Nanotechnology

Michael Berger, as opposed to writing a classical book comprising chapters, has put together a series of stories or essays centred round scientists and researchers covering a very wide and broad area of nanotechnology. To my surprise, to my surprise, the format really works. Berger starts with a broad scientific nanotechnology paper and develops his essay around this and those involved in the associated work. He successfully includes how nanotechnology is developing in the areas of medicine, chemistry, biology, physics, and electronics. In total, there are seven essays in the book and once you start reading you will find it very difficult to stop. In fact, you could say this for the whole book. This makes it ideal for that long-haul flight, which, with this book, will pass in no time. However, if you do not finish it on the plane, then it will become an excellent holiday read. The essays are easy to read and sufficient data are provided, so that you do not need to look up external references, and you are very carefully led through each essay as a very nice story. This is helped by the fact that all the essays are of a common style. For the reader who wants to dig deeper into the theory of any of the essays, the author provides details of the featured scientist and provides web addresses and relevant papers, that he has used in the research. Before reading this book, unless you are a world leader in the subject, you many think that you have a good knowledge on nanotechnology, but after reading the book, I realised that I only had a nanoknowledge of the subject. All the chapters are good, but for me, an essay that stands out above all the others is essay No. 3 on nanofabrication. At £66.99, the book is worth it for this essay alone. As you may have gathered, I really liked this book and have no hesitation in recommending it as a really good read.

* Chromatographia (2017) 80:1821 *

Whether the now famous 1959 lecture of the great physicist Richard Feynman entitled “There's plenty of room at the bottom” [1] actually marked the beginning of nanoscience or not—it was certainly visionary! Back then he brought up many new topics that are today the main focus of research in the nano world: Manipulation of individual atoms; quantum computers; storage technology and much more. Half a century later—today—it is no longer possible to conceive of a world without nanotechnology as a key technology of the 21st century: it is an essential driver of technical innovation and it is interdisciplinary, in the best sense of the word. However, the scope of research activities has been expanded immensely since Feynman's time: nanomedicine, nanotoxicology, and quantum dots are just some of the more notable keywords.

Each new book about nanotechnology must, before reading, provide an answer to the question about its “novelty value” in comparison to already published papers. The author of the book in hands has elected not to present a new textbook; the book is also not a compilation of symposium lectures in the form of a monograph. His idea is fundamentally different: Michael Berger has based his analysis on nanoscience publications that are important—from his point of view—and that have been entirely selected from recent peer‐reviewed journals, with over three quarters of the papers appearing in the years 2013–2015 and seven contributions from 2016. Berger has structured the 176 research projects in seven sections: the first two present new ideas for energy generation and storage, in addition to new types of electronic components. The next two sections deal with the innovative production of nanoscale particles and two‐dimensional nanomaterials; here, a subsection specifically explores the strange and ever‐surprising properties of graphene. Yet the main parts of the book are sections 5 and 6, which are dedicated to nanomedicine and nanotechnology, with the latter covering subjects such as nanorobotics, DNA technology, sensor engineering and metamaterials. The last section presents future prospects for the application of nanoscale particles in the environment, and the book is concluded with a comprehensive keyword index.

All 176 contributions are processed in the same manner: after a very brief introduction to the section, the research projects on which the specific publication is based are described in simple terms, followed by comments of the participating scientists, whom Berger lists by their names and positions; for “quality assurance” purposes, all of his texts—which rarely cover more than two pages—have been in turn proof‐read and approved by the authors. A final box containing information on the “Featured scientist”, along with the website address and the “Organization” as well as the “Relevant publication” invite the reader to inspect the original publication or the research group in more detail. Berger places great emphasis on the statement that he does not consider the evaluation of individual research groups or scientists as important and that he rather wishes to make it abundantly clear that innovation in nanotechnology can almost always only be achieved through international and interdisciplinary cooperation. He does contradict his own statement somewhat because almost half of all contributions originate from US labs, with less than 20 % originating from all European countries combined and with Russian and South American teams, for example, not being featured at all. That being said, all contributions have been researched thoroughly and the editing is flawless; if we were to point out just one flaw of the book, it would merely be the fact that the book only contains 39 images. Yet we, as readers, would absolutely love to know what exactly “Origami batteries”, “foldable glass” or “micromotors in the stomach” all look like. It is really fun to discover new topics of nanotechnology such as “gold particle‐corked nanotubes” or the graphene‐based sensing of malaria‐infected red blood cells.

The book is recommended not only to all interested scientists, but also to students who are looking for a quick and clear introduction to various research areas of nanotechnology—as such, the book is a useful acquisition that would fit nicely on every handheld device in a university.

* Angewandte Chemie *

I really liked this book and have no hesitation in recommending it as a really good read.

* Chromatographia (2017) 80:1821 *

Once you start reading you will find it very difficult to stop.

* Chromatographia (2017) 80:1821 *

The book is recommended not only to all interested scientists, but also to students who are looking for a quick and clear introduction to various research areas of nanotechnology

* Angewandte Chem