Blog: Dan E. Linstedt

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The ground-swell of Nanotech

I've been writing (and learning) about nanotech for the past two years, it seems like only yesterday when I first broke ground to try to bring Nanotech definitions and explanations to the Data Warehousing community. I've been off doing more research, in hopes of making my blog entries more interesting, and to the point.

Well, I've found something I want to blog about - the silicon industry versus the nanotech chip makers of the future. This is interesting indeed. Will the silicon giants of today realize what they're facing? Will they re-tool and rebuild ahead of the 8-ball? Will they sink faster than a stone in water?

There are many things I've learned about technology over the years, and many of these things are taught in school. Such as the cyclical nature of inventions. The stone age, the bronze age, the mechanical age, the information age, and now: the nanotech age - it is upon us.

Here's a link to a february 2005 Business Week article that discusses nano chip makers of the future versus Silicon Chip makers of today.

In the article, some of the silicon execs are refusing to see the light - but are they bluffing? Are they secretly building their nanotech advances in the back-room labs? They should be! If they haven't started working in true nanotech, they will be out of business within 10 years, possibly sooner. But then again, 10 years is a long time - or is it?

In my opinion they need to take what they have learned about manufacturing processes, architectures and designs, and find a way to model them at the molecular level. OR they should entirely scrap the whole process and re-invent their companies from the ground up. I tend to agree with the author of the article: Nanotech is not a force to be taken lightly nor should it be ignored. We should learn as much about it as possible.

Of course ultimate power lies in the manner of which the technology is applied to solve problems. However, nanotech is different - much different from that of standard Silicon based technology. Nanotech provides horizons and abilities we've only dreamt of or seen in scifi movies. A quote from the article: "They could conceivably marry electronics, for example, to biology, coming up with self-replicating computational devices. Researchers in Israel have already harnessed transistors to strands of DNA." I've already begun discussing this in some of my nanotech white papers here on the B-Eye-Network.

If you think I'm kidding about Nanotech and it's impact in our society, think again. There are thousands of stories out there about products emerging on the market place today, like this one: a nanotech based golf ball, or how about a Samsung 8gb Compact Flash Card, or a Samsung silver nanoseal refrigerator that resists stains, mold and mildew.

Here's another Business Week article about nanomaterials. A quote from this article is one I especially like: "The laws of gravity, optics, and acceleration represent averages, not the quirky behavior of each single nanoparticle. For those principles, researchers must venture into quantum physics. Those who come to grips with this realm and can harness its power stand to become the titans of the nano age."

Is anyone involved in Nanotech? Love to hear from you.

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