Replies to post #102034 on Zeev's Turnips Patch-No Politics (ZEEV)

[mrgoodtrade]

Nanotech and MVL - Have been interested in the area initially from a fundamental interest in quantum. I agree that it's early for much other than dead money. However, I have used the occasional hype periods of "get on the wagon" to hop onto NANX JMAR and TINY, but hop off at the next station!

I do find the idea of some day rearranging a few atoms and thereby transforming a pile of dirt into a commodity intriquing. Maybe Star Trek could do an episode on the world-wide economic havoc that would ensue! -0r- lots of Lex Luther criminal types for Superman to contend with in a battle for the "machine"!

Do I smell a new plot for the Daredevil??? Maybe we should be concerned with investing more in MVL than nanotech!

[tantal]

This is sort of a tangential reply, but everyone interested in the science should be wary of thing like this quote taken from your link:

Nanotechnology is technology so small that it is based on actually manipulating particles at the atomic level. Manipulating atomic structures it is so extremely versatile . . . .

This statement is ridiculous. Atomic level manipulation is a field very well known as chemistry (making and breaking bonds between different atoms). Nanotechnology is larger than this; larger than at least 1 nanometer (10^-9 m; a typical atom is about 0.1 to 0.3 nanometers. Really, to exhibit properties of a compound people associate with nanoparticles, the size (depending on the composition) really needs to be at least 2.5 to 3 nm, and typically people work (again depending . . . .) with particles in the 20 nm to 70 nm range. People call features on the scale of about 2 nm to 100 nm nano.

One doesn't manipulate atomic structures in nanotechnology. This would be chemistry. Subatomic manipulations and electronic manipulations which do not make or break bonds to other atoms is physics.

Just trying to educate people.