Biography
Biography: Philippe Houdy
Abstract
Controlling "holes" and "eleAll along the centuries, scientists try to understand and to master the ultimate limit of the material : Democritus (-460, -370), father of modern science, predicts that “everything is composed of atoms”. John Dalton (1766, 1844) proposes the modern atomic theory (1808). Dmitri Mendeleev (1834, 1907) formulates the periodic law and creates the periodic table of elements (1869). Max von Laue (1879, 1960) first observes the diffraction of X-rays by crystals (1912, NP 1914). Ernst Ruska (1906, 1988) builds the first electron microscope (1931, NP 1986). Richard Feynman (1918, 1988) predicts that “There is plenty of room at the bottom” (1959, NB 1965). Norio Taniguchi (1912, 1999) grows ultra thin films and proposes the term of nano-technology (1974). Heinrich Rohrer (1933, 2013) and Gerd Binnig (1947) create the first nano-apparatus (scanning tunneling microscope: visualization of atoms 1981, manipulation of atoms 1989, NP 1986). Harold Kroto (1939, 2016), Richard Smalley (1943, 2005) and Robert Curl (1933) discover fullerenes (C60 buckyball, nanotube, graphene, 1985, NP 1996). Eric Drexler (1955) writes “The coming era of nanotechnology” (1986). Finally, Peter Grunberg (1939) and Albert Fert (1938) discover the giant magnetoresitant effect and create spintronic (1988, NB 2007) and André Geim (1958) and Konstantin Novaselov (1974) study graphene properties (2004, NB 2010). We will describe the breakthroughs in nanophysics, nanochemistry, nanobiology all along the last thirty years opening new horizons in research and industry and try to evaluate nanotoxicology risks and nanoethics answers.