanotech a respectable science that children are expected to know about |
| 1997-19. Langworthy, D. 12/15/97. A Silicon Valley for Houston? By all Means. HC. P. 22 | Rice Nobelists Robert Curl and Richard Smalley; Malcolm Gillis, president of Rice University | Educate young on the benefits of nanotechnology, draw support from business, politics and academia | The creation of a 'Silicon Valley' in the Houston area will be made possible through the creation of new high-tech industries, largely driven by nanotechnology | nanotubes - "a string long enough to reach the moon could be wrapped around your finger" (22) | medicine, electronics, advanced materials | A Houston 'Silicon Valley' will be a breeding ground for nanotechnologies which will offer a "durable delivery system for dosages of medicine which cannot now get past the body's immune system to do their healing work", see the creation of single-molecule transistors and tiny supercomputers, as well as strong, lightweight materials |
| 1997-20. .Dupree, J. 12/25/97. Researchers aiming to go where no one has gone before/'Star Trek' may be tame compared with nanotechnology. Philadelphia Inquirer. P. F01. | Jim Von Her, founder and financial backer of Zyvex; Al Globus, a NASA computer scientist; Rice U. chemist Richard Smalley; Alex Zettl, a physics professor at University of CA@Berkely; Ralph Merkle, a nanotech theorist at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center; Nadrian Seeman, an NYU biochemist | "In 1991, researchers figured out how to get buckyballs to hook themselves together into long tubes that look like rolled chicken wire and appropriately are called bukytubes, or nanotubes." (F01)
| dust sized computers, lightweight spacecrafts, nanobots to be injected and kill cancer cells and unclog arteries | it costs $10,000/lb to launch a payload into orbit; with nanotech, they hope to be able to get that down to $200/lb, making spacecrafts about the cost of a nice Mercedes | space exploration, medical, TV's, computers | use the laws of nature to help drive nanotech research forward "We already have a nanotechnological system that works. We call it life. We can take the same principles that biology has already given us and go beyond that." (F03) - Seeman |
| 1997-21. 12/27/97. Viewpoints. HC. P. 31 | Brad Files, research engineer, Johnson Space Center; Richard Smalley, Rice University | "JSC [Johnson Space Center] has been working in collaboration with Rice University to study and optimize the nanotube production system by adding necessary diagnostics." (31) | Nanotechnology will benefit the field of medicine; furthermore, "many other areas of our lives will also benefit from technology on the atomic scale." (31) | NASA is looking at possible advancements through the use of Carbon nanotubes; nanotubes will be used to design "new superstrong, lightweight, composite structures" (31); nanotechnology uses may also include hydrogen storage, new power systems, and computing | Medicine, space exploration, computing, new power sources | Nanotechnology will be key in realizing NASA missions to Mars and elsewhere by the early 21st century |