Book Description

One of the world's leading researchers in the new scientific revolution of nanotechnology, Ted Sargent is also an abundantly talented writer. In The Dance of Molecules, he demystifies the complex world of nanotechnology—the science and engineering of building new materials and devices from the molecule up—and offers a fascinating vision of what this innovative science may accomplish in the twenty-first century. In a fresh and engaging style, Sargent explores the potential for nanotechnology in three crucial areas: health, environment, and information. He shows how nanotechnologists are revolutionizing the way illnesses such as cancer are diagnosed. Today we catch cancer at the tumor stage, seven years after it begins. Sargent reveals how nanotechnologists are seeking to see the disease when it's one cell, not a billion. Each day, the sun bathes the earth in ten thousand times more energy than we need; Sargent shows how nanotechnologists are working to capture even the small fraction that could let us meet our energy needs cleanly and sustainably. Nanotechnologists also envision a light-based Internet a hundred times faster than today's. Nanotechnology is radically improving our lives, and The Dance of Molecules equips readers to understand exactly how. Sargent's reflections on nanotechnology fuse the scientific, the practical, and the personal. He ventures from molecules to mice to men, has fantasies of building Greta Garbo from the atom up, dreams in colors visible and invisible, and invokes tomato poetry. Along the way, he touches on an amazing variety of subjects, including scientific collaboration, demographic trends, and geopolitics. The Dance of Molecules is an intelligent and important book that you won't want to put down. Visit the author's website at tedsargent.com