What is it exactly? The branch of technology that deals with tolerances less than 100 nanometers, especially in the manipulation of individual atoms and molecules. Steady progress control of structure of matter, in a fine scale, with atomic precision.
A desktop computer can be called nanotechnology by present day definitions. We can ultimately build (already designed, conservatively) a computer equal to present day CPU’s that are the size of one cubic micron. One cubic micron is 1/1000th the size of one of the cells in your body.
There remains a great deal of confusion about just what nanotechnology is, both among the ordinary people whose lives will be changed by the science, and among the policymakers who wittingly or unwittingly will help steer its course. Much of the confusion comes from the name “nanotechnology”, which is applied to two different things-that is, to two distinct but related fields of research, one with the potential to improve today’s world, the other with the potential to utterly remake or even destroy it. The meaning that nanotechnology holds for our future depends on which definition of the word “nanotechnology” pans out.
Current Applications
The pathway is open for atomically precise things to be built. We have greater ability and understanding. Materials are stronger for design and fabrication. The task could be described by looking at a pile of dust and trying to get it to form itself into a life-sized statue.
Medicine: Nanotechnology will change the very foundations of cancer diagnosis, treatment and prevention by creating new ways to deliver cancer prevention agents, creating implantable molecular sensors and developing “smart” injectable agents. Medicine can be administered directly into the blood cells with nanotech, see picture below.
Health, Environment/Energy: Water can be improved with nanotechnology. Nanoparticles can be used to create filters that remove industrial water pollution, kill bacteria and viruses, and absorb radioactive particles.
Scientists can use nanot technology to clean up the thinning ozone layer and clean air by releasing to trap dirt and polution. They can also clean up oil spills in the ocean.
National Defense: Sensor networks that detect chemical, biological or radiological materials could be built into cargo containers with the ability to communicate verified information to a control sensor for immediate report and action.
Smart paint, that resists corrosion and rust by adding environmentally compliant nanomaterials that can be used on aircraft and spacecraft bodies and engines. For many other military uses of nanotechnology see: http://crnano.typepad.com/crnblog/2005/03/military_uses_o.html
Industry & Manufacturing: Nanotechnology allows for the design of desktop computers featuring a billion processors, making them billions of times faster than those of today. Manufactured materials can be made that are 100 times stronger than steel, yet more lightweight than is currently possible.
Potential is unlimited, from 3D printing to biomedical research for early detection of cancer, and everything in between. There has been some science looking into affordable and renewable energy sources, along with means to reduce energy consumption and lessen toxicity burdens on the environment.
Advantages: less expensive, (electricity) high productivity, Light weight, diverse and practical.
History: Started 100 years ago in the form of synthetic molecules. Progress has been made to understand the process required and with new techniques: quantum mechanics, chemistry and understanding of what can be done with molecular biology/machinery.
In 1959, Richard Feynman, Theoretical Physicist, was noted as the first man to talk about nanotechnology machinery. The name of the lecture: “Tiny Machines” gave scientists some idea of how small it really is. “What I want to talk about”, Feynman said, “is the problem of manipulating and controlling things on a small scale”. Feynman described how the entire Encyclopedia Britannica could be written on the head of a pin, and how all the world’s books could fit in a pamphlet. Such remarkable reductions could be done as “a simple reproduction of the original pictures, engravings, and everything else on a small scale without loss of resolution”. Yet it was possible to get smaller still if you converted all the world’s books into an efficient computer code instead of just reduced pictures, you could store “all the information that man has carefully accumulated in all the books in the world… in a cube of material one two hundredth of an inch wide-which is the barest piece of dust that can be made out by the human eye. So there is plenty of room at the bottom!” He declared that “the principles of physics, as far as I can see, do not speak against the possibility of maneuvering things atom by atom” – in fact, Feynman saw atomic manipulation as inevitable, “a development which I think cannot be avoided.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Feynman
In 1981, Eric Drexler, PhD, published a paper coining the term nanotechnology, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences established fundamental principles of molecular design, protein engineering and productive nanosystems. His book the Engines of Creation, 1986, introducing the nature, promise and dangers of advanced nanotech. He continues to study what could be possible.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K._Eric_Drexler
Since 2000, awareness of nanotechnology among environmental activists, regulators, and lawmakers has been on the rise. Environmental organizations have expressed fears about the potential ecological and health consequences of mainstream nanotechnology, and have called for increased research into safety of nanoparticles. The Drexler version of advanced nanotechnology has also been the subject of public fear, largely centered on the notion that nanotechnology could spiral out of control and convert all life on Earth into ”gray goo.” Drexler, who originally introduced this apocalyptic prospect in “Engines or Creation”, has since repeatedly distanced himself from it-but gray goo retains its grip on the public imagination. There are other serious reasons to be worried about the development of nanotechnology, including the risk of severe economic disruption; the possibly dehumanizing effects of using nanotechnology on ourselves; and the potential criminal, military, or terrorist use of advanced nanotechnology. A few organizations are paying full-time attention to these concerns, including the Foresight Institute (established in 1986) and the Center for Responsible Nanotechnology (established in 2002). Public policy discussions have barely begun to reflect those long-term concerns. In 2000, the NNI was established to coordinate the government’s work in nanotechnology; soon, federal spending on nanotechnology is scheduled to cross the $1 billion-per-year mark. Along with the increased funding has come a government commitment to investigate the “social, economic, health, and environmental implications” of nanotechnology. As public interest continues to grow, and as scientific progress make advanced nanotechnology seem ever more attainable, policymakers are likely to increasingly turn their attentions to the promise and peril of nanotechnology.
The branch of technology that deals with tolerances less than 100 nanometers, especially in the manipulation of individual atoms and molecules. Steady progress control of structure of matter, in a fine scale, with atomic precision.
A desktop computer can be called nanotechnology by present day definitions. We can ultimately build (already designed, conservatively) a computer equal to present day CPU’s that are the size of one cubic micron. One cubic micron is 1/1000th the size of one of the cells in your body.
There remains a great deal of confusion about just what nanotechnology is, both among the ordinary people whose lives will be changed by the science, and among the policymakers who wittingly or unwittingly will help steer its course. Much of the confusion comes from the name “nanotechnology”, which is applied to two different things-that is, to two distinct but related fields of research, one with the potential to improve today’s world, the other with the potential to utterly remake or even destroy it. The meaning that nanotechnology holds for our future depends on which definition of the word “nanotechnology” pans out.
Current Applications
The pathway is open for atomically precise things to be built. We have greater ability and understanding. Materials are stronger for design and fabrication. The task could be described by looking at a pile of dust and trying to get it to form itself into a life-sized statue.
Medicine: Nanotechnology will change the very foundations of cancer diagnosis, treatment and prevention by creating new ways to deliver cancer prevention agents, creating implantable molecular sensors and developing “smart” injectable agents. Medicine can be administered directly into the blood cells with nanotech, see picture below.
Health, Environment/Energy: Water can be improved with nanotechnology. Nanoparticles can be used to create filters that remove industrial water pollution, kill bacteria and viruses, and absorb radioactive particles.
Scientists can use nanot technology to clean up the thinning ozone layer and clean air by releasing to trap dirt and polution. They can also clean up oil spills in the ocean.
National Defense: Sensor networks that detect chemical, biological or radiological materials could be built into cargo containers with the ability to communicate verified information to a control sensor for immediate report and action.
Smart paint, that resists corrosion and rust by adding environmentally compliant nanomaterials that can be used on aircraft and spacecraft bodies and engines. For many other military uses of nanotechnology see: http://crnano.typepad.com/crnblog/2005/03/military_uses_o.html
Industry & Manufacturing:
Nanotechnology allows for the design of desktop computers featuring a billion processors, making them billions of times faster than those of today. Manufactured materials can be made that are 100 times stronger than steel, yet more lightweight than is currently possible.
Potential is unlimited, from 3D printing to biomedical research for early detection of cancer, and everything in between. There has been some science looking into affordable and renewable energy sources, along with means to reduce energy consumption and lessen toxicity burdens on the environment.
Advantages: less expensive, (electricity) high productivity, Light weight, diverse and practical.
To learn more about this complex field of study go to:
https://www.dcccd.edu/cd/dcc/mech/nanotech/pages/links.aspxand http://www.understandingnano.com/medicine.html
History: Started 100 years ago in the form of synthetic molecules. Progress has been made to understand the process required and with new techniques: quantum mechanics, chemistry and understanding of what can be done with molecular biology/machinery.
In 1959, Richard Feynman, Theoretical Physicist, was noted as the first man to talk about nanotechnology machinery. The name of the lecture: “Tiny Machines” gave scientists some idea of how small it really is. “What I want to talk about”, Feynman said, “is the problem of manipulating and controlling things on a small scale”. Feynman described how the entire Encyclopedia Britannica could be written on the head of a pin, and how all the world’s books could fit in a pamphlet. Such remarkable reductions could be done as “a simple reproduction of the original pictures, engravings, and everything else on a small scale without loss of resolution”. Yet it was possible to get smaller still if you converted all the world’s books into an efficient computer code instead of just reduced pictures, you could store “all the information that man has carefully accumulated in all the books in the world… in a cube of material one two hundredth of an inch wide-which is the barest piece of dust that can be made out by the human eye. So there is plenty of room at the bottom!” He declared that “the principles of physics, as far as I can see, do not speak against the possibility of maneuvering things atom by atom” – in fact, Feynman saw atomic manipulation as inevitable, “a development which I think cannot be avoided.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Feynman
In 1981, Eric Drexler, PhD, published a paper coining the term nanotechnology, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences established fundamental principles of molecular design, protein engineering and productive nanosystems. His book the Engines of Creation, 1986, introducing the nature, promise and dangers of advanced nanotech. He continues to study what could be possible. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K._Eric_Drexler
Since 2000, awareness of nanotechnology among environmental activists, regulators, and lawmakers has been on the rise. Environmental organizations have expressed fears about the potential ecological and health consequences of mainstream nanotechnology, and have called for increased research into safety of nanoparticles. The Drexler version of advanced nanotechnology has also been the subject of public fear, largely centered on the notion that nanotechnology could spiral out of control and convert all life on Earth into ”gray goo.” Drexler, who originally introduced this apocalyptic prospect in “Engines or Creation”, has since repeatedly distanced himself from it-but gray goo retains its grip on the public imagination. There are other serious reasons to be worried about the development of nanotechnology, including the risk of severe economic disruption; the possibly dehumanizing effects of using nanotechnology on ourselves; and the potential criminal, military, or terrorist use of advanced nanotechnology. A few organizations are paying full-time attention to these concerns, including the Foresight Institute (established in 1986) and the Center for Responsible Nanotechnology (established in 2002). Public policy discussions have barely begun to reflect those long-term concerns. In 2000, the NNI was established to coordinate the government’s work in nanotechnology; soon, federal spending on nanotechnology is scheduled to cross the $1 billion-per-year mark. Along with the increased funding has come a government commitment to investigate the “social, economic, health, and environmental implications” of nanotechnology. As public interest continues to grow, and as scientific progress make advanced nanotechnology seem ever more attainable, policymakers are likely to increasingly turn their attentions to the promise and peril of nanotechnology.