Hot on the heels of openings from FEI and Philips and the laying of foundation stones by Degussa comes the opening of a new research centre dedicated to the study of nano-electronics in Hsinchu, Taiwan. Unfortunately the report in the China Post is littered with the usual errors such as quoting verbatim a somewhat out of date definition of nanotechnology which confuses nanotechnology with molecular manufacturing.
Let’s be clear about this once and for all. Molecular manufacturing may include nanotechnology, in the same way that microelectronics may include physics, but MNT is essentially an engineering problem, i.e. given our understanding of nature, can we replicate some its simpler bottom up processes, while the other is science.
Despite the imminent howls of protest from the MNT community, molecular manufacturing will never be taken seriously until someone grasps the nettle and conducts a serious study into the feasibility of molecular manufacturing.
Both the United States and the European Community have been guilty of ducking this particular issue, though admittedly given the amount of nanoscience with near term applications that is crying out to be funded we can understand the reasons behind this.