A funny thing happened on the way to the forum. Here is an email that I received: “Is this true? Nanotechnology is based upon the triangulation of three completely different technologies: Mork, Ork and Orson. Once known as nanu nanu-technology, the term evolved into what is known today as nanotechnology.”

I realized that the person sent this to me as a joke and as a reminder that I, and the other worker this was sent to, are vastly older than they are. But in talking with some students, the same students who don’t know life without a cellphone, or AOL, where Microsoft has always been graphically based, DOS means denial of service, not an operating system, or Mork and Mindy, I wonder if they know.

I bet if you read the email above to the general student population and ask True or False, that you would get as many true and you would get false.

Is this a case of too much information in our lives? Where there is too much information for people to keep track of? But even I didn’t know the origins of nanotechnology (until some research). Where did it come from or who created it? How did the name come about? When did it first become feasible to do? I have noticed a lot of products are starting to boast nanotechnology – from house paint to solar photovoltaic cells. But what other products are using nanotechnology?

Does anyone know what the answers are without looking in NetWorks Digital Library or on Google? Is this knowledge that people outside the high-tech world should know? Are they being told? Or do we send them back to the Mork and Mindy reruns?