The Next Big Thing Is Really Small: How Nanotechnology Will Change the Future of Your Business (Hardcover)

by Jack Uldrich (Author), Deb Newberry (Author) "Imagine materials one hundred times stronger than steel but one-sixth the weight..." (more)
Key Phrases: new nanomaterials, super chips, nanotechnology companies, United States, Mother Nature, New Jersey (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Ever heard of self-cleaning floor tiles and windows? Or mirrors that won't fog up in the shower? What about army uniforms that can "monitor a soldier's health, detect and detoxify chemical agents, heat and cool the soldier... and independently generate power so the soldier can remain in constant communication with headquarters"? According to Uldrich, director of the Minnesota Office of Strategic and Long-Range Planning, and nuclear physicist and business consultant Newberry, if you haven't heard of these innovations already, you will-and soon. They're just a few products in development that were made possible by rapid advances in the field of nanotechnology. The authors explain, "Nanotechnology is, broadly speaking, the art and science of manipulating and rearranging individual atoms and molecules to create useful materials, devices, and systems." With this manipulation, products can be made with fewer imperfections and more durability, drugs can be more efficient and have fewer side effects, and energy sources can be cleaner and more cost-effective. Approximately $2 billion a year is being invested in nanotechnology worldwide in industries such as textiles, plastics and pharmaceuticals. To help determine how directly one's business will be affected by nanotechnology, the authors offer "nanopoints" at the end of each chapter, which raise questions about how to best prepare for change in any given field. The business advice is general and obvious, but the book clearly presents many intriguing and important applications of this burgeoning field, which may interest those looking to invest in nanotechnology.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
According to the authors, nanotechnology will cause more dramatic changes in our civilization in the next 20 years than we saw in all of the twentieth century. Much of it sounds like science fiction: materials 100 times stronger than steel but lighter than plastic, superdrugs that eradicate cancer cells without side effects and repair heart tissue noninvasively, and self-assembling minibots that can reproduce any substance at the atomic level (like, say, a 1989 bottle of Chateau Mouton-Rothschild Bordeaux). Some of it is already happening. Computer companies have invested billions in nanotechnology that assembles chips at the atomic level, and a miniaturization of only 100 percent equals 10,000 times more computing power. By late 2003, flat panel displays will incorporate nanotechnology with high resolutions undetectable to the human eye. Eddie Bauer is currently using embedded nanoparticles to create stain-repellent khakis, and self-cleaning windows are already on the market. Entire industries may be disrupted, however, and the authors report not only how to take advantage of this coming revolution but also how to protect your current interests. David Siegfried
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Crown Business; 1st edition (March 11, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1400046890
• ISBN-13: 978-1400046898
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #789,944 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great reference but a little dull for nano-experts, October 22, 2003

By	Max More "Max More" (Austin, TX USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

If you've heard a little about nanotechnology and wonder about possible impacts on your business or your life, this is the book to read. Those who have already read widely on the subject will find little additional value in the book, other than its function as a comprehensive compendium of current development efforts and potential business impacts. The writing doesn't shine and sometimes has a oddly 1950s feel to it - see the chart on p.24 and the old-fashioned language on p.33 for examples. Despite this, the book performs well if you approach it as a current reference guide to the potentially enormously disruptive group of molecular-scale technologies called "nanotechnology".

Authors Uldrich and Newberry devote an unnecessary amount of text to convince the reader than nanotechnology is not science fiction. Those who think it is won't be reading the book, and those who do read it won't need convincing. The upside of this strenuous defensiveness is a wealth of facts and figures for the reader to assess each area of emerging and potential nano-business. The authors draw a sharp line between the more common microtechnologies of today (such as the MEMS sensors that deploy your airbag) and nanoscale technologies that operate at the level of one billionth of a meter. Some approaches to nanotechnology, such as Drexler's vision of self-assembling and replicating nano devices fit this characterization better than many of Uldrich and Newberry's examples yet, oddly, Drexler's name appears nowhere in the book.

Ever since IBM scientists woke up the mainstream to the potential of nanotechnology by writing their company's name with 35 xenon atoms (a minute size that would allow "IBM" to be written 350 million times in the space of a single printed period), developments have come ever faster. This book does a good job of showing both how broad and disruptive are the potential applications, and in outlining the probable sequence of developments. They divide the nano realm into nanomeasurement and nanomanipulation, and the latter into nanofabrication (or nanoscale engineering) and self-assembly then explain why the scale of the technology can affect potentially just about every product and industry including health care, materials, energy, inventory management, computers, agriculture, sensors - anything whose products and processes will be changed by the ability to made precise atomic manipulations that affect physical properties of strength, conductivity, and optical, magnetic, and thermal properties.

At the end of each chapter you will find a summary of the "nanopoints", including general but helpful prompts to get you thinking proactively about this technology. Toward the end of the book, the authors speculate about nanotechnology's affects on the world past the year 2013. For the long-range perspective they recommend tracking NASA, since its needs for stronger and lighter materials, self-repairing systems or materials, low-power equipment, and so on, would all be met by nano advances. For the next decade, however, I would instead recommend keeping an idea on DARPA (the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency). DARPA's model of innovation and its current areas of interest seem far more promising than that of the embattled and backward space agency.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars This Book Is Really Stupid: How To Irritate Your Readers, March 29, 2004

By	Sander Claassen (Amsterdam, the Netherlands) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book feels like an avalanche of "wow!" stories about these fancy new applications of nano technology. The authors seem not to be interested in at least trying to appear credible. They show too obviously that they have no knowledge whatsoever of how real business works and only want to name as many examples of possible products that will impact almost all companies around, and of course also everyday life.

In the beginning of the book, one will feel like forgiving these enthusiasts, but as soon as it is clear they only want to tell their fantastic stories, one just cannot take them seriously any longer. And do not think it will get better in the later chapters, because they are all the same. Uldrich and Newberry love to tell you how much the annual revenues are in all sorts of business segments and then scare all those working there how much these markets will be impacted by nano products.

Just some basic laws of economics and common sense do not seem to come to their minds. If their logic would be true, we will see an enormous decline in economic growth, because everything around will soon be replaced by nano products all costing a mere fraction of existing products, lasting many times longer, etcetera, etcetera. Even if such products will be available, they will not be priced very cheaply. Let's make a comparison with computers. These have become thousands of times more powerful than one or two decades ago, but they still cost a lot of money.

The authors like to be dramatic, they almost want to scare you what will happen if you do not consider to develop your own nano products. To me, their attitude has rather made me very sceptic about the impact nano technology will have on society. Alright, I believe many things will change in a couple of decades. But come on, be real, and stop claiming there will be all these "disruptive" innovations in these coming years until 2010. Ever heard of the internet bubble?

As a final example I would like to illustrate their way of making so to say convincing calculations: "... Macy's spends $250.000 a week just to change signs in its stores..." I don't know how many stores they have (Uldrich and Newberry at least don't bother to mention any such relevant information in any of their comparisons), but checking Macy's website, I think I am safe to estimate the number to be at least 500. That would mean a maximum of $500 per store per week. But perhaps this could be even as low as $100? The authors want to convince us that it would be logical for Macy's to replace all their in-store displays by electronic billboards using nano technology. They do mention all the advantages of such screens (like always up to date information), but "forget" to make a cost comparison. My guess would be that such screens would have an economic life span of 3 years. That would mean Macy's could spend something between $15,000 and $75,000 per store on such screens. I really have got no clue how much these would cost (how many screens are we talking about? how much will be the costs for the devices themselves, the electricity to operate them, the information system to create and distribute all the real time information, etcetera?), but my guess is that it is doubtful Macy's would really be cheaper off. Perhaps they will be 2010, but today? If I were Macy's, I'd wait and see for some more years.

The book reads as a superficial article in a magazine for a broad audience, written by a mediocre journalist that seems to find it very important to entertain the reader with very many lively examples, without spending any effort to go into substantial detail at all. The worst thing is that it is way too long. I wouldn't have minded if it was just a couple of pages long. If it had to be so superficial, it could have triggered me with some interesting thoughts about the near future, as long as the authors kept it short and left the fantasizing up to me. But because they just keep going on, the authors leave me with a mixed feeling: in stead of making me a believer of all the possibilities of nano tech in the coming years I have only become sceptic.

In that sense, I suppose those who really have an interest in the success of nano tech aren't too happy that Uldrich and Newberry wrote this book in such a poor way.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars The authors don't contribute any kind of insight., February 25, 2004

By A Customer

It's just a book of factoids on nanotechnology. If the book does anything at all it leaves you full of questions. Which I would imagine the one author hopes will lead you to his consultancy (Nano Veritas Group). Which is carefully placed at top of the "Resources" section and gives the following description: "A comprehensive nanotechnology website dedicated to providing the general business reader with relevant nanotechnology news." ... Check out the website to see how "comprehensive" it is and that will give you an idea about the book. :)