Nanotechnology? What the Heck is That?

October 07, 2008

A new poll from the guys at the Project of Emerging Nanotechnology finds that almost half of U.S. adults have heard nothing about nanotechnology.

Half. Nothing.

Honestly, I'm not surprised. There's a lot of stuff going on right now that demands more of our attention. The upcoming election. The economic meltdown. Who has room in their brain to think about these things that are so esoteric to the nonscientist?

But it's not just the people. It's the federal government, too. For the last eight years, the Bush administration has not appropriately funded scientific research and in fact, for the last two years, funding has declined. This has forced universities to dip into their endowment funds. But you can imagine how, in the aftershocks of the Wall Street bail out, how deep those pools of money are. Not. 

It's not just that the money hasn't been there. But by giving science a cold shoulder, the Bush administration is also neglecting to educate its citizens about the potential benefits and risks posed by these technologies.

Let's hope the new administration, whatever and whoever it is, does a better job at putting science front and center in national policies and budgets.

Photo: Don Farrall

Comments

[x-ray fluorescence]

Nanotechnology involves research and technology development the atomic, molecular, or macromolecular levels in the dimension range of approximately 1-100 nanometers to provide fundamental understanding of phenomena and materials at the nanoscale and to create and use structures, devices, and systems that have novel properties and functions because of their small and/or intermediate size. The novel and differentiating properties and functions are developed at a critical length scale of matter typically under l00 nm.

[nanderthal]

The remainder of the anti-science Bush adminstration's term can now be best measured in nano units of time. Thank God !!!

Nation's been blinded by (a lack of) Science the last 8 years. No wonder half don't know nano from nookie.