Since the US launched its National Nanotechnology Initiative in 2000, the Scanning Tunneling Microscope (STM), an instrument that measures and manipulates atoms, has been portrayed as the “eyes” and “fingers” of a research frontier advocating atomic-level precision as the new paradigm for twenty-first-century manufacturing. The Clinton Administration, which launched this billion-dollar enterprise, probably never imagined that such an iconic instrument, leveraged to legitimate long-term budget support, could be produced from “junk.” Pankaj Sekhsaria’s Instrumental Lives: An Intimate Biography of an Indian Laboratory captures this fascinating story.
