A Look Inside Nanotechnology

A M P T I AC is a DOD Infor ma tion An alys is Center Adm inis te re d by th e De fen se Info rma tion Sys tem s Age n c y, De fen se Te chnical In fo rm ation Cent er and Opera ted by IIT Re s e a rc h Inst i t u te One of my colleagues from the DOE made the comment a few months ago over dinner that if his proposals did not have the term " Nano/Info/Bio-Tech " in the title, there was little chance of them getting funded. We all laughed and commented on how sometimes the buzzwords of the moment influence our re s e a rch efforts more than the warf i g h t e r, defense needs, national interests, or for that matter, intellectual curiosity. How many times have you written a proposal and carefully crafted the title to utilize a word or phrase that at the time was recognized as a buzzword, just to grab a sponsor's attention? I am afraid we are all guilty, and in some respects, nanotech-nology very effectively fits this category. You see it all over the national media, from ABC to TLC, from USAToday to the Wall Street Journal, and from Time Magazine to Scientific American. And now this special issue of the AMPTIAC Newsletter has landed on your desk, filled with information on nanotechnology. Thus, one could say that we too have fallen prey to the latest pop-culture trend of science. Now that I have said what many of you may be thinking, let me explain why we have dedicated significant portions of the last 12 months to generating the thick, full color document you hold in your hands, and why we hope that you will come away from this with a better understanding of nanotechnology and what it means to the DOD in the 21st century. People have worked with the nanoscale for centuries, but until recently lacked the analysis capability to understand its impact. The 20th century dramatically changed that, first with groundbreaking tools for investigating the microscale, then even more astounding tools that enabled investigation of individual atoms. Armies of engineers have driven advances in processing capabilities which have enabled first micro-, then nan-otechnology to move from science fiction to engineering fact. Much like the assembly line revolutionized conventional manufacturing in …