Nanotechnology: sifting the science from what Elon Musk calls ‘BS’

In case you missed it, Elon Musk called BS on the field of nanotechnology last week. The ensuing Twitter spat was admittedly rather small in the grand scheme of things.

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mollwollfumble said:

SCIENCE said:

¿is nanotech bs?

Good question. If you mean nanotech in the sense of Drexler’s “Engines of creation” then the answer is “yes”.

If you mean nanotech in the sense of Oxford Nanopore Technologies then the answer is “no”.

This question from SCIENCE made an appearance in ABC news.
Nanotechnology: sifting the science from what Elon Musk calls ‘BS’

In case you missed it, Elon Musk called BS on the field of nanotechnology last week. The ensuing Twitter spat was admittedly rather small in the grand scheme of things.

But it did throw up an important question: just what is nanotech, and where does the BS end and the science begin? … there are still widespread assumptions among nano-researchers that there’s something utterly different about the nanoscale. And this is where my BS monitor gets a little uneasy. … it was a rebranding of work researchers had been labouring over for decades.

And yet, for all my cynicism, brand-nano did bring about something special: it broke down the barriers between previously stove-piped disciplines, and stimulated a new wave of interdisciplinary research in a way that has led to some incredible advances that range from cheap DNA sequencing and novel cancer treatments, to high efficiency solar cells and revolution in battery technologies.