This book takes a "bottom-up" approach, beginning with atoms and molecules – molecular building blocks – and assembling them to build nanostructured materials. Coverage includes Carbon Nanotubes, Nanowires, and Diamondoids. The applications presented here will enable practitioners to design and build nanometer-scale systems. These concepts have far-reaching implications: from mechanical to chemical processes, from electronic components to ultra-fine sensors, from medicine to energy, and from pharmaceuticals to agriculture and food.

The integration of top-down lithographic techniques with synthetic organic and inorganic technologies is a key challenge for the development of effective nanosca1e devices. In terms of assembly, nanoparticles provide an excellent tool for bridging the gap between the resolution of electron beam lithography (-60 nm) and the molecular level. Nanoparticles possess an array of unique properties associated with their core materials, including distinctive magnetic, photonic and electronic behavior. This behavior can be controlled and applied through monolayer functionalization and assembly strategies, making nanoparticles both scaffolds and building blocks for nanotechnology. The diverse structures and properties of nanoparticles makes them useful tools for both fundamental studies and pragmatic applications in a range of disciplines. This volume is intended to provide an integrated overview of the synthesis and assembly of nanoparticles, and their applications in chemistry, biology, and materials science. The first three chapters focus on the creation and intrinsic properties of nanoparticles, covering some of the myriad core materials and shapes that have been created. The remaining chapters of the book discuss the assembly of nanoparticles, and applications of both discrete particles and particle assemblies in a wide range of fields, including device and sensor fabrication, catalysis, biology, and nanosca1e electronic and magnetic systems.

The book summarizes recent advances in methods to synthesize, stabilize, passivate and functionalize diverse nanoparticles from metals, metal oxides, semiconductors, polymers, organics and biomolecules. A wide range of potential appplications with nanoparticles as building blocks are described.

Technology is becoming molecularly precise. Nanotechnology, otherwise known as molecular engineering, will soon create effective machines as small as DNA. This capacity to manipulate matter—to program matter—with atomic precision will utterly change the economic, ecological, and cultural fabric of our lives. This book, which is accessible to a broad audience while providing references to the technical literature, presents a wide range of potential applications of this new material technology. The first chapter introduces the basic concepts of molecular engineering and demonstrates that several mutually reinforcing trends in current research are leading directly into a world of surprisingly powerful molecular machines. Nine original essays on specific applications follow the introductory chapter. The first section presents applications of nanotechnology that interact directly with the molecular systems of the human body. The second presents applications that function, for the most part, outside the body. The final section details the mechanisms of a universal human-machine interface and the operation of an extremely high resolution display system.

Research into polymer nanofibers has increased significantly over the last decade, prompting the need for a comprehensive monograph examining the subject as knowledge of their properties and potential applications has increased. Postgraduate students and researchers new to the field will benefit from the "from materials to applications" approach to the book, which examines the physio-chemical properties in detail, demonstrating how they can be exploited for a diverse range of applications, including the production of light and wound dressings. Techniques for the fabrication, notably electrospinning, are discussed at length. This book provides a unique and accessible source of information, summarising the last decade of the field and presenting an entry point for those entering the field and an inspiration to established workers. The author is currently the national coordinator for several research projects examining the applications of polymer nanofibers, alongside active international collaborations.

This text book will bring together a mix of both internationally known and established senior scientists along side up and coming (but already accomplished) junior scientists that have varying expertise in fundamental and applied nanotechnology to biology and medicine.

This book covers the emerging topic of DNA nanotechnology and DNA supramolecular chemistry in its broader sense. By taking DNA out of its biological role, this biomolecule has become a very versatile building block in materials chemistry, supramolecular chemistry and bio-nanotechnology. Many novel structures have been realized in the past decade, which are now being used to create molecular machines, drug delivery systems, diagnosis platforms or potential electronic devices. The book combines many aspects of DNA nanotechnology, including formation of functional structures based on covalent and non-covalent systems, DNA origami, DNA based switches, DNA machines, and alternative structures and templates. This broad coverage is very appealing since it combines both the synthesis of modified DNA as well as designer concepts to successfully plan and make DNA nanostructures. Contributing authors have provided first a general introduction for the non-specialist reader, followed by a more in-depth analysis and presentation of their topic. In this way the book is attractive and useful for both the non-specialist who would like to have an overview of the topic, as well as the specialist reader who requires more information and inspiration to foster their own research.

Written by the founder of the field, this is a comprehensive and accessible introduction to structural DNA nanotechnology.

- Gives unified presentation of many of the major principles in nanotechnology: molecular-based study of condensed matter in small systems. - Authored by an expert in the molecular-based study of matter - Accessible to students, yet of interest to experts - Emphasizes the intrinsic beauty of methods of bottom-up nanotechnology - Includes many full-color figures

This is a vital book for those who care about the environment, society and deploying new technology to check the destructive power of humankind.- Allan Thornton, President, Environmental Investigation Agency, Washington, DC., and recipient of the Albert Schweitzer MedalThis book will shake conventional environmental wisdom to its roots. ... A landmark work that should be read by environmentalists and businesspersons alike.- Patrick Moore, cofounder, Greenpeace; president, GreenspiritIn Our Molecular Future [Mulhall] neatly outlines why our increasing ability to manipulate single atoms and molecules is a concern, and lays out the opportunities and threats this technology presents. And it''s surprisingly readable, unlike most of the nanobabble in the science journals. In the end, as Mulhall admits, he poses more questions than he answers. But that''s a good place to start.-New ScientistI just finished reading Douglas Mulhall''s outstanding new book Our Molecular Future . . . and I highly recommend it. Put this one at the top of your list! . . . In an easy to read format, with very few forays into geek-speak, Mulhall presents his well considered and thoroughly researched theories. Overall, an excellent overview for those who wish to understand how disruptive and enabling technologies may save us from ourselves and from mother nature. And along the way you will learn a lot about how nanoscale technologies may enhance our lives, provide abundance for all, and greatly raise the standard of living for everyone. . . . Rating: five stars out of five.- Rocky Rawstern, Nanotech NowWhat Alvin Toffler''s Future Shock was to the 20th century, Our Molecular Future will be to the 21st century.'What will happen to our jobs, health care, and investments when the molecular revolution hits?How might artificial intelligence transform our lives?How can molecular technologies help us cope with climate changes, earthquakes, and other extreme natural threats?Our Molecular Future explores some intriguing possibilities that answer these questions and many others. Douglas Mulhall describes the exponential changes that are about to be wrought by the nanotechnology and robotic revolutions, which promise to reduce the scale of computing to the nanometerùa billionth of a meterùwhile increasing computing power to almost unimaginable levels.The resulting convergence of genetics, robotics, and artificial intelligence may give us hitherto undreamed-of capacities to transform our environment and ourselves. In the not-so-distant future, our world may include machines that scour our arteries to prevent heart disease, cars and clothes that change color at our whim, exotic products built in our own desktop factories, and enhancements to our personal financial security despite greatly accelerated obsolescence.But while technology is making these fantastic leaps, we may also encounter surprises that throw us into disarray: climate changes, earthquakes, or even a seemingly improbable asteroid collision. These extremes are not the nightmare scenarios of sensationalists, Mulhall stresses, nor are many of them human induced. Instead, they may be part of nature''s cycleùrecurring more often than we''ve thought possible.The good news is that this convergence of catastrophe and technological transformation may work to our advantage. If we''re smart, according to Mulhall, we can use molecular machines to protect ourselves from nature''s worst extremes, and harness their potential benefits to usher in an economic renaissance.This visionary link between future technology and past disasters is a valuable guide for every one of us who wants to be prepared for the twenty-first century.Further Praise for OUR MOLECULAR FUTURE:A provocative and profoundly convincing message from the future.- Graham Hancock, archaeological journalist and author of Fingerprints of the GodsIn a breezy, journalistic style, Our Molecular Future takes us on a tour through some of the issues that will preoccupy ma