OPENING STATEMENT

HEARING ON

NANOTECHNOLOGY: STATE OF NANO-SCIENCE AND ITS PROSPECTS FOR THE NEXT DECADE

BY

THE HONORABLE EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON (D-TX)

June 22, 1999

I am pleased to join the Chairman in welcoming our witnesses to this afternoon’s hearing.

The ages of civilization are often designated by reference to a prominent material that could be fashioned by the prevailing state of technology: for example, the stone age, the bronze age, and the iron age. Now, we are at the threshold of an age in which materials can be fashioned atom-by-atom.

The word "revolutionary" is too overworked to have much impact anymore. But nanotechnology, which is the subject of today’s hearing, truly is revolutionary. As expressed in a recent report from the National Research Council, "the ability to control and manipulate atoms, to observe and simulate collective phenomena, to treat complex materials systems, and to span length scales from atoms to our everyday experience, provides opportunities that were not even imagined a decade ago".

Nanotechnology will have enormous consequences for the information industry, manufacturing of all kinds, and medicine and health. Indeed, one of our witnesses has written that it will leave virtually no product untouched.

I congratulate the Chairman for convening this hearing so that we may learn more about the promise of research related to nanotechnology and about the marvels that have been accomplished thus far.

We are naturally interested in hearing the panel’s assessment of the vitality of federally supported research efforts in this field. We are aware that planning activities are underway which may lead to a research initiative on nanotechnology in the Administration’s fiscal year 2001 budget request. The views of the panel on the value, timeliness, and appropriate focus of such an initiative would be welcome.

Again, I want to thank the Chairman for calling this hearing. I appreciate the attendance of our witnesses today, and I look forward to our discussion.