July 30, 2005

On Feynman and Nanotechnology...

What defines a true innovator?...Whatever your definition, Richard P. Feynman would have to top your list..Incidentally he'd top a lot of my lists: genius, humourist, talent, maverick and men-who-innjoyed lists to begin with....

You read people like Asimov, Jules Verne and A.C Clarke who conceptualised actual inventions decades prior to available technology, and you know you're reading the works of more than mere equals...and on this count Mr. Feynman can hold his own against the likes of these Titans with playful ease.

What can you do but marvel at THIS TALK, delivered at Caltech way back in 1959, mind it!..we're talking late 50's prior to the semiconductor revolution...We're talking current technology not even at micron levels and this guy says Nano( 10^-9 m)...what's more he 'd developed a sound theoretical basis for it with his QCD (not part of the talk)...in the talk, he explains why thinking nano is smart even with the available technology of the day..then goes on to enumerate practical approaches to the challenges he throws open to the general public( actually he targets school kids)...not only that, he predicts possible pitfalls and provides insights on how to approach these problems as well!!....problems that surfaced practically only about a year or two ago... well into the arrival of Nanotechnology as a big time science initiative with funds like crazy.... or about 45 years after RPF's clairvoyant note to the future generations..

That, then, is one sexily innovative mind....

Surely I'm not Joking, Mr.Feynman!...HATS OFF TO YA!!!!

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