A Frontier for Engineering

This article kicks off an initiative by mechanical engineering magazine to delve into the topic of nanotechnology. Because of the high-risk/high return and interdisciplinary nature of the research and development, and the potential social implications, the National Nanotechnology Initiative has received the government’s support. The essence of nanotechnology is the ability to work at the atomic, molecular, and supramolecular levels, in a scale of about 1 to 100 nanometers, to create, manipulate, and use materials, devices, and systems that have novel properties and functions because of the small scale of their structures. There has been an explosion of discoveries in the last few years, and development is expected to accelerate in the next decade. Many scientific advancements exceed the projections made just one year ago, in areas such as molecular electronics, guided self-assembly, medicine, and DNA processing. Nanoscale science and engineering promise to restructure almost all industries toward the next industrial revolution, and to assure the quality of life in an increasingly crowded planet with shrinking energy and materials resources and less environmental endurance.