At a science conference in 1959, the famous physicist Richard Feynman asked, “Why cannot we write the entire 24 volumes of the Encyclopaedia Britannica on the head of a pin?” He then offered $1,000 to the first person who could write a page from a book onto a space smaller than the period at the end of this sentence.
With the advent of faster computers and incredibly powerful microscopes, Feynman’s “small scale” challenge matured into a revolutionary new science that could become a trillion-dollar industry within the next 10 years.
Nanotechnology — the development and use of technology at an incredibly small scale — is one of the hottest tickets in science, and University researchers may soon take center stage.
New legislation introduced by Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., would create a National Nanotechnology Research Program to support long-term nanoscale research and development.
In an economic summit in December, Wyden said, “Oregon has the tools, the facilities and the talent to emerge as a nanotechnology hub.”
Chemistry graduate student Marvin Warner agrees.
“The environment at the U of O right now is one of active collaboration,” Warner said. “We’re building an arsenal of the appropriate technology to basically see at the nanoscale.”
Seeing and thinking at the nanoscale is an incredibly challenging feat — a nanometer is one billionth of a meter. For example, a human hair is 100,000 nanometers wide, and a ten-yard-touchdown run is more than 9 billion nanometers long.
From medicine to exotic materials, experts estimate nanodevices and nanoparticles could revolutionize the way we live. For instance, advances in nanotechnology could yield nanosensors to find and fight environmental pollution, or could lead to stronger and lighter building materials for space travel.
Chemistry Professor Jim Hutchison said researchers at the University of Oregon and Oregon State University are in a unique position to make nanoscience dreams come true. Hutchison said a partnership has developed to combine the University’s expertise in nanoscience with Oregon State’s already-existing microtechnology studies.
Hutchison said the collaboration will be called the Multiscale Materials and Devices Center. Such a project, he added, could potentially create new products and spur economic development in Oregon.
“The reason nanoscience is so important is because there are fundamentally new properties found in materials that small,” Hutchison said. “It’s not about the smallness, it’s the way properties change at the nanoscale.”
Physics Professor Heiner Linke said at small scales, the laws of physics, chemistry and biology merge. The strength of nanotechnology at the University rests in the strong connection between different departments, he added.
“We can do some amazing things right now. As a field we have learned how to position atoms where we want them,” Linke said. “The challenge is to develop techniques to build more complexity with the same accuracy.”