Nanotechnology

By: Hashem zaitooniEnglish-102

Instructor: Mr. Pollard. J

Table of contents

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i. Introduction 3

A.Definitions 4B.How Small is Nano? 4C.why Nanotechnology is so special? 5D.What to Discuss about Nano? 6

ii. Nanotechnology Applications 7iii. Nano Institutions and Companies 9iv. The Future of Nanotechnology 10v. Ethical, Environmental, &Economical Issues and Risks11

vi. Conclusion 12vii. WORKS CITED 13

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Introduction:

“There’s a Plenty of Room at the Bottom”. A lecture by physicist Richard Feynman in 1959 entitled with the previous expression is often cited as the first spark of Nano-science (Nano.gov). In addition, the term “Nanotechnology” first appeared in the book “Engines of Creation” written by futurist K. Eric Drexler in 1986. Today, statistics showed that the word “Nano” was used more than 13,000 times in patents officially registered with the U.S. Patent Office (Patent and Trademark Office(.

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Fig(2): Share of patents by nanotechnology sub-areas, 1995-2005 Source: OECD Patent database

Fig (1): Physicist Richard Feynman while giving his lecture “There’s a Plenty of Room at the Bottom”

A. Definitions:

There is some sort of difficulty in defining Nano-technology especially for general public. However, one famous definition states that Nano-technology is the science and engineering resulting from manipulation of matter’s most basic building blocks “atoms and molecules” (Hunt-Mehta/20). In brief, it is all about modifying internal structures of materials in an extremely small scale - Nano scale - to produce some novel/superior properties.

B. How small is Nano?!

In fact, imagining how small Nano scale is, is so hard. However, to illustrate it, imagine that one single human hair is about 100,000 Nano meters in diameter. In addition, it is good to know that one nanometer is about as long as your fingernail grows in one second. Therefore, by simple calculation we can tell that a person’s nail grows about 90,000 Nano meters per day! (Nano.gov).

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C.why Nanotechnology is so special?!

Nowadays, it seems that Nano technology is becoming our portal to the future. To clarify, many kinds of matter can be altered using Nanotechnology to produce new materials with different properties. For instance, when manipulated by Nanotechnology, Carbon can be stronger than Steel by a factor of 100 and Gold melts at 25 ℃!. Another advantage of Nanotechnology is that it gives us a better understanding of matter’s most basic building blocks, hence, we can apply this knowledge to solve our problems with not only matter but also with industry and devices.

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D.What to Discuss about Nano?!

Nanotechnology is a very complicated field of science to comprehend even for high level chemists. Furthermore, it needs a special knowledge of the ambiguous subject of “quantum theories’’. Thus, covering all the aspects of this technology needs a lot of time and effort and will not be beneficial for general readers. However, the major sectors to be discussed when superficially investigating Nano-technology are:

1- Applications of Nanotechnology.2- The institutions and companies interested in

this field. 3- The future of this technology. 4- Nano-tech issues, concerns, and ethics.

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Nanotechnology Applications:

The most special thing about Nanotechnology is the wide range of its applications. Nevertheless, Nanotechnology is assumed to have its biggest impact on medical industry. However, one application of Nano-tech is what we can call “Nanorobots” which are used to attack cancer cells and viruses in human body. Additionally, they might be used to perform surgeries at great precision and surprisingly ‘without scars’. Moreover, these robots are used today in drug delivery inside human body in order to prevent the side effects caused by medicines throughout their journeys to the infected organs (International Journal of Surgery). Another use of Nanotechnology, is to build smaller, quicker, powerful, and more energy effective processing and other IT-based systems. Furthermore, computers provided with these processors and systems are said to be a billion times faster and a million times smaller than ordinary ones!

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Fig(4): Illustration ‘’Size of targeted drug delivery Nanorobots relative to red blood cells’’

The most basic use of Nano-tech is to build stronger, lighter, cheaper, cleaner, and water-dirt resistant materials. As a matter of fact, Carbon Nano Tubes are the toughest material ever known and it takes the first place globally in terms of thermal conductivity. Finally, nanotechnology is heavily used in water filtering. In fact, it is experimentally proved that some Nano-filters could Purify sea water with a percentage up to 90%. (watertreatmentguide.com)

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Fig (5): Carbon nanotube filter is too small to appear at this scale

Nano Institutions and Companies:

As stated above, Nano science first appeared when physicist Richard Feynman gave his famous lecture in 1959. Since then, and until 1989 there was no single company or institution interested in Nano science and technology. However, in the period between 1989-1998, four Nano-tech companies appeared which are Nano Phase Technology, Helix Energy Solutions, Zyvex, and Nano-Tex. However, in 2000 President Clinton had lunched an American-Governmental institution interested in Nano-tech called: “National Nanotechnology Initiative”. It was built to arrange the government research and development efforts in order to advance U.S competitiveness in Nano field. NNI vision-as stated in the website- is a future in which applications of Nano-tech will lead to a revolution in industry that will benefit the society (Nano.gov).

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Fig (3): NNI vision written by arranging some atoms at Nano scale

The Future of Nanotechnology:

Our future with Nano-technology is becoming more exiting and Florid! Despite the recent emergence of this field, Nano-tech applications increase rapidly as scientists conduct more research’s and it is suddenly like that the periodic table has split out into new dimensions. Manipulating sizes and shapes of atoms gives us new modified ones with thousands of probabilities, each of new properties that can be implemented to benefit humanity. As nanotechnology definitions indicate, it guarantees a phenomenal control over the materials we utilize. Such control facilitates an enormous revolution in nearly each part of our economy and industry including: medicine, defense, energy, security, …etc. (Hunt-mehta/20). Lately, it is being argued that Nano-technology will touch the life of almost everyone in the world throughout the next two decades (futureforall.org). Furthermore, this field of science enjoys a huge federal and governmental funding due to the Intense competition between countries to implement it for a better future (Hunt-Mehta/20).

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Ethical, Environmental, & Economical Issues and Risks:

Although Nano technology has the advantage of the enthusiastic media coverage, the way people look at and talk about it is changing as pundits raise their voices about Nano concerns. These concerns and side effects ranges from a social impact of lowering human performance to a phantom of ecological destruction and human ailment (Hunt-mehta/20). The reason why we should be aware of Nano side effects is the rapid scientific progress in this field which could cause a disaster if it does not undergo a full process of safety and control. One of the greatest fears that corresponds to Nano-tech is that it facilitates the construction of new powerful Nano-weapons. Furthermore, In the field of medicine, many theories anticipate that Nano-tech could make it possible for people to improve themselves physically. In particular, Nano-medicines could “theoretically” make us smarter and stronger. Moreover, it could give us super powers ranging from rapid healing to night vision. However, is that ethical?!, should we pursue such goals?!, and are we going to be humans or trans-humans when this happens? (How stuff works.com). Another aspect that we should take care about is the “Economic Upheaval” that will be caused by nanotechnology in the next decade. In fact, Nano-tech helps in manufacturing the same products

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we use today but in much more precision and at significantly lower price. However, it is not known if this approach would advance or Destroy the global economy (futureforall.org).

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Conclusion:

To sum up, as a report directed to general readers, it discussed only the basic important aspects of Nanotechnology which were: history, definitions, Nanoscale, applications, Nano-institutions, ethics & concerns, and the future of this technology. Nevertheless, Nanotechnology plays a big role in our future and at the same time it could cause serious economic and environmental problems. For this reason, governments all over the world must cooperate to establish an international Nanotechnology institutions to manage the process of Nanotechnology R&D and its applications in order to obtain the greatest results at the lowest percentage of damage.

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REFRENCES

1- "Nano." Nano. Web. 20 Dec. 2014. <http://nano.gov/>.

2- U.S Patent and Trademark Office ''Patent Full-Text Databases'' U.S Government. Web. 20 Dec. 2014.

3- Hunt, Geoffrey, and Michael Mehta. "PART 1. Introducing Nanotechnology." Nanotechnology: Risk, Ethics and Law. London: Earthscan, 2006. 20. Print.

4- Freitas, RA. "Nanotechnology, Nanomedicine and Nanosurgery." International Journal of Surgery (2005): 243-46. Print.

5- "What Is Nanofiltration?" Water Treatment Guide - Technical Database for the Water Treatment industry.Web.20Dec.2014. <http://www.watertreatmentguide.com/nanofiltration.htm>.

6- "The Future of Nanotechnology." Future for All. Web. 20 Dec. 2014.

7- Bonsor, Kevin, and Jonathan Strickland. "Nanotechnology Challenges, Risks and Ethics." HowStuffWorks. HowStuffWorks.com. Web. 20 Dec. 2014.

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