By Candace Stuart
Small Times Senior Writer
July 17, 2001 — Smart is so yesterday.
Smart cars, smart homes, smart refrigerators and smart washers — products that do the thinking for you — were all the rage in the last millennium. Smart was a favorite modifier for marketers trying to infuse new and cool into their product lines.
The newest term to invade the tech lexicon is “nano,” as in a billionth of a meter. Nanotechnology typically applies to something smaller than 100 nanometers. That seemingly leaves little wiggle room.
“It was set up as a prefix for a billionth,” explained Russ Rowlett, director of the Center for Mathematics and Science Education at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and author of the online Dictionary of Units and Measurements. But it is derived from the Greek word for dwarf, he said. “To a lot of people, it just means really small,” he said.
Nano entered the public arena in the United States in 2000 with the National Nanotechnology Initiative, a program launched by the Clinton administration to encourage research at the nanoscale level. China, South Korea, Japan and other nations also have pushed nanotech recently.
China may be taking a lead in the commercialization of the term. According to the Chinese publication Economic Information Daily, one manufacturer is marketing nanotech refrigerators, water heaters and washing machines.
The nano part of the washing machine is on the inside — an antibiotic material in the drum that is plugged as environmentally friendly. The washer reportedly needs less water to clean clothes and creates less pollution.
It’s a hit with consumers, the Economic Information Daily reported, but not technology watchdogs. Members of the Shandong Research Center of Nanometer Material Engineering warn that such misuse of the term nano confuses the public and trivializes the research field.
China is not the only nation battling the erosion of the prefix. The National Nanotechnology Initiative, which provides about $400 million for nanoscale research, prompted some scientists and engineers to recast their research interests — or at least the terminology — in hopes of getting a grant, said Brian Valentine. Valentine is a program manager with the Department of Energy who helps run the initiative.
“Unfortunately, the term got really popular really quickly,” he said. Some research areas easily could be tweaked to qualify as nano, he said. But some areas — MEMS in particular, which deal in the micron range — fit about as comfortably as a size 10 foot in a size 6 shoe. The result was sometimes misleading and confusing, he said.
Like in China, marketers in the United States know a buzzword when they see it.
Some are legitimate nanotech firms selling nanomaterials such as special coatings or nanoparticles to enhance products, said Paul Barbara, director of the Center for Nano- and Molecular Science and Technology at the University of Texas at Austin. The center is taking a lead role in the analysis and use of nanomaterials.
Nano-Tex, a company in Greensboro, N.C., has designed nanosize “whiskers” that bind onto cotton, making cotton material water-resistant. The fabric giant Burlington Industries, a majority owner of Nano-Tex, signed a deal with khaki company Gayley and Lord to use the technology in pants.
At the other end of the spectrum, Nano Bag does not sell 100-nanometer-size snuggly wraps for nano babies. The San Francisco-based merchant of water-repellant zip-up accessories for infants chose the name because it suggested small, said co-founder Sara Velten.
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CONTACT THE AUTHOR:
Candace Stuart at [email protected] or call 734.528.6290.