Congratulations on an excellent piece on nanoscience by Jeffrey M. Perkel in your July 28 issue.1 He rigorously covers much ground in little space; my only cavil is that, though writing in a bioscience journal, Mr. Perkel did not toot his (and your) own horn. Bioscience is a major reason behind current nanoscience's progress. The life sciences have been dealing with nanoscale objects and effects since their inception; the main difference now is that atoms and molecules can be imaged and manipulated directly, and not merely taken on faith. The life sciences have a long history of nano-manipulation in aqueous solution: first empirically, then precisely. Even materials science and physics cannot make so strong a claim to historical precedence in this matter.
William Illsey Atkinson
President, Draaken Science Communications
North Vancouver, British Columbia
billatki@axion.net
