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Small Wonders
Peter Hébert
04/01/2004
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Washington is not the easiest place to reach a cheery consensus. But there is
one issue that has made strange bedfellows of politicians from both sides of the
aisle: nanotechnology. While government support of industry is usually
unpopular, this field is expected to have such a profound effect on the economy
that funding from various government  agencies, including the Defense Advanced
Research Projects Agency (the research and development arm of the Defense
Department that helped create the Internet) is now flowing to various
nano-initiatives. Indeed, the National Science Foundation, a
government-sponsored agency, projects that nanotech’s impact on the American
economy will reach $1 trillion by 2015.
What exactly is nanotechnology? The
name comes from a measurement called a nanometer, which is one-billionth of a
meter, or about the size of four individual atoms. At that level, the laws of
classical physics change. Scientists can manipulate atoms to create new building
blocks that produce unique materials with the exact properties they seek. These
materials can be smaller, stronger, lighter and more resilient than traditional
building materials.
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