Nanoscale Science and Energy Needs
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PUBLIC AFFAIRS FORUM An analysis of public policy issues and how they affect MRS members and the materials community...
Nanoscale Science and Energy Needs For the past three years, the U.S. agencies that play a role in science have been working together to find, as Feynman said, room at the bottom. In FY 2001, these agencies joined together to propose the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) to explore the world of a few thousand to a few million atoms. (For more information see www.nano.gov). Because it is at the nanoscale that collections of atoms or molecules attain the properties of materials, it is hardly surprising that materials science has emerged as the major component of this initiative. The NNI is timely, because we now have the tools for research at the nanoscale. A host of new microscopies have been invented since the discovery of the astounding scanning tunneling microscope. These microscopes not only probe but also manipulate single atoms. Powerful machines have been built to provide very high intensity x-rays with which the structure of nanosized molecules can be determined such as proteins and with which nanoscale structures can be characterized in polycrystalline solids. New terascale computers now provide the means to calculate properties of nanoscale assemblies of atoms. The technology that will emerge from nanoscale science promises to be even more fantastic than that which emerged from microscale science. Microscale science put on our laps stores of knowledge such as existed in only a few of the great libraries of the world and the ability to compute in ways not even the wealthiest industries could do 50 years ago. Nanoscale science takes us to the ultimate in miniaturization and forecasts an even more astounding technology revolution. A strand of DNA contains so much information that even our microscale devices strain at dealing with it, yet nature a few billion years ago discovered how to make nanoscale structures to store and manipulate enough information to create life. However, before the marvels of nanotechnology are realized, we must understand physics and chemistry at this scale, and we must learn how to manipulate nanoscale objects to make materials and functional devices. The interagency NNI is a bold plan to emphasize nanoscale science,
engineering, and technology. This plan includes a strong fundamental research program that is investigator-driven, fundamental research in “grand challenges” facing each of the agencies, centers to bring together researchers from many disciplines, research infrastructure to provide the tools to do nanoscale research, work to understand the societal benefits and perils of this new technology, and finally workforce education and training. Much of nanoscale science is critical to the principal missions of the Department of Energy (DOE) in science, energy, defense, and environment. For example, nanoscale synthesis and assembly methods will result in significant improvements in solar energy conversion; more energy-efficient lighting; selective catal
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