单项选择题
| To find Kim Hyung Gyoon’s office in Samsung’s
R&D complex，iust follow the baskets of dirty clothes．No, Kim is not running
the company laundry．As chief of Samsung’s Washing & Cleaning Technology
Group(WCTG)，he’s the man behind a new washing machine that deposits tiny silver
particles(small pieces of things)-about 1/10,000 the thickness of a human
hair—onto clothes to make them germ-and-odor- free without the need for hot
water．The device represents the first mass-produced application of this type of
nanotechnology—the science of very small structures—to home appliances．"In
summer of 2002, I asked everyone in the office to take off their socks,"says
Kim．"I took one sock from each person and placed it in a regular washing
machine; the others were washed in a machine with the Ag + Nano System．The next
day, I asked everyone to check the odor of their socks after a day’s wear．One
began to produce a strong unpleasant smell, and the other was
odorless．" Kim says he came up with the idea five years ago while on a business trip to Japan, where he learned of a brand of socks that retained their freshness even after many days of unwashed wear and tear．Tiny sticks of silver with germ-killing chemicals were woven into fabric．When he got back to Seoul, Kim applied the principle to washing machines． According to the Korea Testing & Research Institute for the Chemical Industry, Samsung’s device killed 99.9% of germs．Kim says garments stay germ-free for up to a month after being laundered．The Ag + Nano device went on sale in March 2003 and costs around $1,150; the revolutionary technology is also being used in Samsung’s refrigerators and air conditioners． No wonder: consumers seem to like a little silver in their spin cycles．Since Samsung’s nano-armed products were first launched, they have brought in an estimated $779 million in revenue．Overall, nanotech has been one of science’s fastest- growing fields in recent years, with potential applications in fields as diverse as energy production and toothpaste manufacture．The nanotech market is projected tO be worth $1 trillion by 2015． |