Nobel laureate Richard P. Feynman (1918-1988). Image obtained via the Nobel Foundation.
Victorian cranberry glass (ca.1890), whose red color stems from gold nanoparticles.
“AncientNano” (short for “ancient nanotechnology”) refers to the creation and manipulation of nanoscale-sized particles and structures by techniques that were available before 1959. Why that year? In late December 1959, the physicist Richard Feynman presented his lecture “There’s Plenty of Room at the Bottom” to a meeting of the American Physical Society in Pasadena, California. For an after-dinner talk, it has been surprisingly controversial. It has been credited by some as singlehandedly laying the intellectual foundations of what would only many years later be called ‘nanotechnology’ (the term was not in the original lecture). It has also been dismissed as having had “no influence whatsoever” on subsequent developments in the field (see the tab Why 1959? for more on the lecture). Whatever the relationship of “Plenty of Room” to later advances in nanotechnology, the introduction of nanoscale-sized particles and features into manufactured objects has a history stretching back many centuries, even millennia. These expressions of nanoscience—from artisans of ancient Egypt and Rome up to material scientists and chemists of the mid-20th century—are worth continued study.
This site is meant as an educational resource, providing documented examples of historically important “AncientNano” for edification and perhaps even inspiration. Suggestions for additions or improvements are welcome; see the “Contact” tab for details.