Vernon Ehlers: “I wish to speak on the general merits of the bill. Nanotechnology is an extremely important scientific development, one…”

“I wish to speak on the general merits of the bill. Nanotechnology is an extremely important scientific development, one in which we are just beginning to scratch the surface. Few people in this country realize the tremendous potential that this has. At the same time, as a scientist, I have to say if someone asked me what are we going to get out of this, I have to simply say I am not sure. And that is the nature of basic research. In 1931 when theorists first started investigating stimulated emission of radiation, if one asked the question what is this going to come to, they would have said I do not know. And when Charles Townes first developed the hydrogen MASAR, microwave amplification by stimulated emission of radiation, and someone asked what is this going to come to, he probably said it would be a time standard, but was not certain of any development beyond that. And yet that research led to the development of the laser, and the development of the laser led to a multitude of applications in business, commerce, medicine and the military. The laser today is ubiquitous. Back then it was a precious, expensive discovery, but today we use tiny, inexpensive lasers just to point at slides on a screen. It has been amazing progress. And we will find the same thing with nanotechnology. It is a very promising field, but we do not know where it is going to lead.”