Introduction: “Nanotechnology” is the most overused term in the modern hi-tech lexicon. One reason is lack of a clear, precise, and well-bounded definition. Internet searching delivers 123,000,000 hits. Descriptions include everything from carbon soot to tiny machines that may never be built. Definitions range from, “Nanotechnology is the ability to build machines on the molecular scale” to “Nanotechnology - the hip science of ultra-small”. Some are even mutually exclusive. Maybe the marketing people know the best way to make money with Nano - a product name. It’s no surprise that savvy Steve Jobs, grabbed the Nano term for the “impossibly small” iPod. And T.J. Rogers (Cypress Computer) is alleged to have said, “There are more con men and charlatans in the nanotech world than I’ve ever seen before”. While waiting for clarification, let’s explore the history of nanotechnology using the broad but imperfect definition, a size range of 1-100 nanometers (nm).
I intend to cover ancient and contemporary Nanotech that was developed before the term was coined.
