Nanotech Goes To Capitol Hill

akb writes "The Tech Law Journal has the rundown on a panel held on Capitol Hill by the Nanotech Business Alliance and the Progressive Policy Institute. The panel was intended to educate legislators and government agencies about nanotech and (of course) to drum up money to support research."

Comments

there is no "nanotechnology" there

[mj6798]

If you go to the NanoBusiness web site and look at what they promise, it has nothing to do with "nanotechnology". Sensors, carbon nanotubes, microscopes, etc. belong to the established disciplines of material science, chemistry, biology, polymer science, molecular biology, micromechanical systems, and many other established areas of research and technology.

Nanotechnology is distinguished from these existing fields by promising molecular assemblers, self-replicating machines, and all that. Making carbon "nano"-tubes or buckyballs from soot and getting them to stick together in particular ways in bulk is not nanotechnology, it's still (bulk) chemistry. Nanotechnology has failed completely to deliver on those promises so far, and it doesn't look like it will deliver any time soon.

Rebranding the successes of other disciplines as successes of "nanotechnology" seems rather dishonest to me. Given that these people are now going to Capitol Hill with outstretched hands, it seems like the same thing we had with "e-this" and "i-that" over the last few years. Since this silliness cannot be stopped, let's hope the traditional disciplines will wise up quickly and put a "nano" into their names temporarily so that there is a level playing field.