Jean-Luc Brédas

How can single atoms be manipulated? Are the laws of physics still valid at the nanostructure scale? How could nanotechnologies help cure disease? What are the application fields of nanotechnologies and what ethical issues do they raise? These questions and many others are answered in this clearly presented, fascinating book. This updated second edition puts nanotechnologies into perspective by explaining issues in health, environmental and military application domains, and discusses the technology in the context of current media and ethical debates. It also introduces the ambitious, and perhaps almost utopian, NBIC programme (Nanotechnology, Biotechnology, Information technology and Cognitive science) - an initiative that foresees the 'reunification' of science by encouraging collaboration among specialists of different scientific domains. Intended for a wide audience, this book will interest teachers and students of science, as well as those with a general interest in how modern technologies and the sciences interact.

This book is intended for those who are interested in understanding the electronic structure and properties of polymers. The scope of the book is to provide the non-specialist reader with a comprehensive and unified description: (i) of quantum mechanical methods, mainly originating from quantum chemistry, to calculate the electronic properties of polymers, (ii) of their use for interpreting and predicting results in fields where the electronic structure is playing an important role, like the electrical conductivity and the non linear optical properties of conjugated polymers. It will also serve as a reference book to lecture graduate students on the electronic structure of polymers or more generally of quasi-one dimensional materials. In this framework, it is worth stressing that the quantum theory of polymers bridges the gap between chemistry and physics. Since no book of this kind involving a strong interaction between theoretical and experimental concepts is available at the moment, it will also meet a need for a timely monograph in a field of important and fast growing interest.