An Introduction to the Nanotechnology
“If I were asked for an area of science and engineering that will most likely produce the breakthrough of tomorrow, I would point to nanoscale science and engineering, often called simply ‘Nanotechnology’.”
è Neal Lane
Director of NSF
The word ‘NANOTECHNOLOGY’ means different to different people. For some, it conjures up images of fabulous new materials, lighter and shorter than steel. Others envision microscopic robots that clean plague from our arteries and tarter from our teeth. In the purest sense, Nanotechnology is the science of small. Very small things measured in units called nanometers, which is one-billionth of a meter. This term was originally coined by Nomo Taniguchi in 1974 in relation to the manufacture of items by mechanical methods.
Nanotechnology holds out the promise of materials of precisely specified composition and properties, which could yield structures of unprecedented strength and computers of extraordinary compactness and power. Imagine being able to cure cancer by drinking a medicine stirred into one’s favorite fruit juice. Imagine a supercomputer no bigger than a human cell. In the near future, a team of scientists will succeed in constructing the first nano-sized robot capable of self-replication. These are just a few products expected from nano technology. Scientists studying molecular nanotechnology are interested in ways in which might manipulate individual atoms and molecules to build things almost unimaginable precision.
Nanotech machined components will no longer abrade one another because they will fit together with molecular precision. Medical science will be able to create devices small enough to enter the body’s bloodstream to repair damage and treat diseases at the cellular level.
Types of Nanotechnology
The different types of nanotechnology are:-
Wet technology:
It is the study of biological systems that exist primarily in a water environment.
Dry technology:
This derives from science and physical chemistry. It mainly focuses on the fabrication of structures in Carbon (like nanotubes), silicon and other inorganic materials.
Computational Nanotechnology:
In this branch we study the modeling and simulation of complex scale structures.
Applications of Nanotechnology
Nanoparticals offer radical breakthrough in the areas including electronics, medicine and healthcare, environment and energy, biotechnology and agriculture, computation and information technology etc. We shall take a close look at a few important applications briefly:
1: Nanocomputers
2: The field of medicines
3: Space science
1: Nanocomputers:
In the computer industry, the ability to shrink the size of transistors on the silicon microprocessor will soon reach its limits. It will be necessary to create a new generation of computer components. Modular computers could contain storage devices capable of storing trillions of bytes of information in a structure the size of a sugar cube!
Molecular switches and transistors were developed in the year 1998. These breakthroughs are showing a path on which new kind of computer architecture is being developed. Currently there are two types of molecules that have been demonstrated and are proposed for use as the potential basis for the current carrying nano electronic devices. These two types of molecular backbones are:
1. Polyphenyle based chains.
2. Carbon nano tubes.
( A blue carbon nanotube wire just 10 atoms wide lies against platinum electrodes in an image magnified 120,000 times. The wire, which is 0.0000015 mm (0.0000001 in) in diameter, is an example of the type of circuitry that might be used in next-generation computer technology, such as molecular computers.)
2. Medicine:
It is intended for the treatment or the elimination of medical problems where accumulation of undesirable organic substances infers with the normal bodily function. T describes a mobile robot that can be used to seek out and destroy the unwanted tissues within human body that cannot be accessed by other means.
3. Space Science:
Some of the latest avenues being explored, that are for more in nano realm, in space science including smart materials for the hulls of spacecraft.
Some of the other areas in which nanotechnology is widely used includes- Nanofabrication, Biocomputing, Molecular computing, Optical computing, Quantum computing and so forth are for naming a few.
A New Research In This Field : New York University Scientists Advance Toward Naorobots
A team of New York University researchers has taken a major step in building a more robust, controllable machine from DNA, the genetic material living organisms. Constructed from synthetic DNA molecules, the device improves upon previously developed nano-scale DNA devices because it allows for better-controlled movement within larger DNA constructs. The researcher say that the new device may help to build the foundation for the development of sophisticated machines at a molecular scale, ultimately evolving to the development of nano-robots that might some day build new molecules, computer circuits or fight against infectious diseases.
Finally, the rapid evolution of this new science and the opportunities for its application promises that nanotechnology will become one of the dominant technology of the 21st century. It will lead to major changes in our civilization. Momentum towards this technology is fast building up as researchers and other related organizations around the globe rush to be leaders in this very exciting race. Let us waiting for this “Very small” future which is promising to benefit us all!!!
(Compiled from several sources)
