Earlier this year, Nano Letters Editor-in-Chief Teri W. Odom introduced a new article type called Viewpoint. Viewpoints are invited thought pieces, between one and two pages long, written by leading and eminent scholars in nanoscience. They are forward-looking and highlight emerging focus areas that will benefit the entire nanoscience community. The first Viewpoints from Nano […]
Earlier this year, Nano Letters Editor-in-Chief Teri W. Odom introduced a new article type called Viewpoint. Viewpoints are invited thought pieces, between one and two pages long, written by leading and eminent scholars in nanoscience. They are forward-looking and highlight emerging focus areas that will benefit the entire nanoscience community.
The first Viewpoints from Nano Letters are now online and can be viewed by clicking the article titles below.
The Rise of Computation
“Experimentalists should embrace the rise of computation. The key thing in research will always be the initial choice of the problem and the design of an experiment to yield a clear result. Computation creates new tools and quantitative theoretical results that multiply and extend the output of a creative researcher. Computation allows us to tease understanding out of huge data sets.” – Louis Brus, Columbia University
DNA Nanotechnology at 40
“There are nearly 500 laboratories worldwide engaged in DNA nanotechnology. Very few of these investigators are even working on the crystalline scaffold problem but are instead employing DNA nanotechnology in a wide variety of applications. DNA is often used as a system for organizing other materials than DNA to somewhat lower resolution than the crystallographic ideal. Gold nanoparticles, proteins, viruses, and other nanoscale species have all been organized, usually by origami.” – Nadrian C. Seeman, New York University
The Future in Nanosafety
“The current infrastructure and resources in nanosafety require adaptation toward next generations of nanoenabled technologies that will refine methods, advance knowledge, and accelerate commercial adoption.” – Jo Anne Shatkin, Vireo Advisors
Nanomedicine toward 2040
“Nanomedicine as a research field has existed for about two decades, and it is, therefore, timely to discuss what the next 20 years in nanomedicine should accomplish to provide a scientifically grounded framework for sustained success.” – Joseph J. Richardson & Frank Caruso, The University of Melbourne
Transformational Impact of Nanomedicine: Reconciling Outcome with Promise
“There is every reason to expect that nanomedicine will continue its trajectory as an exciting multidisciplinary field that continues to integrate biomedical with physicochemical sciences and engineering in enterprises that promise to greatly improve healthcare delivery and personalized medicine for the benefit of all humankind.” – André E. Nel, University of California, Los Angeles
Dawning of the Age of Molecular Nanotopology
In the wake of the pioneering research on links and knots carried out by [Jean‐Pierre] Sauvage and [David A.] Leigh, we are ready to witness the dawning of a new era in molecular nanotechnology: call it the age of molecular nanotopology. – J. Fraser Stoddard, Northwestern University
Molecular Nanocarbon Science: Present and Future
In the field of nanocarbon science, the synthesis of structurally uniform, single-molecule nanocarbons is the greatest challenge and is crucial for the development of functional materials in nanotechnology, electronics, optics, and biomedical applications. At present, however, synthetic routes to nanocarbons usually lead to mixtures of molecules with a range of different structures and properties, and these cannot be easily separated or refined into pure forms. – Kenichiro Itami and Takehisa Maekawa, Institute of Transformative Bio-Molecules, Nagoya University
Nano-Optics in 2020 ± 20
While the development of [nano-optics] over the past 20 years presents a true success story in interdisciplinarity, progress in the next 20 years will require a still much more cohesive and well-informed effort to ensure optimal use of the existing expertise and to avoid unnecessary reinventions of concepts known in other disciplines. – Vahid Sandoghdar, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light, Friedrich Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg
Exciting Journey from the 0D to the 2D Nanoworld
We cannot forget that the world of nanoscience extends to several important areas such as energy, environment, agriculture, and medicine. I have been truly impressed by the contributions of nanomedicine, including strategies to cure cancer. I hope that it will be possible to discover early detection strategies for deadly diseases such as lung cancer and Alzheimer disease using nanonoses. – C. N. R. Rao, Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research
DNA Nanotechnology Meets Nanophotonics
It will be very constructive if more research funds become available to support young researchers with bold ideas and meanwhile allow for failures and contingent outcomes. – (Laura) Na Liu, University of Stuttgart
The Reticular Chemist
A new chemist is emerging to extend chemistry from the atom and the molecule to the framework and to meet the new intellectual and practical challenges of the 21st century. – Omar M. Yaghi, University of California, Berkeley
Lithium Batteries: 50 Years of Advances to Address the Next 20 Years of Climate Issues
Li-ion batteries: a dream to dominate battery energy storage is now ready to solve climate and environmental challenges. – M. Stanley Whittingham, Binghamton University
Single Molecules at 31: What’s Next?
Optical studies of single molecules have taught us much over the past three decades, but these individual quantum-mechanical objects continue to have promise as probes of nanoscale structure and dynamics in complex systems. – W. E. Moerner, Stanford University
