By Mary van Tamelen

Scott Mize talks of the wonders of nanotechnology and its potential for solving some of the world’s biggest problems.

Nanotechnology may be the wave of the future, but what exactly it is left many Morning Forum members baffled, as Scott Mize, president of the Foresight Institute, gave a talk titled “Nanotechnology and the Millennium Challenges” last Tuesday. He discussed where nanotechnology is today, where it will be in both the short and long terms, and what its challenges and possible solutions are.

At the present time, he said, the technology is in a very early stage of development. But soon its effects will be as ubiquitous as plastic is today.

Defining nanotechnology as “structuring and controlling matter on the scale of 100 nanometers and below to produce new properties and physical relationships,” Mize showed slides of its building blocks: nanotubes, fullerenes, nanoparticles, quantum dots, dendrenes, and soft lithography.

Nanotechnology’s impact will be subtle and practical and will affect us all, Mize said. First conceived in 1959 by Richard Feynman, the idea of technology in this area was developed by Drexler in the 1980s. Today, the research and development is unprecedented - and worldwide - in the academic, governmental and industrial worlds. Present-day funding is $4 billion, and growing, and fairly equally divided among Western Europe, the United States, Japan and other countries. More than 20,000 patents have been issued.

Dozens of companies are involved in nanotechnology research, and the need for it is felt in materials, medicine, aerospace, defense, telecommunications and energy. In the automobile alone, for instance, Mize said that 50 components will use nanotechnology. It has the potential to solve big problems and create big markets, and provide incentives for financial investors.

Mize went on to give a sales pitch for the potential uses of nanotechnology to provide solutions for seven of the 15 great millennium challenges. To meet the challenge of global warming and providing a sustainable environment, the Earth’s greatest challenge according to the United Nations, nanotechnology could provide better fuel use, higher efficiency, green agriculture, and solar cells. Today more than 1 billion people do not have access to clean water, and 2.4 billion do not have access to proper sanitation; a solution could come through nanotechnology’s help in water purification, and crops that use less water.

The Foresight Institute is dedicated to preparing for nanotechnology by focusing on causes, coordinating research and development and business, and providing incentives.

The audience, during the question-and-answer period, seemed frustrated by the generalizations in the talk and asked for more specific details. Mize then talked about the interdisciplinary aspect of it - how it includes physics, computers, biology, chemistry, and goes through pure science to technology to business and marketing.

Specifically, Mize said that nanoparticles are currently being made and mixed to produce sunscreen that will reflect ultraviolet light; nanofibers are available to be embedded into material to deflect stains; and nanotubes are now going into tennis racquets. However, much of the experimentation right now is hit or miss.

Morning Forum is a members-only lecture series held at the United Methodist Church of Los Altos. To get on a waiting list for membership, write to: Morning Forum, P.O. Box 274, Los Altos 94023-0274.