Category Archives: Nanotechnology Books

Medical Nanotechnology and Nanomedicine – Book Review

Medical Nanotechnology and Nanomedicine

Medical Nanotechnology and Nanomedicine: Perspectives in Nanotechnology Series; Taylor & Francis CRC Press 2010WorldCatLibraryThingGoogle BooksBookFinder

ISBN 9781439808740 –  527 pages   $50 on Amazon  Published 2010

From beginning to end, this timely volume bridges the interdisciplinary gap between medicine and nanoscience technology as it applies to biomedical applications. Dr. Tibbals does a superb job of explaining exactly how nanoscale materials and approaches can and are making a difference in the healthcare field.

For instance, pointing out that the size regime of 10 nm-100 nm is in the ideal range for nanoparticles that can be extracted by blood without clogging capillaries or being trapped in certain organs is an excellent example of explaining a simple physical concept with human physiological impact that both physicists and doctors can relate to.

The author demonstrates deep, broad and expert knowledge of many areas of nanomedicine while making the understanding of key concepts accessible without resorting to opaque language or heavy equations. The approach of this complex subject is rather holistic, as Dr. Tibbals even goes through a brief history of nanomedicine, societal implications and emerging initiatives that can give some further investigative directions for the interested reader.

He also discusses particularly exciting subjects such as tissue regeneration and replacement and they are given an impressive amount of coverage. The implications for healing are very promising and lend optimism that revolutionary medical techniques can be both affordable and accessible now and in the near future.

Bear in mind, this publication is more of a general survey than a hard reference book or core university textbook, but I feel it belongs on the shelf of any doctor or aspiring biomedical engineer who needs an executive summary of the state of nanotechnology with respect to medicine.

Nanotechnolgy Book Reviews by Joel-Anthony Gray

Nanotechnology is one of the most paradigm changing and exciting fields to come along in the history of materials science. The amount of information and research in this field has increased astronomically in the past 10-15 years and I started this site to guide everyone from children to scientists to a better path of understanding the principles, implications and applications of nanoscience.

I feel it is important to structure this presentation in a certain way because I find most websites on the subject to either be too uniformly basic (a nano is one-billionth of a meter,  Dr. Feynman’s talk in 1959, etc.) or very topic specific without adequate context. To a large degree, this is the nature of nanotechnology as it covers a wide breadth of disciplines while often diving into advanced physics and math concepts.

The point at which any one person could fully understand all the information available on nanotech is long since passed as nanotechnology research and journals are now published faster than what is absorbed by even a team of dedicated individuals.

While I realize that many nanotechnology books are already reviewed on Amazon, that avenue of evaluation is potentially diluted by either very vague statements by students such as “This book was really hard for me to understand” to “Great textbook!” which I don’t find detailed enough to be helpful. And in some cases, the review says more about the reviewer than the actual book. Also, some books have no reviews at all because they are so specialized.

My goal is to:

1) Review and share what I feel are the best books on the range of subjects encountered by those in the nanotechnology field including adjacent fields such as vacuum science, plasma physics, etc.

2) Develop mini-quizzes of varying difficulty while covering a multitude of areas.

3) List key concepts in a concise and accurate fashion so that a more intuitive understanding of nanotechnology is gleaned – I am now building a separate website dedicated to this effort.

My focus is heavily slanted towards bio-nanotechnology as I find this the most interesting application with the potential for the greatest impact on the quality of life. Also, it often involves multiple cross-disciplinary fields including chemistry, biology, materials science, physics, electronics, fluid dynamics, microscopy, magnetism, optics, etc.

This is for my personal benefit as well; some say you don’t really understand a subject as well until you start teaching it to others.

Industrial Plasma Engineering Volume I: Principles – Book Review

Industrial plasma engineering

Industrial plasma engineeringJ. Reece Roth; Institute of Physics Pub. 1995WorldCatRead OnlineLibraryThingGoogle BooksBookFinder 

I rank plasma science up there with biochemistry as one of the tougher subjects in the STEM fields to understand, and this book is the standard text for Plasma Technology at my university. It is well organized and thorough enough for all but the hardest core researchers, but is accessible enough for science undergrads to grasp and appreciate the many varieties and applications of plasma.

Illustrations of theoretical concepts and real-life industrial devices abound, there are numerous tables and graphs which make this a near reference grade resource, while the equations are well explained and documented in the context of the conceptual explanations.

But I would caution against just casually picking up this publication, or just handing it to someone and expecting them to understand the subject material by simply reading it cover to cover. At the least you need the guided structure of a class, or some easier to read supplementary material to help bridge the “Eureka!” gap as I call it if you want to take full advantage of the information within. That or you had better be VERY good with math and physics, particularly in the realm of electromagnetics.

Be aware that there is a 2nd Volume: Applications To Non-Thermal Plasma Processing, which is a continuation of this topic, but with a different emphasis.

ISBN 0750303174  –  339 pages  $60 on Amazon   Published January 1995

Materials Science and Engineering: An Introduction – 7th Edition

Callister Materials Science

Introduction to Materials Science and Engineering 7th EditionCallister; John Wiley 2007WorldCatRead OnlineLibraryThingGoogle BooksBookFinder 

This is an excellent undergrad textbook that is logically organized and thorough in the coverage of the properties and mechanics of various materials, from ceramics to metals and polymers. Diagrams and graphs are clear and plentiful, the equations are surprisingly simple but sufficient to understand and work with the subject material and the text has a good flow with key words, definitions and concepts highlighted appropriately.

The author has done an excellent job of breaking down some high level concepts and creating interest in the subject by illustrating key points with relevant examples. (both mathematically and anecdotally) Please note that the latest edition of this book (9th Edition Published Dec 2013) has won the Amazon Favorite Books of 2014 award. The only slight detraction is that if you want a more thorough understanding of metallurgy, I have another text that goes into greater detail than this volume. (though having both is best)

However, for a book of this caliber that sells for under $15 “Used” on Amazon, it is a great deal.

ISBN: 0471736961   832 pages   $30 from Amazon  Published: Wiley February 17, 2006

Biomaterials: An Introduction

Biomaterials: An IntroductionJoon Bu Park; Springer 2007WorldCatLibraryThingGoogle BooksBookFinder 

Biomaterials: An Introduction

Biomaterials: An Introduction

ISBN 0387378790 –  562 pages   $109 on Amazon  Published August 2007

This is a text that could be best characterized as sharing aspects between the detailed reference manual / phone book that Biomaterials Science by Ratner represents, while still having some linear focus on progressive fundamentals as exemplified in the superb text Introduction to Biomaterials by Agrawal.

It excels at having numerous illustrations and images while possessing some rather unique and informative tables and figures that underscore important concepts in this field. The math isn’t terribly difficult and in addition I also noticed numerous worked examples which is something I feel more engineering books should work on.

For an undergrad class, this is probably more of a supplementary text as the density of information will tend to dissuade younger, less persistent students. For a grad class, the age of the book being greater than 8 years may be seen as a detraction compared to a recent cutting edge text.

While I love new texts on science, I have often found relatively obscure knowledge in older books and have learned to appreciate their place on my shelf.

Introduction to Biomaterials: Basic Theory with Engineering Applications

Introduction to Biomaterials: Basic Theory with Engineering Applications by C. Mauli Agrawal, Joo L. Ong, Mark R. Appleford and Gopinath Mani

Introduction to Biomaterials: Basic Theory with Engineering Applications

Introduction to Biomaterials: Basic Theory with Engineering Applications

ISBN 0521116902 –  419 pages  $72 on Amazon              Published December 16, 2013 Cambridge University Press

This was one of the books for my Biomaterials class and it is one of the best undergrad level texts I have reviewed in a long time. The unanimous 5 star reviews on Amazon so far appear to show agreement from other students and reviewers.

The overall organization, balance and layout of the information is close to perfect, though I probably would have rearranged the chapter sequence slightly which is a small quibble. It is relatively easy to read given the concepts presented, but a previous education in materials science, organic chemistry and human / cell physiology is very helpful for putting it all together.

There is an abundance of well-done illustrations, photos, tables and diagrams which make this complex and interdisciplinary subject very accessible and this is the sort of text I wish I had as a kid. What is particularly strong and useful about this text is that they not only walk the reader through the fundamentals, but also cover a number of adjacent subjects such as characterization, surface modification, biological systems, implant sterilization, and even natural biomaterials such as collagen, alginate, silk and coral.

As for the math, there are some formulas given, and while there are other books devoted to materials science, I wish this book had gone into more detail and had back of the envelope worked examples that more fully explored the numbers behind mechanical and chemical properties. But then again, the very title of this book states that it is only a basic theory book and focuses more on applications, so it delivers what it says and very well at that.

Cutting edge topics such as tissue engineering and the role of 3D printers is also touched on, so on the whole, you get a lot for a sub-$100 book.