Customer Reviews

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

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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.

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. :)

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.

"Finally, a nanotechnology book that speaks to the people and defines how this technology will affect their lives. This book is a 'must read' for corporate executives, human resource directors, education professionals, high school and university career counselors and the public. The overview breaks down the complexity of nanotechnology explaining how it is 'already' changing a variety of businesses with descriptive examples relating to products that are in the marketplace 'NOW', while including a roadmap to the future products through 2013. However, Uldrich does not stop there, but proceeds to describe the disruptive implications in the marketplaces concerning the current service industries and products that may be displaced. By concluding each chapter with a list of 'nanopoints' developed to encourage long range planning and assessment, this book becomes an excellent business tool. The bottom line is that nanotechnology is here NOW, and Uldrich manages to take it out of the science fiction realm by showing the audience real applications in current products. It will only become more pronounced in the future. Can you afford 'NOT' to be prepared?

As a biologist and a manager currently involved in leading-edge monoclonal antibodies marketing, I'm curious about latest developments in bioscience and technology, both on scientific and business side.

Nanotechnology promises to be the next frontier to medicine, even more pervasive and specific in action than recombinant DNA technology.

As this new field develops, there is a progressively growing number of publications trying to introduce specialists and non-specialist to this new world. As in the early stages of Internet development, there is some good review and an high number of garbage.

This book relies more in the first category, giving a certain overview of current developments in different fields of industry, but it has the negative side of not being specific for any of them.

The main message is certainly optimistic, and implies the rapid and ubiquitarious development of nanotech; but the substance is that most of described products and techniques are still in the realm of would-be.

The book has some interesting points about nanomaterials development, especially about spacecraft applications (it's reflecting authors' background), but information about currently developing projects in biosciences are vague and unsatisfying.

In summary, a good book when it's considered on wide perspective, but certainly not a guide to rely on in order to spot business opportunities in nanotech field.

"Nano-" is a prefix meaning one-billionth (just as "giga-" is a prefix meaning one billion). A nanometer is one-billionth of a meter, and as the authors illustrate on page 24, a nanometer is about ten hydrogen atoms wide while a typical biological cell is thousands of nanometers wide. It is useful to understand that nanotechnology is then about manipulating the very small irrespective of the technological field or science involved.

This is an important point and one the Jack Uldrich and Deb Newberry emphasize throughout this breezy and readable introduction to how nanotechnology is going to change our lives over the next couple of decades. Manipulating the very small, molecule by molecule, and even atom by atom, will prove enormously useful in a wide range of industries, from space exploration and the airline business to the modification of foods to the treatment and prevention of disease. Consequently what this book is about is not only building ultra-turbo'ed computers and superslick surfaces for airplanes and submarines, but about genetically modified foods and stem cell research.

This book just skims the surface of what is going on and gives the reader some idea about where the action is and what is likely to develop in the next few years. Starting in 2003, they project what products and services are likely to be available today (Chapter Five: "2004 & 2005: Faster, Smaller, Cheaper, Better"); a few years from now (Chapter Six: "2006-2008: The Avalanche Begins"); a decade down the road (Chapter Seven: "Taking Control"); and on into the future (Chapter Eight: "2013 & Beyond: The World Becomes Smaller and Smarter").

Their book-business spin is how these changes will affect YOUR business. The watchword is "disruptive," because a new nanoengineered product has the potential for putting present day businesses OUT of business. Just as the internal combustion engine changed the landscape of America, and electricity transformed our world in ways that nobody at the time could reliably predict, the products and services made possible by the manipulation of the very, very small, will (very soon) change the way we live in ways we cannot fully predict--which suggests the question, Which are the horse and buggy businesses of today?

Since this book is aimed at readers interested in the possible impact of the nanoworld on their businesses, the authors suggest how many advances will play out: First, the military or the space program or a large corporation will develop at high cost the new technology. Then, as the technology is seen to work, it will spread to "very high-end niches" such as in sports and recreation (yacht racing and mountain climbing, for example) where people are ready to pay a high price for just a little improvement. From there the technology will be taken up by "high-end markets" (fancy cars, expensive cosmetics, etc.) and from there as the price continues to fall "to everyday products (e.g., kitchen appliances, bikes, and toys)..." and so on. (p. 166)

Conservative people the world over are understandably upset at some of the prospects. By manipulating individual biological cells and their attendant chemistry, we might be able to grow new limbs and organs for our bodies, possibly including a whole new YOU. Food products will be modified to include imbedded vitamins and pesticides (this is already being done), but also medicines and even contraceptives. We will be able to wear or have implanted in our bodies super-fast computers. Indeed, it may happen that we will become the cyborgs of science fiction, making it hard to tell where our genetic biology ends and our enhanced body begins. We may in fact cross over some unmarked threshold and become something other than human.

While the authors are not looking this far ahead, it is interesting to note that Chapter Seven is subtitled "Taking Control." The irony here is that with identity tags ("nanosensors") imbedded in every product (and possibly into EVERYBODY) we ourselves will not be taking control. Rather the technology will be taking control of us. Remember that biological evolution on this once lifeless planet began with chemistry, and now the products of that chemistry (us) are reaching out to control the planet. Might not our technology some day control us?

Oh, Brave New World,/ That has such things in it!--to paraphrase Shakespeare (from The Tempest).

In the final chapter the authors do address the ethical, philosophical and social aspects of nanotechnology-enabled advances in our lives and warn that many people will be against them (indeed many people already are against them). It will not be a case of a technology taking off smoothly. Whether the best technique or product wins out in the marketplace (as the Qwerty keyboard, VHS technology, and Microsoft showed us) may depend on how resistant people are to change, how intrenched one technology is, and how the politics play out. The brave new world of nanotechnology will transform the planet, no question about that, but when and how is, as the authors advise, entirely unclear.

Nonetheless the authors emphasize the positive aspects of the great changes to come. They see nanotechnology giving us cheaper energy, solving our fresh water and pollution problems, enabling us to live longer and better lives, etc. Personally I welcome the excitement and change to come, and I envy those younger than I who will see a lot more of it.

I was disappointed in this book to say the least. It is really nothing more than anecdotal observations about the emerging technology of nanotechology. One keeps expecting the next chapter to bring something a little more researched than just "oh wow" statements but the book is consistent to the very end. One of the more disturbing things is that each chapter is just a mish mash of superficial "facts" that looks like all chapters before and after it. This is a book whose content could easily have been reduced to a nice quarter page newspaper article and the reader would have lost virtually nothing. There is just very little that is substantive in this book. Simply stated, this is one of the worst written and researched books I have ever read. My overall impression is that the writer has little to no background in this technology and threw something together to get a book on the market as quickly as possible. My advice, look elsewhere. http://salesvitamins.com.

The Next Big Thing is Really Small doesn't make the rules, but it is certainly an excellent rule guide for investors and business people wanting to be ahead of the game in a multidisciplinary arena that will provide the world with many paradigm violations in the near and long term.

I recently attended NanoBusiness 2004 in New York City--at a cost of $800 plus hotel and travel). I could have saved all of that money by just investing in this book beforehand--it literally covered 95% of the information that was provided by the conference speakers. If you are considering learning more about nanotechnology, I strongly encourage you to start here. The book is very easy to read (especially for non-techies) and it will provide you an excellent foundation.

I recently heard Jack Uldrich give a keynote presentation at Tech2004 in Syracuse. As an avid follower of nanotechnology, I immediately purchased and read his book. My only regret is that I didn't pick up a copy a year earlier. Much to my surprise, although the book is now over a year old (a long time in the world of nanotech), Uldrich accurately predicted much of what has occurred in the last year. He was among the first to highlight (well before the Forbes/Wolfe Newsletter) Harris & Harris, a publicly traded nanotech venture capital firm, whose price has skyrocketed from $2 to $20 a share since punblication. He also profiled Nanosys ... likely to be the first pure-play nanotech firm to go to an IPO. The entire book is filled with numerous other gems that readers are likely to profit from handsomely in the years ahead.

Other reviewers have dismissed the book ... which is fine with me ... it just means that I can profit even more before the rest of the public catches on that nanotechnology really is the NEXT BIG THING.