Working Group 1:
Historical Context of the Nano-enterprise
Central Premise:
• Anticipating societal and ethical issues of nanotechnologies demands understanding its
rich and complex history
Goals:
• Create resources and tools necessary to document emerging research enterprise.
• Explore several key issues central to understanding nanotech’s past and current context.
Principal Members
• Patrick McCray (UCSB)
• Mary Ingram-Waters (UCSB)
• Tim Lenoir (Duke University)
• Cyrus Mody (Chemical Heritage Foundation)
CNS-UCSB and its activities are funded by the National Science Foundation under cooperative
agreement. #SES 0531184. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions are those of the author and do
not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
Research Initiatives for Year One
• Spintronics and Nanoelectronics
• Oral History Collection
• Nanotechnology, Futurism, and the Public Imagination
• Nano’s “Hidden” Histories
Nanoelectronics as “Over the
Horizon” Technology
Spintronics
Moore’s Law, 1965
Today’s ‘near-nano’ wires
Data Mapping and Visualization
Ex: Spintronics Publications
700
600
500
China
France
Germany
Japan
Russian Federation
United Kingdom
United States
400
300
200
100
0
1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005
Temporal/Geospatial Distribution of
Researchers
Nanotechnology and Oral History
Nanotechnology and the Public
Imagination
C. 1950
TODAY
Nano’s Hidden Histories
1973 Nobelist
Leo Esaki
1993, Al Cho
receives NMS
Modern MBE machine
Si-Ge superlattice