Nanotechnology

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Nanotechnology

• By Charles Peterson

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What is Nanotechnology?

• Nano It is a SI unit to denote one billionth
• Why nano?
• Nano is the size of an typical atom
• Nanotechnology has also become a blanket term for
  research that is in dimensions that are less than
  1,000 nanometers
• Nanotechnology is the future manufacture of
  molecular size machines and devices

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Forefathers of Nanotechnology

• First there was Feynman in 1959 in a classical
  talk said The principles of physics, as far as I
  can see, do not speak against the possibility of
  maneuvering things atom by atom
• Eric Drexler with his 1985 book Engines of
  Creation inspired many, myself included, to go
  into the science fields and become part of this
  new field. He is also the founder of the
  Foresight Institute.
• Robert Freitas is the author of the reference set
  Nanomedicine and is considered the foremost
  expert on the application of nanotech to
  medicine.
• Ralph Merkle is an author of many papers on
  nanotechnology and founder of the Nanotechnology
  group at Xerox PARC.

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The Possibilities of Nanotechnology

• A lot of the possibilities of nanotechnology may
  seem sci-fi but much of it is based on sound
  science.
• The main area in nanotechnology that gets the
  most attention is that of medicine and biology.
• Bacteria and even viruses could be destroyed
  using nanoprobes within a persons body to be a
  kind of second immune defense.
• Cryogenics is even banking on the usage of
  nanomachines that could go in and repair tissue
  that had been destroyed from the freezing
  process.
• Even just nanosensors that would monitor a
  persons health would be greatly beneficial

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• Respirocytes are Mechanical Artificial Red Cells
  designed by Robert Freitas which could one day
  allow divers to stay under water without air for
  hours, could be used on the battle field against
  deadly gases, and other uses.
• Computers one day soon will have to fully rely on
  nanoscale manufacture to advance. And may even
  have silicon chips be replaced by the nanoscale
  carbon tubes as a more effective building block
  for the computers chips
• Even basic machining and engineering would be
  changed. As Drexler envisions it you could take a
  vat of raw materials and add nanomachines that
  are preprogrammed to build a certain item then
  just wait. A car, plane, etc with little or no
  faults to it.

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Areas of Nanoscale Research of Importance

• Many different science fields start to converge
  when you come down the nanoscale. Physics,
  chemistry, biology, engineering, and
  computational are all greatly important in
  bringing about the possibility of nanoassemblers
  and machines.
• Cellular biology and biochemistry for example
  has natural nanomachinery, proteins and viruses
  are the best choices, for understanding the
  complexity of functionality molecular machines.

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Sources of Information on Nanotechnology

• The magazine Scientific America has had many
  topics of nanotech related articles
• www.foresight.org
• nanodot.org
• www.nanozine.com