Free The Future by Al Gore Page A

detailed experimentation to examine the new materials’ properties and analyze how they interact with other molecules and materials.
    The properties of matter at the nanometer scale (between one and 100 nanometers) often differ significantly from the properties of the same atoms andmolecules when they are clustered in bulk. These differences have allowed technologists to use nanomaterials on the surfaces of common products in order to eliminate rust, enhance resistance to scratches and dents, and in clothes to enhanceresistance to stains, wrinkles, and fire. The single most common application thus far is the use of nanoscale silver to destroy microbes—a use that is particularly important for doctors andhospitals guarding against infections.
    The longer-term significance that attaches to the emergence of an entirely new group of basic materials with superior properties is reflected in the names historians give to the ages of technological achievement in human societies: the Stone Age, the Bronze Age, and the Iron Age. As was true of the historical stages of economic development that began with the long hunter-gatherer period, the first of these periods—the Stone Age—was by far the longest.
    Archaeologists disagree on when and where the reliance on stone tools gave way to the first metallurgical technologies. The first smelting of copper is believed to have taken place in eastern Serbia approximately 7,000 years ago, though objects made of castcopper emerged in numerous locations in the same era.
    The more sophisticated creation of bronze—which is much less brittle and much more useful for many purposes than copper—involves a process in which tin is added to molten copper, a technique thatcombineshigh temperatures and some pressurization. Bronze was first created 5,000 years ago in both Greece and China, andmore than 1,000 years later in Britain.
    Though the first iron artifacts date back4,500 years ago in northern Turkey, the Iron Age began between 3,000 and 3,200 years ago with the development of better furnaces that achieved higher temperatures capable of heating iron ore into a malleable statefrom which it could be made into tools and weapons. Iron, of course, is muchharder and stronger than bronze. Steel, an alloy made from iron, and often other elements in smaller quantities, depending upon the properties desired, wasnot made until the middle of the nineteenth century.
    The new age of materials created at the molecular level is leading to a historic transformation of the manufacturing process. Just as the Industrial Revolution was launched a quarter of a millennium ago by the marriage of coal-powered energy with machines in order to replace many forms of human labor, nanotechnology promises to launch what many are calling a Third Industrial Revolution based on molecular machines that can reassemble structures made from basic elements tocreate an entirely new category of products, including:
        •  Carbon nanotubes invested with the ability tostore energy and manifest previously unimaginable properties;
        •  Ultrastrong carbon fibers that arealready replacing steel in some niche applications; and
        •  Ceramic matrix nanocomposites that areexpected to have wide applications in industry.
    The emerging Nanotechnology Revolution, which is converging with the multiple revolutions in the life sciences, also has implications in a wide variety of other human endeavors. There are already more than 1,000 nanotechnology products available, most of them classified as incremental improvements inalready known processes, mostly in the health and fitness category. The use of nanostructures for the enhancement of computer processing, the storage of memory, the identification of toxics in the environment, the filtration and desalination of water, and other uses are still in development.
    The reactivity of nanomaterials and their thermal, electrical, and optical properties are among the changes that