Nanotechnology: Science, Innovation, and Opportunity

Chapter 3. Fads and Hype in Technology: The Sargasso Sea of “Some Day Soon”

Peter Coffee

Is nanotechnology a fad? Prospective investors, or prospective research sponsors, want to know—and it’s not too early in the life cycle of the field to ask, and answer, this question. First, though, let’s be a little more specific about the ways that nanotechnology might disappoint us.

• It could be another cold fusion, with its germ of potential utility vastly outweighed by its hype—and with fractious scientific infighting scaring capital away to pursue more plausible pathways.

• It could be another synthetic-fuels or bubble-memory scenario, backed by valid science but not economically competitive with established approaches—or with their surprisingly long-lived ...