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Interesting stuff... don't ya just love popular science mag?!
Nanotechnology (this is for you Corbs :-D)
In basic terms, nanotechnology is the purposeful arrangement of atoms and molecules at an extremely small level to enable us to make products lighter, stronger, smarter, less expensive, cleaner and more precise (actionbioscience.org). Nanotechnology covers many areas of research focusing on objects that are measured in nanometers. A nanometer (nm) is a billionth of a meter, or a millionth of a millimeter (sciencehowstuffworks.com).
Today, manufactured products are engineered from rearranged atoms. With nanotechnology we will be able to improve transportation, and develop extremely small computers that can store more than a hundred billion bytes in the volume of the size of a sugar cube (actionbioscience.org).
We will be able to build military applications that pack atoms into the size of a bullet. This will enable the bullet to communicate with tracking systems to allow for more precise targeting and control. Weapons with the ability to precisely target using computer power will modify the manner in which we fight wars.
Additionally, nanotechnology can improve the way we practice medicine by allowing more precision to heal at the molecular and cellular level that get to the origins of disease and chronic conditions (actionbioscience.org). Further, it is theorized nanotechnology will enable us to create “medical nanobots, made up of a few molecules and controlled by a nanocomputer or ultrasound. These nanobots will be used to manipulate other molecules, providing the ability to destroy cholesterol molecules in arteries, destroy cancer cells or construct nerve tissue atom by atom to help end paralysis” (futurist.com).
Automobiles, airplanes and even space shuttles could change dramatically in how they are structured by “bonding a molecule with a nanoparticle, or single atom, to form tubular fibers, called nanotubes. When the nanotubes are fused together, they can act as metal that is 100 times the strength and four times lighter than steel” (futurist.com).
Nanobots could be used to clean up the environment, such as oil spills to make the spill harmless. Taking the nanobots and creating fingers 50,000 times as thin as a human hair could accomplish this task (futurist.com).
As millions of atoms are fused together by nanomachines, a specific product can be produced. There are three steps to reaching the goal of manipulating atoms individually to place them in a configuration to produce a desired composition.
First, scientists need the ability to maneuver individual atoms. They will need to develop a way to capture single atoms and place then in specific positions.
Secondly, nanoscopic machines would need to be designed and developed to program the ability to manipulate molecules and atoms automatically.
Trillions of assemblers will be necessary to develop products in a viable time frame” (sciencehowstuffworks.com).
Thirdly, these assemblers, called nanomachines will need to be programmed to duplicate more assemblers in order to build products.
Trillions of assemblers and replicators will fill an area smaller than a cubic millimeter and will be too small for the human eye to see (sciencehowstuffworks.com). This technology will act as automatic hands to construct products and will eventually replace the manner in which we create products today. Nanotechnology will have the ability to greatly decrease the cost to manufacture products, enabling consumer products to become stronger, less expensive and more abundant.
In January 2000, President Bill Clinton authorized a $227 million investment in nanotechnology research and development, which included a major initiative called the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI). This initiative nearly doubled America’s 2000 budget investment in nanotechnology and doubled the investment to $497 million for the 2001 national budget. In a written statement, the White House commented, that ‘nanotechnology is the new frontier and its potential impact is compelling’” (sciencehowstuffworks.com).
Approximately 70 percent of this new funding will be utilized at the university research level. The funding will also support projects for multiple government agencies such as the National Science Foundation, the Department of Defense, the Department of Energy, the National Institutes of Health, NASA, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
In the next fifty years, machines will become so much smaller than they are today with the use of nanotechnology. We are already marching to this goal. Scientists theorize we are only a few decades away from achieving this objective (sciencehowstuffworks.com).
Although it is expected that nanotechnology could take well over twenty years to carry out, this new technology could produce a new industrial revolution like we have never seen. Nanotechnology is expected to govern the manner in which everything is made and will touch on various industries such as automobile manufacturing, medicine, and computer development.
The impacts to this new technology will be astronomical. The first products to be made by nanomachines are expected to produce stronger fibers. This means that eventually we could replicate most anything including diamonds, water, and food, which suggests the elimination of famine because machines will be produced to engineer foods to feed the starving populations in the world.
The manner in which we produce computers today will be vastly different because nanotechnology will provide the ability to immeasurably reduce the size of microprocessors and transistors, and molecular computers will have the ability to store information down to the “size of trillions of bytes in a structure the size of a sugar cube” (sciencehowstuffworks.com).
Perhaps the most focused area of nanotechnlogy emergence will be in the medical industry where “patients will drink fluids containing nanobots programmed to attack and reconstruct the molecular structure of cancer cells and viruses that render them harmless” (sciencehowstuffworks.com). Scientists even theorize that nanotechnology will have the ability to drive backwards the process in which humans age. Further, it is speculated that this technology will provide the ability for surgeons to conduct cosmetic surgery utilizing atoms to rearrange a person’s physical features.
Additionally, nanotechnology has the aptitude to improve our environment by completely removing contaminants from our water sources. Less waste and pollution could be the end result of using nanomachines. Our dependence on oil could vastly change because nanomachines could completely eliminate the need to drill for oil thereby creating a different way to produce energy products.
In summary, nanotechnology could vastly reshape and change how we manufacture products, practice medicine, produce new energy sources, and develop ways to protect us more efficiently in times of war. However, it may not come without consequences. The mere thought of how a person’s face could be reshaped using this technology could produce a whole new emergence of identity theft or worse. It will be like nothing we have experienced today. People could have their bodies made over to look like famous personalities or even key political officials that have evil or harmful intentions. Smart weapons could be our undoing. Should they get into the hands of the wrong people like terrorists or any opposing foe, this could spell disaster for the world.
Take the explosion of the Internet for example.
With all the benefits and immediate access to information, it has also opened the floodgates for those with bad intentions to wreak havoc around the world such as music piracy, email viruses, identity theft, and child pedophilia. With the great invention of the Internet, no one thought about the possible ramifications it could cause. The same goes for nanotechnology. There are ramifications to this concept that could exponentially have a negative effect upon the human race, and the world order, as we know it. It is incumbent upon our scientists and researchers to examine this facet, as nanotechnology is being designed and developed, so that we, as a population, can feel safe with the knowledge that this new emerging technology will be safe.
References
Bosner, K. How nanotechnology will work.
http://science.howstuffworks.com/nanotechnology.htm
Futurist.com. Nanotechnology: science of small things.
http://www.futurist.com/portal/science/
science_wildcard_nanotech.htm
Merkle, R.C. Nanotechnology: It’s a small, small, small, small world.
http://www.actionbioscience.org/newfrontiers/merkle.htm
Nanotechnology (this is for you Corbs :-D)
In basic terms, nanotechnology is the purposeful arrangement of atoms and molecules at an extremely small level to enable us to make products lighter, stronger, smarter, less expensive, cleaner and more precise (actionbioscience.org). Nanotechnology covers many areas of research focusing on objects that are measured in nanometers. A nanometer (nm) is a billionth of a meter, or a millionth of a millimeter (sciencehowstuffworks.com).
Today, manufactured products are engineered from rearranged atoms. With nanotechnology we will be able to improve transportation, and develop extremely small computers that can store more than a hundred billion bytes in the volume of the size of a sugar cube (actionbioscience.org).
We will be able to build military applications that pack atoms into the size of a bullet. This will enable the bullet to communicate with tracking systems to allow for more precise targeting and control. Weapons with the ability to precisely target using computer power will modify the manner in which we fight wars.
Additionally, nanotechnology can improve the way we practice medicine by allowing more precision to heal at the molecular and cellular level that get to the origins of disease and chronic conditions (actionbioscience.org). Further, it is theorized nanotechnology will enable us to create “medical nanobots, made up of a few molecules and controlled by a nanocomputer or ultrasound. These nanobots will be used to manipulate other molecules, providing the ability to destroy cholesterol molecules in arteries, destroy cancer cells or construct nerve tissue atom by atom to help end paralysis” (futurist.com).
Automobiles, airplanes and even space shuttles could change dramatically in how they are structured by “bonding a molecule with a nanoparticle, or single atom, to form tubular fibers, called nanotubes. When the nanotubes are fused together, they can act as metal that is 100 times the strength and four times lighter than steel” (futurist.com).
Nanobots could be used to clean up the environment, such as oil spills to make the spill harmless. Taking the nanobots and creating fingers 50,000 times as thin as a human hair could accomplish this task (futurist.com).
As millions of atoms are fused together by nanomachines, a specific product can be produced. There are three steps to reaching the goal of manipulating atoms individually to place them in a configuration to produce a desired composition.
First, scientists need the ability to maneuver individual atoms. They will need to develop a way to capture single atoms and place then in specific positions.
Secondly, nanoscopic machines would need to be designed and developed to program the ability to manipulate molecules and atoms automatically.
Trillions of assemblers will be necessary to develop products in a viable time frame” (sciencehowstuffworks.com).
Thirdly, these assemblers, called nanomachines will need to be programmed to duplicate more assemblers in order to build products.
Trillions of assemblers and replicators will fill an area smaller than a cubic millimeter and will be too small for the human eye to see (sciencehowstuffworks.com). This technology will act as automatic hands to construct products and will eventually replace the manner in which we create products today. Nanotechnology will have the ability to greatly decrease the cost to manufacture products, enabling consumer products to become stronger, less expensive and more abundant.
In January 2000, President Bill Clinton authorized a $227 million investment in nanotechnology research and development, which included a major initiative called the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI). This initiative nearly doubled America’s 2000 budget investment in nanotechnology and doubled the investment to $497 million for the 2001 national budget. In a written statement, the White House commented, that ‘nanotechnology is the new frontier and its potential impact is compelling’” (sciencehowstuffworks.com).
Approximately 70 percent of this new funding will be utilized at the university research level. The funding will also support projects for multiple government agencies such as the National Science Foundation, the Department of Defense, the Department of Energy, the National Institutes of Health, NASA, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
In the next fifty years, machines will become so much smaller than they are today with the use of nanotechnology. We are already marching to this goal. Scientists theorize we are only a few decades away from achieving this objective (sciencehowstuffworks.com).
Although it is expected that nanotechnology could take well over twenty years to carry out, this new technology could produce a new industrial revolution like we have never seen. Nanotechnology is expected to govern the manner in which everything is made and will touch on various industries such as automobile manufacturing, medicine, and computer development.
The impacts to this new technology will be astronomical. The first products to be made by nanomachines are expected to produce stronger fibers. This means that eventually we could replicate most anything including diamonds, water, and food, which suggests the elimination of famine because machines will be produced to engineer foods to feed the starving populations in the world.
The manner in which we produce computers today will be vastly different because nanotechnology will provide the ability to immeasurably reduce the size of microprocessors and transistors, and molecular computers will have the ability to store information down to the “size of trillions of bytes in a structure the size of a sugar cube” (sciencehowstuffworks.com).
Perhaps the most focused area of nanotechnlogy emergence will be in the medical industry where “patients will drink fluids containing nanobots programmed to attack and reconstruct the molecular structure of cancer cells and viruses that render them harmless” (sciencehowstuffworks.com). Scientists even theorize that nanotechnology will have the ability to drive backwards the process in which humans age. Further, it is speculated that this technology will provide the ability for surgeons to conduct cosmetic surgery utilizing atoms to rearrange a person’s physical features.
Additionally, nanotechnology has the aptitude to improve our environment by completely removing contaminants from our water sources. Less waste and pollution could be the end result of using nanomachines. Our dependence on oil could vastly change because nanomachines could completely eliminate the need to drill for oil thereby creating a different way to produce energy products.
In summary, nanotechnology could vastly reshape and change how we manufacture products, practice medicine, produce new energy sources, and develop ways to protect us more efficiently in times of war. However, it may not come without consequences. The mere thought of how a person’s face could be reshaped using this technology could produce a whole new emergence of identity theft or worse. It will be like nothing we have experienced today. People could have their bodies made over to look like famous personalities or even key political officials that have evil or harmful intentions. Smart weapons could be our undoing. Should they get into the hands of the wrong people like terrorists or any opposing foe, this could spell disaster for the world.
Take the explosion of the Internet for example.
With all the benefits and immediate access to information, it has also opened the floodgates for those with bad intentions to wreak havoc around the world such as music piracy, email viruses, identity theft, and child pedophilia. With the great invention of the Internet, no one thought about the possible ramifications it could cause. The same goes for nanotechnology. There are ramifications to this concept that could exponentially have a negative effect upon the human race, and the world order, as we know it. It is incumbent upon our scientists and researchers to examine this facet, as nanotechnology is being designed and developed, so that we, as a population, can feel safe with the knowledge that this new emerging technology will be safe.
References
Bosner, K. How nanotechnology will work.
http://science.howstuffworks.com/nanotechnology.htm
Futurist.com. Nanotechnology: science of small things.
http://www.futurist.com/portal/science/
science_wildcard_nanotech.htm
Merkle, R.C. Nanotechnology: It’s a small, small, small, small world.
http://www.actionbioscience.org/newfrontiers/merkle.htm