Beyond Human Senses: Technologies, Strategies, Opportunities, and New Responsibilities

Natural senses evolved to be adapted to the life conditions of our ancestors. Eventually, as an example, sight is tuned to the sunlight and olfaction is aimed at quickly discriminating between eatable and non eatable foodstuff. Technological progress changed the human environment, and the growth complexity of the surrounding world requires senses whose characteristics are rather different with respect to those provided by Nature. From this simple observation sensor science stems. Current technologies, in particular those related to the nano-world, are expected to provide a substantial leap towards the fulfillment of such a requirement. In this short paper, some considerations about the relationship between nanotechnologies and sensors are introduced and discussed.