Principled Innovation LLC

A closer look at nanotechnology

May 29th, 2006

During TDOB, I posted about the need for more conversation in the association community around the new and developing areas of science that are beginning to exert an influence on our society. Among the most intriguing disciplines to explore is nanotechnology, in part because it deals with incomprehensibly small phenomena. Try to imagine something: a nano is one-billionth of a meter, or 1/80,000th of a human hair. At that infinitesimally tiny size, however, the properties of materials change dramatically, making it possible to create new structures that can do anything from making clothing stain resistant to conducting solar energy to, quite possibly, curing cancer. The words of the late Richard Smalley, Nobel laureate and nanotech pioneer, from 1999 are beginning to ring very true:

The technology of our 20th century is fantastic, but it pales when compared to what will be possible when we learn to build things at the ultimate level of control, one atom at a time.

Another aspect of nanotechnology that definitely makes it worth understanding is the estimated size of the business opportunity. Although nanotech has been around for many years, more lucrative applications in various fields have begun to develop more recently. According to the National Science Foundation, the global market for nanotechnology will be worth $1 trillion by the year 2015. Of course, nanotechnology isn’t free of difficulties. Although the financial barriers to entry into nanotechnology are relatively low, growing molecules that can be bonded together into specific configurations–so called “bottom-up construction,” which is generally regard as the most powerful form of nanotechnology–is very complicated. And there are concerns about the toxicity of certain nanoparticles, even in products that are on the market today, such as sunscreen.

For more excellent information on nanotechnology, I highly recommend you check out the June issue of National Geographic, from which I have drawn the information for this post. Although the complete article in the print issue is not online, there is other valuable content, including images from the article, a multimedia presentation and links to nano-tech related sites. It is worth spending some time navigating all of the resources so you can build your understanding of this important area of scientific inquiry and impact. (Another resource is the NanoWiki, a book under development using a wiki.)

The possibilities of nanotechnology for our society are as extraordinary as the implications are profound. Associations serving a wide variety of professions and industries, not just the scientific and technological fields, should begin educating their members about nanotechnology in order to tease out possible opportunities, challenges and concerns. There are social, political, environmental and ethical considerations that must be fully discussed and debated, even as research into and the commercial development of nanotechnologies continue. We should not wait until these critical issues become crises to factor them into our on-going strategic conversations and innovation activities.

If you're new here, I hope you will consider subscribing to the P.I. Blog. Just click on this link to add it to your RSS reader. You can also receive e-mail updates by subscribing via the box located on the blog itself. Thanks for visiting!

Entry Filed under: Principled Innovation Blog, What's New?, Innovation, Associations, Extreme Makeover, Associations and Science