Nanotechnology and its Significance

Nanotechnology's versatility is evidenced by the numerous terms with the nano prefix, such as nanomaterials, nanomachines, nanoparticles, nanomedicine, nanoelectronics and nanorobots among others. Let us look at some background.

There are two kinds of stuff in our world.

• Elements like gold, oxygen and carbon
• Compounds like food, water and timber

Compounds are made with atoms of different elements, e.g. water is a compound of oxygen and hydrogen atoms.

Atoms are the smallest pieces we get when elements are split into smaller and smaller pieces. Similarly split, compounds end up as molecules.

Molecules are made by assembling atoms of different elements in different ways, a task done by nature now. Nanotechnology seeks to give us the power of selecting and assembling atoms in our own ways.

In theory, we can make our food and drink, clothes, building materials and any other thing or trinket using nanotechnology.

Nanotechnology Resources

Nanotechnology resources are plenty on the Web. The following are some high value resources:

How Nanotechnology Works
Center for Responsible Nanotechnology

Nanotechnology Applications in the Market

Molecular engineering that assembles molecules from atoms is still sci-fi; but a number of nanoparticle-using products are already available. Nanoparticles are materials less than 100 nanometers in size. A nanometer is one-billionth of a meter.

• Nanoparticles of zinc or titanium oxide go into sunscreens that are invisible on the skin
• Self-cleaning glass uses a coating of nanoparticles that break down dirt and washes it off next time some water falls on the glass
• Silver nanoparticles used in bandages make it anti-bacterial by blocking the respiration of microbial cells in wounds
• Bactericides mixed with nano-sized oil drops stick to bacteria in water bodies like pools and disinfect them
• Very light tennis rackets that use carbon nanotubes are many times stronger than steel

Nanomaterials like carbon nanotubes and nanowires have appeared in the market. Nanowires can theoretically be used to build tiny transistors for computer chips. Carbon naotubes can be made to be hundreds of times stronger than steel while being six times lighter.

Nanomedicine and Other Applications of Nanotechnology

Nanoscience is still in its infancy and we cannot really foresee the variety of future applications it can be put to.

At nanoscale, many things become possible that are impossible under normal conditions. Nanobots can traverse our bloodstreams and deliver medicines at the precisely needed locations. Nanosurgeons can remove just the cancerous cells without affecting surrounding tissue.

Nanotechnology is considered a general purpose technology that will affect consumer products, electronic, agriculture, transport and other industries. The very factories that produce the products could be nanofactories invisible to the eye, some of which will be making other copies of themselves.

The possibilities are immense, and so are likely economic, social, environmental and military implications in addition to technological ones.