Written to give researchers in various areas an appreciation of nanotechnological developments outside their own fields of expertise, this broad overview of the science of matter at the scale of one-billionth of a meter reveals the diversity of nanotechnology's applications. Poole is professor emeritus in the physics department at the University of South Carolina. Owens is a research scientist at the US Army's Armament Research, Development, and Engineering Center. Annotation (c) Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)