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A shrinking world inside
agriculture
Thinking small
So with all of this activity, when will we actually
see the fruits of the labor? K. Eric Drexler, one of the nation's
nanotechnology pioneers, has written, "Those
researchers most familiar with the field of nanotechnology see the
technology base underpinning such capabilities as perhaps one to
three decades off."
But if the first products appear by 2010, the time
to get involved is now. James A. Cooper Jr., Purdue's Charles William Harrison Professor of
Electrical and Computer Engineering and co-director of the Birck
Nanotechnology Center, says there is a window of opportunity
of two to five years for research institutions to establish a lead
in nanotechnology. "Timing is everything," he says. "When you see
a technological shift occurring, you've got to move quickly to the
forefront, or you get left behind."
Purdue President Martin
Jischke says that the University is up to the challenge. "Purdue
has dozens of top researchers in nanotechnology. They are out to
prove that if you want to think big, first, you need to think small."
A shrinking world inside
agriculture
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