Soft Machines

Nanotechnology and Life
Erscheinungsjahr 2007
ISBN: 978-0-19-922662-7
Verlag: OUP Oxford

Buch, Englisch, 228 Seiten, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm, Gewicht: 368 g

Enthusiasts look forward to a time when tiny machines reassemble matter and process information with unparalleled power and precision. But is their vision realistic? Where is the science heading? As nanotechnology (a new technology that many believe will transform society in the next one hundred years) rises higher in the news agenda and popular consciousness, there is a real need for a book which discusses clearly the science on which this technology will be based.
Whilst it is most easy to simply imagine these tiny machines as scaled-down versions of the macroscopic machines we are all familiar with, the way things behave on small scales is quite different to the way they behave on large scales. Engineering on the nanoscale will use very different principles
to those we are used to in our everyday lives, and the materials used in nanotehnology will be soft and mutable, rather than hard and unyielding.
"Soft Machines" explains in a lively and very accessible manner why the nanoworld is so different to the macro-world which we are all familiar with. Why does nature engineer things in the way it does, and how can we learn to use these unfamiliar principles to create valuable new materials and artefacts which will have a profound effect on medicine, electronics, energy and the environment in the twenty-first century. With a firmer understanding of the likely relationship between nanotechnology
and nature itself, we can gain a much clearer notion of what dangers this powerful technology may potentially pose, as well as come to realise that nanotechnology will have more in common with biology than with conventional engineering.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Jones, Richard A. L.

Fachgebiete

• Technische Wissenschaften Verfahrenstechnik | Chemieingenieurwesen | Biotechnologie Metallurgie
• Geowissenschaften Umweltwissenschaften Umweltwissenschaften
• Medizin | Veterinärmedizin Medizin | Public Health | Pharmazie | Zahnmedizin Vorklinische Medizin: Grundlagenfächer Humangenetik
• Naturwissenschaften Physik Mechanik Klassische Mechanik, Newtonsche Mechanik
• Naturwissenschaften Physik Physik Allgemein
• Technische Wissenschaften Elektronik | Nachrichtentechnik Elektronik Mikroprozessoren
• Naturwissenschaften Chemie Chemie Allgemein Chemometrik, Chemoinformatik
• Technische Wissenschaften Maschinenbau | Werkstoffkunde Technische Mechanik | Werkstoffkunde Materialwissenschaft: Metallische Werkstoffe
• Naturwissenschaften Biowissenschaften Molekularbiologie
• Technische Wissenschaften Technik Allgemein Nanotechnologie
• Naturwissenschaften Physik Quantenphysik

Über Autor(innen)

Prof Richard A.L. Jones FRS
Dept of Physics and Astronomy
University of Sheffield

First degree and PhD in physics from the University of Cambridge.
Postdoctoral research at Cornell University
Assistant Lecturer, then Lecturer in the Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge.
Professor of Physics at University of Sheffield 1998.