| Jan 16, 2013 | |
Free e-book: Nanoparticles Before Nanotechnology |
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| (Nanowerk News) “Nanoparticles Before Nanotechnology” is the title of a new, free e-book from NanoWiki. The authors chose the subject simply because they were suspicious that nanoparticles are too often, in scientific and non-scientific circles, perceived as invented, while we think they should be understood as discovered. | |
 Nanomaterials are claimed to be so new that people become scared. However, before nanotechnology, one can find nanoparticles in the works of both nature and Man, although they passed unnoticed by us until recently. The origin of nanoparticles in nature is basically biogenic, geogenic (and also at the bio-inorganic interface), or cosmogenic, while the nanoparticles produced by men come unintentionally from origins as burning wood and oil or unnoticed in crafted stuff such as cosmetics and colored glass and ceramics. Additionally, to bring nano closer to society, following the same demystifying aims, the book presents a set of experiments, hands-on, in which some basics and useful nanoscale phenomena can be easily observed, such as preparing photonic crystals that look like opals, disinfecting water, or harvesting energy. “Looking around us we realize that nanotechnology is not an invention, it is a marvellous discovery. Therefore, and we must be very clear here, at this stage of technological complexity and species challenges, it is not so much the what for, but the what do I learn from it, in addition to maintaining a sustained healthy attitude of wonder and exploration. One day, science will free us from (today’s) technology'" says Víctor Puntes from the Inorganic Nanoparticles Group, ICN. |
| Source: NanoWiki |