Dateline: July 4, 2001

Steve: In which areas do you think nanotechnology will have a significant and early impact?

Tim: The recent Red Herring issue on Nanotechnology identified materials, medicine and optics. I would argue that the optical applications they mention are just exploiting properties of materials anyway, although I can understand their reasons for wanting to include optics, and in particular optical switching, in a magazine aimed at investors.

Nanotechnology is often called the new Internet, but its repercussions will be felt much more widely than that. I would liken it more to the invention of the telephone, or even the discovery of electricity. Now when we talk about future applications of nanotechnology, we should remember that electricity was initially used to replace gaslights & candles, the telephone was not designed to enable you to connect to the Internet. Put the technology in the hands of some bright people, and the results will be unimaginable, given our current perception of technology.

However, I would predict materials, electronics and pharmaceuticals are obvious areas in the short term, as a lot of the groundwork has already been done, and these industries already have the tools and experience of working at sub micron scales. While these may not be the most exciting applications of nanotechnology, they will improve existing materials & processes, and their commercialization will help fund a great deal of research into large scale manufacturing. Nanophase Technologies is a good example of how nanotechnology can have an impact in an unexpected way but this is just the tip of the iceberg. What's better, an army of nanobots mopping up skin cancer in twenty years time, or more efficient sun blocks now?

Steve: Perhaps progressive development and creative dreams are two complementary approaches to nanotechnology - like theory and experiment, top-down and bottom-up or even TNT and NTN. The wheel might be another technology worth remembering - seeing as for so long we thought we had invented it, only to find that biomolecular nanotechnology has had wheels all along. In addition to faster computers, nanomedicine and mucho dinero, what are you looking forward to from nanotechnology?

Tim: Personally, I'm a big fan of any new technology, so of course I'm looking forward to all kinds of devices getting better, faster, lighter, and having less buttons. However, the area where nanotechnology has the greatest scope to change the world is by making things, whether they be mobile phones, computers, or drugs for the treatment of HIV or cancer, just work a whole lot better than they do at present.