Customer Reviews

Nanotechnology: Science, Innovation, and Opportunity

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Nanotechnology: Science, Innovation, and Opportunity hangs on the available money to move projects forward. This is a great book for those interested in this potential for world changing technology. The chapters come from many sources and it's a must read for people interested in our future. I like the very credible sources and the way Lynn Foster put this book together. Not easy to understand, so read it carefully. I personally loved the book.

Foster has compiled a timely set of essays on nanotech, circa 2005. Deliberately written to reach as wide a non-technical audience as possible. The authors are a varied bunch. Nobel Laureate Smalley, who discovered C60 (the buckyball), talks about nanotech enabling a solution to a global energy problem. While equally distinguished venture capitalist Jurvetson discussed prospects for commercialisation in various fields like lithography and metrology. There are numerous other contributors, as well.

One chapter, by Lawrence and Bock, is a little askew from the rest of the book. They talk about what it means to be a technological entrepreneur. This often involves having an epiphany ("great idea") and then taking a labourious path to instantiating it as a product or company. With great risk of failure, and encompassing long hours and almost total personal commitment. There is little in this chapter specific to nanotech. Yet, upon reflection, the chapter does fit into the book. It targets a reader, perhaps a scientist or engineer, who may be tempted to go down this route. As a co-founder of a startup company, albeit in software, I found the chapter to be spot on.

On a minor note, a chapter on microelectronics described how doping in very small structures can lead to wide device variations. Due to the discretisation of the dopants and their random placements within the structures. This was the main subject of my PhD in 88.

Despite possessing a degree in engineering, I have no formal training in any branch of nanotechnology. That didn't matter. Each essay was very well written and provided great insight into the promising world of nanoscience. I particularly enjoyed the writings pertaining to business applications and intellectual property rights. The final essays are dedicated to the nitty-gritty science behind the hype. These are where the inexperienced might become a little lost, but with a little thought (and maybe some google searches) most readers should come away with a good feel for what nano has to offer both now and in the future. For a real good knowledge rundown of nanoscience and its potential applications, I would highly recommend Nanotechnology for Dummies by Richard Booker.

Nanotech is a rapidly moving field with plenty of promise for the future. Lynn E. Foster has compiled a set of essays that explore a number of aspects of the field in the book Nanotechnology: Science, Innovation, and Opportunity.

Contents:
Section 1 - Development Drivers: Lessons in Innovation and Commercialization from the Biotechnology Revolution; Nanotechnology and Our Energy Challenge; Fads and Hype in Technology - The Sargasso Sea of "Some Day Soon"
Section 2 - The Players: Nanotechnology Commercialization - Transcending Moore's Saw with Molecular Electronics and Nanotechnology; Investment in Nanotechnology; The Role of the U.S. Government in Nanoscale Science and Technology; Overview of U.S. Academic Research; Understanding University Technology Transfer for Nanotechnology; Intellectual Property Policy and Impact; Entrepreneurs in the Technological Ecosystem; Major Corporations - Technology, Business, and the Culture of Opportunity; Nanotechnology in Federal Labs
Section 3 - Materials and Industries: Nanoscale Materials; Nanotechnology-Enabled Sensors - Possibilities, Realities, and Diverse Applications; Microelectronics; Drug Delivery; Bio-Nano-Information Fusion
Section 4 - Convergence and Integration: Convergence and Integration; Ethical Considerations in the Advance of Nanotechnology
Epilogue: Infinitesimal Machinery
Acronyms and Abbreviations; Index

As a compilation of articles and essays, you're exposed to the thoughts and concepts of many of the people working on the front lines of nanotech. You also get a broad coverage of the different areas that will be affected by it, such as the delivery of medicine. Having a family member who is a type 1 diabetic, it's interesting to read how a nanotech-enabled approach to insulin delivery could dramatically alter the way he lives his life. While not a "cure" per se, it does allow the body to function as if nothing is broken. It was also interesting to read how universities and companies really can't live without each other in this field. Most companies can't afford to do pure research without some view towards an end product to recoup costs. Universities can do that research, but often need financial assistance. By licensing their discoveries, universities can pay for their research, and companies can benefit from that research at a fraction of the cost and risk of doing it themselves. A real symbiotic relationship... It's this type of material that you'll find in here...

The standard disclaimer applies here when it comes to compilations. Since you have different writers, you'll have different styles of communication. Many chapters are very readable, but some are a bit more "slogging" than others. And overall, this book does assume a relative familiarity with the field. It's not a book I'd recommend to someone looking to get their first exposure to the subject. But if you've been moderately following the industry, you'll benefit from the time spent reading...

Nanotechnology is promising to revolutionize many businesses and while some of this is touched upon in other books, most focus on the science involved. NANOTECHNOLOGY: SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND OPPORTUNITY gathers writings by the field's leading experts to provide the latest facts, edits the information by a key industry advisor, and surveys everything from social change implications and business obstacles and hype. Much more wide-ranging than most, it links the emerging science to key issues not just in science and ethics but reaching into the business development world.

This is a great overview of a rapidly growing and important technology field. It is good for those who are familiar with research and business developments in the area as well as a great introduction for those who would like to know more about what nanotechnology is all about.

Foster's book, with entries by some of the leading players in the field, is an invaluable resource for anyone trying to understand not just the science behind nanotechnology (actually, a number of different scientific areas), but its implications for the future of technology and how we'll get there from here. An outstanding and timely resource - if you want to understand the nano sector today, and where it's going, you have to read it.

I RECEIVED A SMALL PRINT/ SMALL FONT PAPERBACK
INSTEAD OF THE BOOK I ORDERED.
I PAID BOOK PRICE.