见微知著：纳米科学

 

IN THE MACROSCOPIC WORLD, we can effortlessly enjoy many wonderful things around us, including beautiful clouds under a blue sky, breathta- king mountains and canyons, and landmarks in Beijing such as the Olympic Stadium and Aquatic Center. However, in the microscopic world, everything becomes invisible to our naked eyes. For example, can you imagine how unique and exquisite your fingerprints are? Have you ever caught invasive cells or unfriendly viruses in action? Perhaps you have never envisioned that these little things in and around us would one day become the role players in an album dedicated to the big science in a small world. With unrivaled clarity and stunning elegance, this book guides us to a narrative and visual voyage into the “micro-and nano-world.” 

Felice C. Frankel and George M. Whitesides, the original authors of this book, meticulously crafted every piece of the book to provide portraits of the small world with astonishing pictures and to tell stories about big science in layman’s language. Under the guidance of a renowned photographer and a world-class scientist, you will quickly learn about the remarkable properties of “small stuff,” as well as their revolutionary app- lications and societal impacts. Whitesides is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Engineering, USA. As a pioneer in nanotechnology and many other areas, Whitesides is one of the most innovative and productive scientists in the world. I first met him in person during my visit to Harvard in 1998. He gave me an elastomeric stamp with patterned microstructures on the surface. Using a technique known as soft lithography, the stamp can be used to quickly generate small, complex structures, just like some of those in this book. After so many years, I still keep this stamp in my collection. Frankel is a research scientist and photographer at MIT. Over the past 20 years or so, she has devoted herself to the development of new visualization tools and methods for better understanding scientific concepts and discoveries.

The authors help us envision the invisible small things by thoughtfully selecting a large set of attractive and expressive photographs. Some of the pictures were taken using microscopy tools, including the optical micrographs of individual cells and scanning tunneling microscopy images of individual molecules. These tools are based on either the colorful visible light or the freely moving electrons, and the latter can also behave just like light waves. Only with the assistance of these microscopy techniques can we start to understand the essence of the micro-and nano-world. With the use of metaphors, the texts complement the pictures with lucid and na- rrative explanations about key concepts and fundamental principles in nanoscience that are otherwise very difficult to appreciate. 

 Imagine that some of the tiny structures described in this book will make your computer run faster while others will save your life when you are infected by bacteria or viruses. Can you wait to learn more about them? Let’s start our journey to explore this wonderland!