The Dawn of Nanotechnology

lawrencef (43)in #steemstem • 7 years ago (edited)

Nanotechnology

Humanity has accomplished a lot of scientific and technological advances in the last decades, but one of the most revolutionary and important ones is nanotechnology.

Nanotechnology is:

Nanotechnology ("nanotech") is manipulation of matter on an atomic, molecular, and supramolecular scale. The earliest, widespread description of nanotechnology referred to the particular technological goal of precisely manipulating atoms and molecules for fabrication of macroscale products, also now referred to as molecular nanotechnology. A more generalized description of nanotechnology was subsequently established by the National Nanotechnology Initiative, which defines nanotechnology as the manipulation of matter with at least one dimension sized from 1 to 100 nanometers.

Nanotechnology was first discussed in 1959 by the famous physicist Richard Feynman who mentioned it in his talk There's plenty of Room at the Bottom in which he proposed the directly manipulation of atoms to achieve synthesis.

Richard Phillips Feynman

This is a very broad field which includes material sciences, chemistry, solid state physics, biochemistry, biophysics, among others. It is a growing study field, and it has been estimated that it will be required in a few decades.

Nanotechnology will be the future of technology, with all its limitless applications. Applied correctly towards medicine it will help us cure diseases we have been struggling with, like cancer, and other very problematic ones like Schizophrenia and Alzheimer's disease.

Nanotechnology would also be an astonishing contribution to many other branches of science like engineering, chemistry and biology. Some examples would be the capability to restore tissues, and to construct or repair materials from the atomic scale.

Nanomedicine

Given that this would have numerous applications, many governments have invested billions of dollars to these kinds of researches. For example, The USA has invested $3.7 billion dollars in it through the National Nanotechnology Initiative.

National Nanotechnology Initiative

But of course, none of this could be made until we would had the correct tools to see even at this scale. These tools have already been created. First, the scanneling tunneling microscope was created by Gerd Binnig and Heinrich Rohrer in 1986 and they received the Nobel Prize in physics for it. And that same year, Binnig and Rohrer working with Calvin Quate, Created the Atomic Force Microscope. These microscopes allow us to see individual atoms.

Of course, not everything about it it's flowers and rainbows, there are also problems and dangers that we will have to face in order to bring this to the world. Some of the problems that have been discussed about are, for example, the possible toxicity and environmental impact of these materials, as well as the possibility of scary doomsday scenarios. But as with every new advancement in technology there are always risks to face, and we will learn how to deal with all these problems to make it possible.

Certainly, a bright future is coming. This technology add up with other technological advancements that may come like artificial intelligence and genetic engineering, will allow us to overcome all the obstacles we have been dealing with, and to create a more prosper and brilliant future.