Beyond The Nanoworld

Beyond the world of atoms, at scales smaller than the smallest nuclei, a new world comes into view, populated by an array of colorful elementary particles: strange and charmed quarks, muons and neutrinos, gluons and photons, and many others, all interacting in beautifully intricate patterns. Beyond the Nanoworld tells the story of how this new real

Our lives are about to be changed by new technologies that operate on a scale too small to be seen by even the most powerful optical microscopes. Devices measured in nanometers-billionths of a meter-have set off a nanotechnology revolution. In Travels to the Nanoworld, Michael Gross takes us deep into this miniature universe and describes natural processes and new technologies that will make modern machines look like relics from the Stone Age. Starting with the model of the living cell, whose vital processes are directed and carried out by structures with dimensions on the nanometer scale, Gross shows how biochemists are beginning to understand the mechanisms of the "nanotechnology of nature." Soon science will have the knowledge and technology to generate artificial systems that will perform similar tasks, and through them will find new treatments for disease, substitutes for toxic waste, and alternatives to carbon fuel.

The fi eld of cosmology may be on the verge of a signifi cant paradigm shift, as there is an increasing awareness that scientists have missed something fundamental as they carry on in their quest for a theory of everything and a theory that unites general relativity with quantum mechanics. Knight proposes a new theory suggesting that the space-time geometry possesses a complex hierarchical structure that comprises twelve dimensionsnine space dimensions and three time. Furthermore, this structure is divided into three strata, each of which has its own four-dimensional structure and stratum-specifi c fundamental forces and parameterswith variations in the gravitational constant G, the speed of light c, and the Planck constant. Through the pages of this work, this theory is further explained.

Advance Praise "What a treasure house is this book! Robots, space aliens, Einstein, black holes, time travel--these themes, and much more, from Stephen King's amazing books are opened up like toy chests. It's tremendous fun, entirely educational, and a great tribute to King."--Peter Straub "A fun, fun read."--F. Paul Wilson "The Science of Stephen King appeals to both the scientist and the longtimereader of Stephen King in me. Gresh and Weinberg use concepts from King's fiction as launching pads for in-depth explorations of concepts as diverse as ESP, pyrokinesis, time travel, artificial intelligence, quantum chemistry, alternate realities, string theory, and the possibility that we'll be visited by aliens or that we'll face a global pandemic. Much of what Stephen King writes about in his novels is closer to reality than you might think."--Bev Vincent, Ph.D., author of The Road to the Dark Tower "A superb overview of King's use of scientific concepts in his stories. And considering all the scary talk lately about pandemic flu, their chapter on The Stand is timely as hell."--Stephen Spignesi, author of The Complete Stephen King Encyclopedia "Just as Sagan and Asimov popularized science to the masses by making itentertaining and informative, so too do Gresh and Weinberg. Compulsively readable and thought-provoking."--George Beahm, author of The Stephen King Companion

The dawning era of nanotechnology promises to transform life as we know it. Visionary scientists are engineering materials and devices at the molecular scale that will forever alter the way we think about our technologies, our societies, our bodies, and even reality itself. Colin Milburn argues that the rise of nanotechnology involves a way of seeing that he calls “nanovision.” Trekking across the technoscapes and the dreamscapes of nanotechnology, he elaborates a theory of nanovision, demonstrating that nanotechnology has depended throughout its history on a symbiotic relationship with science fiction. Nanotechnology’s scientific theories, laboratory instruments, and research programs are inextricable from speculative visions, hyperbolic rhetoric, and fictional narratives. Milburn illuminates the practices of nanotechnology by examining an enormous range of cultural artifacts, including scientific research articles, engineering textbooks, laboratory images, popular science writings, novels, comic books, and blockbuster films. In so doing, he reveals connections between the technologies of visualization that have helped inaugurate nano research, such as the scanning tunneling microscope, and the prescient writings of Robert A. Heinlein, James Blish, and Theodore Sturgeon. He delves into fictive and scientific representations of “gray goo,” the nightmare scenario in which autonomous nanobots rise up in rebellion and wreak havoc on the world. He shows that nanoscience and “splatterpunk” novels share a violent aesthetic of disintegration: the biological body is breached and torn asunder only to be refabricated as an assemblage of self-organizing machines. Whether in high-tech laboratories or science fiction stories, nanovision deconstructs the human subject and galvanizes the invention of a posthuman future.

Despite the topic’s urgency and centrality, this is the first edited volume to offer a comprehensive assessment of the varying approaches to early engagement with new technologies, including nanotechnology, synthetic biology, biotechnology and ICT. Covering five main approaches to early engagement—constructive technology assessment (CTA), value-sensitive design (VSD), midstream modulation (MM), the network approach for moral evaluation, and political technology assessment—the book will be a pivotal text in the rapidly developing research field of ELSI, which explores the ethical, legal, and social implications of new technologies. Featuring leading scholars who discuss each early engagement approach in turn, the chapters cover both theory and applications, and include evaluative assessments of specific instances of early adoption of technologies. Further contributions focus on theoretical issues relevant to all approaches, including interdisciplinary cooperation, normativity and intervention, and political and public relevance. The publication has added profile due to the requirement of multi-billion-dollar research programs in the US and Europe to engage in ELSI research alongside that of the technical development itself, even in the early stages. Its comprehensive scrutiny of the core factors in early engagement will ensure a readership of policy makers as well as scientists and engineers.

Book Review Index provides quick access to reviews of books, periodicals, books on tape and electronic media representing a wide range of popular, academic and professional interests. The up-to-date coverage, wide scope and inclusion of citations for both newly published and older materials make Book Review Index an exceptionally useful reference tool. More than 600 publications are indexed, including journals and national general interest publications and newspapers. Book Review Index is available in a three-issue subscription covering the current year or as an annual cumulation covering the past year.

The third, partly revised and enlarged edition of this introductory reference summarizes the terms and definitions, most important phenomena, and regulations occurring in the physics, chemistry, technology, and application of nanostructures. A representative collection of fundamental terms and definitions from quantum physics and chemistry, special mathematics, organic and inorganic chemistry, solid state physics, material science and technology accompanies recommended secondary sources for an extended study of any given subject. Each of the more than 2,200 entries, from a few sentences to a page in length, interprets the term or definition in question and briefly presents the main features of the phenomena behind it. Additional information in the form of notes ("First described in", "Recognition", "More details in") supplements the entries and gives a historical perspective of the subject with reference to further sources. Ideal for answering questions related to unknown terms and definitions among undergraduate and PhD students studying the physics of low-dimensional structures, nanoelectronics, and nanotechnology.