NANOTECHNOLOGY
THE SCIENCE
· Nanotechnology is
the science of tomorrow
Modern computers are made by reducing the design of a microchip thousands of times through a camera, resulting in the smallest components being about 2 mm across the size of bacteria. To nanotechnologists, however, these are gigantic structures. The ‘nano’ in nanotechnology refers to a nano-meter or a thousand millionth of a meter. Nanotechnology involves moving single atoms and crating molecular machines thousands of times smaller than human cells and the smallest microchip.
· What nanotechnology
aims to achieve in future
The aim of nanotechnology is to create new atomic structures consistent with the laws of science, using the smallest and most precise tools ever created. Nanomachines are so tiny that trillions of them would occupy a space equivalent to the size of a pinhead. Because this new science deals with matter of an atomic level, production costs are very low and raw materials go a long way. Nanotechnology also aims to develop tiny devices that nanotechnology will replace current manufacturing technology.
APPLICATIONS
· The rise of the
truly supercomputer
Nanotechnology will launch a new era of computational capacity, where a personal computer could have as many as a trillion transistors with the current CPU’s (Central Processing Unit) power in each transistor. One observer says that the future of computing is having a “supercomputer behind every pixel on your screen”. The speed of nanomachines could be in the region of a billion cycles per second, making machines much more productive. Also, nanotechnology will probably lead to much cheaper computers than those produced by conventional technology.
· Electronic devices
await nano-revolution
Linked nanotubes, microscopic tubes usually made up of C60 (60 carbon molecules), nitrogen and boron, could be used in a nanocomputer system in a way similar to the neuron links in human brains. Special C60 tips for scanning probe microscopes (SPM) which would be used to engrave features onto a silicon surface are being developed be NASA. Called nonotube lithography, it will be used to create minute semiconductors which will revolutionize DNA/ enzyme techniques and diamonds for storing data.
NANOMEDICINE
· Disease may be
stopped in its tracks
Nanomedicine is a new science which aims to produce tiny internal robots to check on our bodies, looking for viruses and bacteria and destroying them on site. Others could scan our cells for degenerative changes and replace damaged components. This technology may become a realty by 2030.
· Machines that are able
to replicate themselves
Nanotechnology modules would be made of familiar atoms- including oxygen and carbon, silicon and iron, which are all abundant in the human body. Scientists plan to make nanotechnology devices that could reproduce themselves where recessary.
