A tsunami is unnoticeable in the open ocean－a long, low wave whose power becomes clear only when it reaches shore and breaks. 36 Spotting the wave while it's still crossing the ocean is tricky, which explains why so few of us are aware of the one that's approaching. 37 As it does, it will make the computer revolution look like small change. It will affect everything from the batteries we use to the pants we wear to the way we treat cancer. The main thing to know about nanotechnology is that it's small. Really small. Nano, a prefix that means "dwarf" in Greek, is shorthand for nanometer, one-billionth of a meter. 38 This comma, for instance, spans about half a million nanometers. To put it another way, a nanometer is the amount a man's beard grows in the time it takes him to lift a razor to his face. 39 Tear a piece of aluminum foil into tiny strips, and it will still behave like aluminum－even after the strips have become so small that you need a microscope to see them. But keep chopping them smaller, and at some point－20 to 30 nanometers, in this case－ the pieces can explode. 40 With them, scientists can engineer a cornucopia of exotic new materials, such as plastic that conducts electricity and coatings that prevent iron from rusting.

   The Titanic, designed as the largest ship ever to go to sea, was one of the White Star Line's vessels that catered to the most elite passengers. It took three years to build the Titanic and in the end the ship cost $7.5 million dollars. More than 3000 men were employed in building the Titanic. In the months, and even years, leading up to the maiden voyage of the ship; the White Star Line published numerous marketing materials claiming that the Titanic was designed to be "unsinkable."

  The construction methods used in the building of the Titanic were considered to be second to none. Sixteen compartments were said to be watertight. Builders of the Titanic had included steel doors that were supposed to have been capable of shutting in 25 seconds or less, thereby enclosing any water that might have seeped in to threaten the safety of the ship and her occupants.

  Of course, we now know from photographs taken of the ship's wreckage, that in all likelihood many of the nearly three million rivets that were employed to hold the ship's hull plates together popped loose when the vessel struck a massive iceberg. Without the rivets to hold the plating together, they quickly buckled, allowing water to enter the ship. New theories have suggested that the iron used in the Titanic's construction may not have been the best quality, containing high degrees of sulfur, which made the hull plates particularly susceptible to the icy cold waters of the North Atlantic. Builders of the Titanic can hardly be blamed for the iron's contribution to the tragic sinking, however. The iron used in the construction of the Titanic was standard for the first part of the 20th century. While the high sulfur content in the iron may have played a role in the tragic history of the Titanic, it was not the sole reason the ship sank.

   Reports from surviving crew members indicate that the ship had been ordered to proceed through the waters of the North Atlantic faster than safety permitted. Numerous other vessels had reported the presence of several ice flows in the area on the day the ship sank, yet the Titanic made no effort to slow down. When it became obvious that the ship was about to collide with a huge iceberg, crew members attempted to turn the ship, hoping to avoid the berg all together. They were unsuccessful, however, and the ship sustained numerous gashes along the hull. Some theories speculate that had the ship hit the iceberg head-on, the damage would not have been nearly so traumatic and the Titanic and her passengers would have been able to complete their journey.

   In the United States, there are about twenty-two million hearing-impaired people; of these, two million are profoundly deaf (unable to hear any thing) or severely deaf (unable to hear much). Hearing impairment results from three major factors that are not necessarily exclusive: environmental, hereditary and old age.

   Environmental causes include noise-induced, accidental, toxic, and viral. Noise-induced deafness is primarily a phenomenon of the modern industrial world, though stonemasons, may have been subject to hearing-loss in the ancient world. Permanent deafness resulting from toxicity is also a phenomenon of the modern world. Deafness from accident, such as a blow to the ear, must have resulted from time to time. Viruses, too, were very much part of the ancient world. Of the six main viruses that can cause deafness today—chickenpox, common cold viruses, influenza, measles, mumps, and poliomyelitis—there is evidence for five in ancient Greece. There is also evidence for the presence of bacterial meningitis, whose classic complication is hearing loss. In modern, developed countries, preventative medicine reduces the incidence and severity of these viruses, but in the ancient world, as in third-world countries today, these viruses must have taken their toll.

   There is no reason to rule out hereditary deafness in the ancient world, and there is some conjectural evidence for the results of in-breeding, although not specifically for deafness. In addition to inbreeding, other hereditary factors would have produced deafness. Some families simply have a genetic background that favors deafness.