Spring Semester (First Half)

Tuesdays and Thursdays at 9:45 am

Instructor:  Lon Porter, 313 New Science,

( 765-361-6284, * PORTERL@WABASH.EDU

Nanotechnology seems to be everywhere these days!  Check the newspaper, surf the web, or look to recent sci-fi books and movies.  The manipulation of matter on the nanometer scale has become a central focus from both fundamental and technological perspectives.  Unique, unpredictable and highly intriguing physical, optical, and electrical phenomena can result from the confinement of matter into nanoscale features.  As a result, the study and preparation of structures exhibiting such interesting and unusual phenomena has been termed nanotechnology or nanoscience, an exploding field still in its infancy.  Much of the driving force for building tiny devices and features on the nanoscale is their importance for existing and emerging technologies such as nanoelectronics, nano/micro-electromechanical systems (N/MEMS), sensors, molecular computing, and diagnostics which communicate directly with cells, viruses and bacteria, quantum confinement effects, and a myriad of other applications.  This half-semester course focuses on the science behind the “hype.”  The course will revisit the origins of the field and spotlight the myriad of current advances.  Additionally, we will consider the social, political, economical, and ethical ramifications of a “nanotech revolution.”  In addition to lecture and discussion, students will participate in two laboratory exercises and perhaps a field trip to engage in nanotechnology first hand.

                                                                                                                -Dr. Porter, 313 New Science