ABSTRACT
ROSALYN: What seems to be driving nanotechnology, and why? And, do we have any control over it its direction? Those are my two primary questions.
JARED: Well, in my opinion, there are a few factors at work. First, there’s commercial interest. Everybody wants to get the new technology and to build the newest company from their research. Materials and biotechnology and all of these areas represent hundreds of billions of dollars to industry, so there is a lot of commercial impetus behind it. Then, in the university setting, there are needs to be the one to advance the area. Ego drives people who want to do great things. Also, I think we have some basic motives that aren’t as sinister as those two. There is the interest in understanding things. A lot of people just want to learn something; they want to see something new and have the answer to the question “why.” So we have got all that embedded in this.
