Introduction to Nanoscience

Nanoscience is a topic many are aware of, but few understand. Using the Gartner Hype Cycle as a metric, nanoscience and nanotechnology as a field has peaked on the side of expectations, and troughed in the way of disillusionment, leaving a mix of curiosity, hope, and even fear, in its wake. However, as we climb out of the trough and up the “slope of enlightenment” Nokia is finding that the breadth of opportunities and applications for mobility that are emerging from nanoscience is nothing short of astonishing.  The reality is that nanotechnology is already changing our world, just in subtle ways that are not as spectacular as science fiction led us to believe it would. From window coatings, to laundry detergents, to spill-proof fabrics, to computer memory, nano-level technologies are probably already in your home, just in a sedate way.  That’s going to change.

The mobile industry is poised to take unique advantage of nanoscience in a way that has the potential to be pretty startling and surprising. Perhaps you saw the Nokia Morph video published in March of this year. We know many of you did see it, and we were completely astounded by the millions of hits it generated on YouTube. Clearly there is a hunger for dramatic and empowering new mobile capabilities. Mobile devices face numerous hurdles in order to jump to that next level of capability, along the lines of power usage and generation, materials flexibility and durability, sensor incorporation, and more. Nanoscience has a unique and powerful contribution to make towards solving these problems.

Below is a link to our first Nokia Insights paper, the first in a series you will see us publishing here on CTO.nokia.com over the coming months on a wide range of topics. We decided to take on Nanoscience as our first topic as a follow on to Morph, but also because in our view it is going to be one of the most transformative forces for our industry in the next decade. We are incredibly excited about the work being done at our Nokia Research Centers, and with our partners such as the University of Cambridge in the UK, and wanted to paint our vision for the future to share with you. We invite your thoughts, inspirations, and questions surrounding this vision. Nokia believes we are helping to craft the future of mobile computing and communications. That said, we also know that if we can’t connect with those who are going to use our technologies, or those who will build complimentary products and services, then we are only getting part of the picture…

Bob Iannucci
Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer
Palo Alto, California