In order to understand how nanotechnology works or is intended to work, it is first necessary to actually understand the term itself. Nanotechnology refers to assembling extremely small components into useful objects called nanostructures. These in turn will be assembled to make nanomachines. It is the size of these components that is perhaps their most remarkable aspect. They are so small it is virtually impossible to imagine. The prefix nano- means one billionth so a nanometre is one billionth of a metre. If you had a collection of objects that were one nanometre wide, you could fit 100,000 of those objects across a single human hair.
The basic building blocks of the universe are atoms which themselves are smaller than nanostructures but as yet science has not discovered how to manipulate and control atoms other than through chemical reactions. If you consider atoms to be akin to cement powder, then nanostructures are akin to concrete blocks. A concrete block on its own is not of much use but if you can manipulate concrete blocks into different sizes and shapes and combine them with other concrete blocks then you can make countless useful objects from a simple straight wall to a building like the Pentagon.
Scientists and engineers from many different disciplines are experimenting with nanotechnology and their belief is that they can create nanomachines which can be useful in many areas. The microchip industry is forever trying to condense the size of chips more and more and has had remarkable success in doing this. It is sobering to think that when IBM launched its first AT PC in the early 1980’s the hard disk that accompanied the machine was physically about half the size of a shoebox and had a storage capacity of 20 megabytes whereas just thirty years later disks not much bigger than a credit card can store thousands of times more data. But there is a limitation to how small chips can be made using standard technology. The hope is that nanotechnology will be the way forward in miniaturization.
On the medical front, nanotechnology is seen as a possible way to deliver extraordinary advances in disease treatment. The vision is of creating miniature components that can be introduced into the body via the bloodstream. The components would be programmable and assigned the task of perhaps seeking out cancer cells and destroying them without causing any damage to healthy cells. But the practical application currently in this area is a long way in the future.
Of more practical interest at present is using carbon atoms to build useful products. Carbon is the most versatile of all the elements in that it can form bonds with other elements in a unique fashion and can vary its own molecular structure. Carbon’s uniqueness amongst the elements is such that an entire branch of chemistry, organic chemistry, is devoted to carbon and its compounds. It is hoped that nanotechnology could produce carbon that will be as strong as steel but a fraction of its weight.
The basic building blocks of the universe are atoms which themselves are smaller than nanostructures but as yet science has not discovered how to manipulate and control atoms other than through chemical reactions. If you consider atoms to be akin to cement powder, then nanostructures are akin to concrete blocks. A concrete block on its own is not of much use but if you can manipulate concrete blocks into different sizes and shapes and combine them with other concrete blocks then you can make countless useful objects from a simple straight wall to a building like the Pentagon.
Scientists and engineers from many different disciplines are experimenting with nanotechnology and their belief is that they can create nanomachines which can be useful in many areas. The microchip industry is forever trying to condense the size of chips more and more and has had remarkable success in doing this. It is sobering to think that when IBM launched its first AT PC in the early 1980’s the hard disk that accompanied the machine was physically about half the size of a shoebox and had a storage capacity of 20 megabytes whereas just thirty years later disks not much bigger than a credit card can store thousands of times more data. But there is a limitation to how small chips can be made using standard technology. The hope is that nanotechnology will be the way forward in miniaturization.
On the medical front, nanotechnology is seen as a possible way to deliver extraordinary advances in disease treatment. The vision is of creating miniature components that can be introduced into the body via the bloodstream. The components would be programmable and assigned the task of perhaps seeking out cancer cells and destroying them without causing any damage to healthy cells. But the practical application currently in this area is a long way in the future.
Of more practical interest at present is using carbon atoms to build useful products. Carbon is the most versatile of all the elements in that it can form bonds with other elements in a unique fashion and can vary its own molecular structure. Carbon’s uniqueness amongst the elements is such that an entire branch of chemistry, organic chemistry, is devoted to carbon and its compounds. It is hoped that nanotechnology could produce carbon that will be as strong as steel but a fraction of its weight.
