Re: Nanotubes as Tiny Bar-Magnets

In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, John Larkin wrote:
 
>>At the same time, these nano magnets may be useful for materials science,
>>computers, and energy generation
 
> Tiny weak magnets? How? Got any proposed paths to such applications?
 
> There have been literally thousands of nanotech discoveries that have
> been announced with the stock tag line "may lead to breakthroughs in
> supercomputing, energy production, and cures for disease."  This has
> become a ritual. If you follow up on these things a couple of years
> later, their actual utility in these areas hovers around 0.00 per
> cent. This leads me to suspect (horrors!) that most nanotech
> discoveries are there for commercial hype, not for scientific advance.
 
It certainly does seem that way at times, doesn't it?
It might be more appropriate to say, though, that basic research is
being hyped, rather than that basic research is being done just for
the hype.

It helps if you draw a broad line between popular science reporting,
which really does tend to be hype, and the serious peer-reviewed 
scientific and engineering literature-- IEEE proceedings and other
journals, ACM publications, Science, Nature, etc.

The former is useful to me in fields where I'm a layman, to keep me
abreast of recent developments, and as pointers to the serious
literature.  Then I can see if I can read the primary publications, or
it I have to go get a few books from the library (if it looks
interesting enough) or if it's just not likely to be worth the
investment.

The constant breathless excitement sure does wear thin after a while,
though, especially for those of us down in the trenches who know that
nothing is ever as easy as the science journalists make it seem.


-- 
John S. Novak, III              [EMAIL PROTECTED]
The Humblest Man on the Net