When scientists discover new knowledge, it sometimes leads to misunderstandings, concerns, and potential dangers along with the many positive outcomes and applications that come from their discoveries. In the 18th Century when magnetism was first discovered, some people jumped to the conclusion that magnets could affect the behaviors of people. This was called animal magnetism. It was not until Ben Franklin and others years later found that magnets did not cause any change in behavior in humans that this mistaken idea was given up. In modern times scientists found a way to split the atom. This discovery made it possible to bring about an almost unlimited supply of electrical energy. However, this scientific achievement brought about the destructive creation of the atomic bomb used in WW II, and the bomb could still be used to destroy the world.

Most of the scientific knowledge that has been obtained over the centuries deals mostly with the known universe. It consists of information about the planets, stars, galaxies, and a wide range of information about the earth, its structure, and the life on it. The very small subatomic world, called quantum mechanics, is much less known. Just inside the quantum mechanics world is found the nano level of particles.

Nanotechnologies in their various forms promise to transform the world in the near future. Computers connected to the Internet, called the World Wide Web, have become the most important worldwide telecommunications network today. Like many discoveries or inventions in history, the new world of quantum mechanics is creating a new age. Nanotechnologies are the first fruits of this new age. The Internet and the World Wide Web are the best ways to exchange information about these new technologies. The Quantum Mechanics Age can bring about many wonderful changes for the world, but it can also bring concerns and many new unknown dangers.

Some Facts About the Universe, Milky Way Galaxy, and Mankind

• The universe is very large. No one knows for certain how large it is.

• Today the size of things in the universe and their movements are fairly well- known. A wide variety of planets, stars, and their movements have been measured in a number of ways.

The universe is believed to be some 13.75 billion years old. This has been confirmed by scientists who have used a variety of scientific techniques over the last sixty years or so. Some additional recent scientific findings about the universe and earth are listed below:

(1) Our galaxy, the Milky Way, is moving over one million miles per hour through space.

(2) The sun is moving 500,000 miles per hour around the center of our universe.

(3) Galileo was one of the first to understand that if individuals are moving at a fixed
speed, they will not feel any effects of movement. This is now called Galilean
relativity.

(4) The Galilean relativity keeps people on earth from feeling its fast rotation.

(5) At the equator the earth is spinning at a rate of 1000 mph.

(6) The earth is also moving 68, 000 mph around the sun.

(7) Earth is about 4.6 billion years old. Life started on earth some 800 million years ago.

(8) Mankind has been around for about 200,000 years.

(9) Mankind may last some 5,128 to 7.8 million years.

(10) The odds of finding life in the universe like ours is very rare.

The 21st Century and the Beginning of the Quantum Mechanics Age

• The period from the middle 17th to the beginning of 21st Century saw the discovery and invention of many things. This has been called the era of modern science. Some of the things discovered or invented during the last 120 years were electricity, telegraphy, telephones, radios, airplanes, motion pictures, television, computers, the Internet, and the World Wide Web.

• Today, for the most part, people in science and religion get along fairly well. At least people don’t burn others at the stake for their beliefs or teachings as was done in the Middle Ages and at times even in New England when this country was being formed.

• In 2009 NASA launched the Kepler satellite to look for life on other planets. By the end of 2013, some 300 planets outside our solar system had been discovered which have the ability to contain some form of life. Research has continued in the fields of electronics, astronomy, and physics. It is now becoming clear that new discoveries in the subatomic field of quantum mechanics could open the door to a better understanding of how the fields of electronics, astronomy, and physics are related.

Nanotechnology Introduction

Nanotechnology is the name for the wide variety of potentially practical devices that may come about because of new research and knowledge being gained at the subatomic level.
At the present time the nano level is the best hope for the practical developments of devices which could bring about the next technological transformation in what may become The Quantum Mechanics Age.

Computers and the World Wide Web

For some twenty-five years computers have been connected to the Internet. Before the Internet became a public network, it was developed by the government and was used primarily by them. Over the years the Internet expanded into what today most people call the World Wide Web (WWW), and it has become the largest telecommunications network ever designed in the history of mankind. It is most likely that you the reader are already using computers and the (WWW) for many personal, business, governmental, or research applications.

The World Wide Web, because it is a very rapid means of exchanging information, has now become one of the most important ways for scientists to publish their new findings and discoveries. The discoveries and applications of quantum mechanics and nanotechnologies are now more and more available to scientists and the general public over the (WWW).