Overview

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.

Full Product Details

9780199226627

Table of Contents

Reviews

Review from previous edition Having had the chance to delve... into our copy, we find it refreshing to see a book about nanotechnology that is a) readable, b) covers all the issues, c) understandable to the layman and d) written by someone who knows what they are talking about. We can't think of another example that punches all of these buttons. TNTlog Like a knowledgeable host making dinner conversation, Jones moves from topic to topic with a stream of lively banter. [...] By the end of the book, Jones's vivid descriptions and diverse examples have made me a believer. He tells us again and again to look inside cells for inspiration, for methods and for raw materials when faced with this challenging new world. Biological evolution may not have found the best possible solutions to problems of nanoscale engineering, but as Jones says at the close of the book, I would be very surprised if we can do better. American Scientist, by David S. Goodsell Soft Machines is an informative and readable exploration of the nanoworld: length scales, energies, forces, the tools used in the exploration, the importance of Brownian motion and van der Waals (surface) forces, quantum effects and band structures, nanotubes and quantum dots, etc. Foresight Nanotech Update

Soft Machines is an informative and readable exploration of the nanoworld: length scales, energies, forces, the tools used in the exploration, the importance of Brownian motion and van der Waals (surface) forces, quantum effects and band structures, nanotubes and quantum dots, etc. * Foresight Nanotech Update * Like a knowledgeable host making dinner conversation, Jones moves from topic to topic with a stream of lively banter. [...] By the end of the book, Jones's vivid descriptions and diverse examples have made me a believer. He tells us again and again to look inside cells for inspiration, for methods and for raw materials when faced with this challenging new world. Biological evolution may not have found the best possible solutions to problems of nanoscale engineering, but as Jones says at the close of the book, I would be very surprised if we can do better. * American Scientist, by David S. Goodsell * Review from previous edition Having had the chance to delve... into our copy, we find it refreshing to see a book about nanotechnology that is a) readable, b) covers all the issues, c) understandable to the layman and d) written by someone who knows what they are talking about. We can't think of another example that punches all of these buttons. * TNTlog *

Author Information

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.

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