For most stimuli, the fraction of journal publications and the fractions of patent publications are similar, implying similar proportions of exploratory and commercial interest (Figure ). Chemical sensors (those designed to detect small molecules or elements primarily in nonbiological contexts) form the largest fraction of publications, followed by biological sensors (sensors functioning in biological systems detecting either small molecules, proteins, or subcellular or cellular entities), physical sensors (sensors detecting mechanical forces such as pressure or force), and electromagnetic sensors (sensors for detecting electrical or magnetic forces). Chemical stimuli are likely the easiest stimuli to model and thus for which to design detection methods. While quantum effects are useful on the nanoscale, the relative size of analytes and features for nanoscale sensors is large, making behavior at larger scales more predictive of sensor behavior. The size of biological analytes may be comparable to the feature sizes in sensors, making them less predictable, while methods for detecting and transducing forces on small scale may be more difficult to determine from behavior at macroscopic scales.