The Lilliputian Revolution
#TechWeLove
By Gary Greene, Wellspring Financial Solutions of Raymond James
The year is 1987. Dennis Quaid stars as a test pilot who makes history when he is miniaturized and
injected into the body of a grocery clerk played by Martin Short. The movie, Innerspace, is a fantastic
comedy, Short’s antics are hilarious, and the whole concept of a tiny spaceship flying around inside his
body is absolutely laughable - until now. Miniaturization, aka nanotechnology, on this scale is no longer
the stuff of science fiction. It’s responsible for massive changes in the way we live. It means small is the
next Big Thing.
Nano in a nutshell is about the development and construction of structures, systems and devices on a
scale invisible to the naked eye -the nanometer. One-billionth of a meter. Put into perspective, a human
hair is 75,000 nanometers in diameter. Nanotech happens on a scale from 1 to 100 nanometers. For the
average person, it redefines the word “small”.
Who cares? Anyone who uses a mobile device, drives a car, wears clothing, eats food, drinks water, gets
sick, lives in a home, in other words… everyone, everywhere. Nanotech enhanced products are already
available in the marketplace. It’s made mundane items like tennis balls bouncier, golf clubs stronger and
your khakis stain repellant. It’s what puts the UV protection in cosmetics and nutrients in your flavored
water. And it will be a key factor in answering some of the humankind’s biggest problems like fighting
disease, delivering sustainable energy, and feeding the world’s hungry.
Along with the tennis balls & khakis, today, you can buy a phone with a self-healing metal case, cars
which never need washing, and a myriad of mind-blowing nanotech products. What if you could
swallow a pill that conducts surgery? Or, send search and destroy robots into a diseased cell? Dennis
Quaid won’t be doing the flying, but it’s not far off.
IBM recently announced successful construction of single atom carbon nanotubes shattering current
scale-down barriers in semi-conductor transistor technology. The stage is now set for several more
generations of micro-chip miniaturization. The impact: computer chips half the size of today’s smallest
will be able to power the future’s cognitive computing demands sooner than expected. Folks, not only
will your smartphone get smaller, it’ll get smarter, sooner.
To be clear, nanotech isn’t an industry in and of itself. Its applications enhance and improve too many
different sectors for that. Some forms of nanotech are more easily marketable than others. It’s
enormously expensive and lengthy to develop. Most nanotech development is funded by governments,
universities or huge publicly-traded diversified giants with deep pockets.
Nanotechnology represents optimism at the smallest, yet global scale. “If we want to solve a problem
that we have never solved before, we must leave the door to the unknown ajar,”- Nobel Prize winning
theoretical physicist Richard Feynman. We’re in the midst of a Lilliputian revolution. Paradigms will
keep shifting, disruptions will continue and opportunities will abound as nanotechnology impacts every
facet of life now and in the future.
Nano Glossary of Terms
Raymond James & Associates, Inc. member New York Stock Exchange/SIPC
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