A bit of history:
1947: On December 23rd the transistor, a mechanism with three electrodes that enables detection and amplification of electrical currents, is presented by John Bardeen, Walter Brattain and William Shockley of the Bell Laboratories, United-States. For this invention, which will lead to the development of electronics they receive the Nobel price of Physics in 1956.
1950: First prediction of the coming of intelligent machines by the mathematician Alan Turing.
1951: The ionic field microscope is invented by Erwin W. Müller at the University of Pennsylvania. This invention enables the first visualisation of the image of an atom.
1952: Radushkevich and Lukyanovich publish in a soviet journal the first pictures of carbon tubes.
1959: The idea of manipulating atoms is promoted by the physicist Richard Feynman (1918-1988) who underlines the potential of nanosciences during his speech at the annual conference of the "American Physical Society" at Caltech on December 29, 1959. According to him « the principles of physics, as far as we can judge, do not go against the possibility of manipulating things atom by atom... There is plenty of room at the bottom ».
1966: The theory about the possibility for autoreproduction of automatons from John von Neumann (1903-1957) american mathematician and physicist of hungarian origine is published by A.W. Burks in the work titled "The theory of self reproducing automata". His theory will participate in the development of des notions auto-organisator systems, cybernetic machines and living machines.
1967: The first atom probe is made by E. W. Müller by associating an ionic microscope and a time of flight mass-spectrometre.
1970: The existence of C60, a molecule shaped like a socker ball is predicted by Eiji Osawa, from the University of Technology of Toyohashi.
1971: Invention of the first microprocessor, Intel 4004, a calculation unit of 4 bits, cadence at 108 kHz and integrating 2 300 transistors.
1974: The term "nanometre" is first used by the japanese physicist Norio Taniguchi from Tokyo’s University of Sciences. Kim Eric Drexler highly contributed afterwards to the popularisation of "nanotechnologies".
1981: In a paper published by the american journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Kim Eric Drexler describes the principles of production on a nanoscopic scale, establishes the fundamental principles of molecular design, of protein engineering and productive nanosystems.
1981: Gerd Bining and Heinrich Rohrer, from the IBM laboratory of Zürich, set up the Scanning Tunneling Microscope (STM), allowing the visualisation of the forms of atoms. They are awarded the Nobel prize in physics in 1986 for this invention, which is the begining of the nanotechnologies’ era.
1986: Atomic force microscopy (AFM) is introduced by G. Binnig, C.F. Quate and C. Gerber. AFM is a direct application of STM and allows the study of isolating material surfaces on an atomic scale.
1986: Kim Eric Drexler founds a centre for the nanotechnologies, the "Foresight Institute", at Palo Alto, California.
1986: « Engines of Creation », published by Drexler while still a student of Marvin Minsky (big pioneer of Artificial Intelligence) at MIT, prophesizes the idea of a glorious future with « clean » production at low cost. Following the idea from the physicist Richard Feynman of a machine built atom by atom using other machines, K. Eric Drexler describes a horizon of abundance based on the reproduction and control of biochemical processes. Even though these ideas sound utopian at first, they are used around the world to justify investments, public ones as well as private, allocated for the research in nanotechnology.
1989: The physicists Richard Smalley, Robert Curl and Harold Kroto discover the first nanomaterials : the « fullerenes », molecules of pure carbon composed of 60 atoms (C60 molecule) and shaped like a soccer ball : 20 hexagones and 12 pentagones. The assembling of fullerenes will later lead to the discovery of carbon nanotubes. Richard Smalley, Robert Curl and Harold Kroto receive the Nobel Prize for this discovery of the fullerenes in 1996.
1990: The scientist Donald Eigler manages to move one by one 35 atoms of xenon and thus draws, with a tunneling microscope, the initials of his company : IBM.
1991: Finding and popularisation of the carbon nanotube, which has highly interesting characteristics for industrial applications, by an assembling of fullerenes accomplished by the japanese physicist Sumio Iijima, from the NEC Laboratories at Tusukuba.
1993: Assembling of an "electronic drum" by Donald Eigler: one by one, 48 atoms of iron are positioned on a copper surface of 14 nm of diametre.
1993: Finding of single-walled nanotubes by the japanese physicist Sumio Iijima, NEC Laboratories.
1995: First electrical connection on a single molecule, operated by Christian Joachim and Jim Gimzewski from the IBM research laboratories in Zürich.
1996: First room temperature manipulation of polyatomic molecules by the unit. Setting of the first molecular shield by Jim Gimzewski, while Donald Eigler carries out the first electrical contact on a single atom.
1996: Production of the first unimolecular electronic transistors.
1997: Observation of the first single-molecule electromechanical amplifyer.
1997: Creation of the company Zyvex, specialised in molecular nanotechnology and pioneer in the domain of nano-assemblers.
1998: Strong national initiative in favour of the nanotechnologies in the United States with 497 millions dollars (National Nanosciences Initiative).
1998: Molecular rotor : the discovery of the rotation of a single molecule on its own axis sur son axe opens the way to the conception of molecular wheels and, consequently, molecular engines of the nanometre scale.
1999: Creation of the Network for Research in Micro and Nanotechnologies (RMNT - Réseau de Recherche en Micro et Nanotechnologies) in France, with the vocation to fund research projects concerning micro and nanotechnologies and carried out through collaboration between academic and corporate laboratories.
2001: Indicator : the international market for products manufactured by nanotechnologies is estimated at about 40 billion dollars.
2001: Carbon nanotubes, 6 times lighter and 100 times stronger than steel.
2002: Launch of Incentive Devised Action (ACI - Action Concertée Incitative) Nanosciences in France to support fundamental research projects in nanosciences, through collaboration between academic laboratories.
2002: Launch of the great program « Converging Technologies » by the National Science Foundation in the United States. Their ambition is the convergence of biotechnologies, information technologies, and cognitive sciences.
2002: In March, founding by the US army and the MIT of the Institute for soldiers nanotechnologies (ISN).
2003: Setup of a facility for nanotechnologies (cleanrooms and equipement) in France named National Network of High Centrals of Technologies for Basic Techology Research (RTB - Reseau National de Grandes Centrales de Technologies pour la Recherche Technologique de Base).
2004: The research group of the National Research Coucil Canada (NRC) creates for the first time an image of the orbite of a single electron inside a molecule.
2004-2005: France : creation of five competence centres (C’Nano), covering the national territory, and aiming at the federation of basic research in nanosciences.
2005: France : fusion of RMNT and ACI Nanosciences, thus forming the National Network for research in Nanosciences and Nanotechnologies (R3N - Réseau National de Recherche en Nanosciences et Nanotechnologies)
2005: France : Creation of the National Agency for REsearch (ANR - Agence Nationale de la Recherche), which starts the Pnano program aimed at financing the collaborative research projects in nanosciences and nanotechnologies.
2005: France : Set up of the competitivity poles, among which some are attached to the domain of nanotechnology, including Minalogic, Solutions Communicantes Securisees, Photonique, Microtechniques, Sciences et Système de l’Energie Electrique.
2005: On May, 9th, Motorola announces a first prototype for a screen made from carbon nanotubes.
2005: The manufacture of ribbons of nanotubes is made possible as fast as 10 m/min nano-ribbon owing to the publication of Ray Baughman’s group, Texas University.
2005: Launch in April of the program Nanosafe2 financed by the European Union and managing a database on toxicologic and environmental questions linked to nanoparticles.
2005: The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) launches a program to collect informations for the better definition of the risks and establish rules of security.
2006: In France : labellisation of the Carnot Institutes, among which five in the domains of nanosciences and nanotechnologies : CEA/LETI, FEMTO-Innovation, IEMN, IOTA and LAAS
2006: On June, 1st, opening of the first European Pole for the nanotechnologies : the Minatec Pole.
2007: In France: creation of the Thematic Networks for Advanced Research (RTRA - Réseaux Thématiques de Recherche Avancée), of which three are in the domains of nanosciences and nanotechnologies : Nanoelectronique (Grenoble), Triangle de la Physique (Orsay), Centre international de recherche aux frontières de la chimie (Strasbourg)
2012: Indicator :the international market for products manufactured by nanotechnologies will probably represent more than a thousand billion dollars.
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