Nanocosm: The Big Change That's Coming from the Very Small

Charles R. Crawford, a former associate professor of computer science at
York University, is a computer programming and mathematics consultant in
Toronto.

To quote the preface, “This book is not ... an exhaustive or
definitive survey,” but “a highly subjective take on an area which
fascinates me.” However, the author William Atkinson states that one
aim is to give venture capitalists “a thorough briefing in the science
and technology emerging from nanocosm.” If the book is not an
exhaustive survey, it certainly is extensive in the scientific
applications discussed and the sites Atkinson visited. In “Seeing
Things” he describes applications in optics, and “Wet Nanotech” is
biology. In “Shirotae” he is in Shirotae, Japan, and in
“Nanofornia” he is in Silicon Valley. Many chapters, presumably
addressed to the venture capitalists, include discussions of financing
and management.

Although it certainly originated as a buzzword, “nanocosm” could
have a precise definition. A cosmos is a “an ordered system of
ideas,” and nano- is a prefix meaning one millionth of a millionth or
very small. Although nanocosm, as described here, is a group of ideas
about very small things, the group is not yet an ordered system. In
fact, the author is skeptical about some applications.

In “Quantum Weirdness,” he is clearly advising the venture
capitalist to avoid the work of K. Eric Drexler and his “Church of St.
Drex.” On the other hand, in “Fullerenes, Buckyballs, and
Hundred-mile Elevators,” he is enthusiastic about the prospect of
“launching a satellite by winching it up a permanent hundred-mile
tower and firing it out sideways when you reach the top.” To
paraphrase the subtitle, Nanocosm is about some of the plans for big
changes from very small things.