Customer Reviews

Travels To The Nanoworld

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4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book gives an overview of the exciting world of invisibly small things, be they natural or technological. Nature is shown to be the best engineer on the nanoscale, but human engineers are beginning to learn the lesson. While some of the contents are scientifically explicit, there are goodies for curious readers on all levels of understanding.

I found this book incredibly tedious and poorly written. There is indeed some interesting information within, and fascinating tidbits pop up here and there, but on the whole it is very tough to wade through the atrocious prose. I also (like many others it seems) bought the book expecting it to basically be about nanotechnology and how mol. bio. ties in with it, but this theme is rarely discussed. The book tends to ramble on about chemistry and molecular biology, at times in very simple terms anyone can understand (if they care), at times suddenly jumping to textbook-level detail.

I studied molecular biology in university and have a strong interest in nanotechnology, but never have I come across a book which has rendered what I consider some of the most fascinating fields of inquiry so irredeemably dull and lifeless. Even some of my textbooks were more lively. I'm sure this was a well-intentioned effort and the author seems very knowledgeable, but I could barely force myself through this book.

I can't recommend this at all, especially when there are much better and more stimulating alternatives out there, such as Drexler's "Engines of Creation" and "Nanosystems." Pass on this one; save your time and money.

The crux of the problem is that Gross can't take us on a tour of the picoworld, the femtoworld or the attoworld where the real mechanics of the nanoworld must lie hidden. Depending on the reader's background this book could range from being a big bore to being quite interesting. Most of his speculation about nanotechnology is borrowed from Drexler. If you've read Drexler there is no point in rereading it here. However briefly, he does warn that this fiddling in the nanoworld could result in ultimate bacterial weapons and freaky humans. Boiling down the message-much of Gross' nanoworld tour consists of illustrating activity within cells and bacteria. He is like a man looking at a bird in flight and saying, "Look, man can fly too." When he goes off on tangents like the blue rose, the green genes and pressure squeezed eggs the reader realizes he is grasping at straws.

Much of the book explains how x-ray crystallography, NMR spectroscopy, and laser pulse photography are used to magnify and stop the action occurring within the animal cell. In this way he reduces life, the cellular processes, to those like message transmission, transport, protein folding, and protein synthesis /catalysis. He speaks of the new fields of biotechnology and genetic engineering to change the DNA blueprint but that is what evolution has been doing for billions of years. What's new here beyond splicing into the bacteria's DNA to create drugs like insulin or frost proof vegetables?

This book was a relatively quick read. It covers most of the basics without burying the novice (like myself) in the wealth of details in some of the more advanced books on the subject.

Nanosystems and Engines of Creation are two great books for more on nanotechnology by Eric Drexler.

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Not exactly dealing with "nanotechnology". You can imagine the contents judging from the title, "nanoworld". Overemphasizes biological systems and gives some examples that are not related to nanotech. You will get a broad, "shallow" understanding of what has been done and is going on in a science field called chemistry.

Gross by name, but, thankfully, not by nature. This is an excellent introduction to miniature machinery, in the realms of both nature and technology. An ideal accompaniment to Ken Dodd's "Voyages to Knotty Ash: Diddymen and their clown cars"

Without a doubt the worst book I have ever read. Gross just keeps rambling on about proteins, cells, DNA, etc. I did not pick up anything interesting and informative from reading this horrifically-written book.