Nanotechnology

Nanotechnology refers to the study of controlling matter on an atomic and molecular scale. The technology refers to technology at a very minute scale. To be precise: “The prefix ‘nano’ means one billionth. One nanometre (abbreviated as 1nm) is 1/1,000,000,000 of a meter, which is close to 1/1,000,000,000 of a yard.” (Ratner 2003, p5)

Generally nanotechnology deals with structures of the size 100 nm or smaller in at least one dimension, and involves developing materials or devices within that size. Nanotechnology is very diverse, and revolves around the application these structures into useful devices (Appendix 4). There has been much dispute on the future implications of nanotechnology. Nanotechnology has the potential to create many new materials and devices with a vast range of applications, such as in electronics, medicine, weapons and energy supply. With these potentials, nanotechnology raises many issues and concerns about the toxic and environmental impact to the world.

 

 

History of Development

The early theorisation of nanotechnology can be traced back to the 1600s as Storrs Hall writes: “in 1633, around the time Galileo was being condemned by the church, Rene Descartes wrote a book called De Homine in which he tried to explain some of the phenomena of the human body in mechanistic terms.” (2005, p13). However it was not until 1825 that a more concrete step forward was made in.
“Friedrich Wohler produced an inert solid from a mixture of aqueous hydrogen cyanide and ammonia, making the same chemical in different ways from cyanide and ammonia salts. By 1828 he had managed to show that his compound was chemically identical to urea, an organic compound found in urine” (Storrs Hal 2005, p13).

    From this point to the twentieth century, much progress was made and by 1944 Erwin Schrodinger wrote What Is Life? This paper suggested that all phenomena of life at the cellular level could be part of an unbroken chain of explanation that goes all the way to quantum mechanics. This was soon followed nine years later by the discovery of DNA and this is where the real start of Nanotechnology takes its place.  With the data now in place for the genetic code scientists can tell what any given piece of DNA the blueprint is for. With the understanding of the abilities of biotechnology and biology individually the theory of nanotechnology was slowly realised with the question “what if it were possible to combine the capabilities of the biological mechanisms with those of conventional ones?” (Storrs Hall 2005, p15).

   The idea of nanotechnology was born in 1959 when physicist Richard Feynman gave a lecture to the American Physical Society called "There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom." The focus of his speech was about the field of miniaturisation; exploring the idea of building things at the atomic and molecular scale; and how he believed man would create increasingly smaller, powerful devices.  

   K. Eric Drexler became interested in the idea that much of what went on inside a cell was not so different, in principle, from what engineers did at the macroscopic level. He expanded on this by offering that once control of the molecular machinery was gained, it would be possible to use them in the way that normal sized machines were used to make materials, structures and tools.

“Drexler wrote these ideas in a scientific paper and published it in 1981, under the title, ‘Molecular Engineering: An Approach to the Development of General Capabilities for Molecular Manipulation.’ “(Storrs Hall 2005, p17).

   In 1987, K. Eric Drexler went on to write "Engines of Creation" and introduced the term nanotechnology. This book predicted sub atomic replicating units able to build skyscrapers or spaceships. The book also mentions cell repair and lightweight clothing. By the mid 90s nanotechnology was inserted into the wider population with the platform of science fiction (see below) and with the realisation that some existing sciences (chemistry, biology, etc) already fell into the category of nanotechnology: “By the turn of the century, computer chips had features small enough that they could be reasonably measured in nm” (Storrs Hall 2005, p18)

   Scientific research has really expanded over the last decade.  More than 13,000 patents registered with the U.S. Patent Office have the word "nano" in them. More recently, scientists working on the nanoscale have created a multitude of components and devices. Unknowingly, people have made use of some unusual materials at the nanoscale for years. Tiny particles of gold for example, can appear red or green - a property that has been used to colour stained glass windows. Nanotechnology is found elsewhere today in products ranging from pigments in sunscreens and lipsticks to MRI.

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