Nanotechnology Is Making Its Presence Felt
Described as being a mixture of fascinating and awe inspiring, nanotechnology is slowly beginning to make its presence felt as the emerging technology destined to shape the way we like our lives as we proceed through the 21st century. Nanotechnology is based around the mankind's ability to scale familiar and traditional materials to scales less than 100nm. To understand the minute scales that nanotechnology is to encompass the fact that the unifying theme in nanotechnology is the control of matter on a scale smaller than one micrometer. Although the majority of micro-dimensions in nanotechnology are measured in dimensions running between one to one hundred nanometers, nanotechnology can even operate at dimensions of less than one nanometer. To allow a comparison of scales, a traditional piece of writing paper has a thickness of more than 100,000 nanometers.
Nanotechnology involves the examination of a multiplicity of subjects drawn from a large scale of discipline, whilst only using one discipline methods during the examination. The principal and method of nanotechnology can be defined in in one of two directions. Nanotechnology can either pull minor component parts together to build them into a larger part or, conversely it can be used in the breakdown of larger parts to match a common scale. The ability to create working parts, machinery and material in a previously unimaginable small scale is what will make Nanotechnology the most important breakthrough in innovative technology in the 21st century. Yet the theory of nanotechnology has been discussed since the late nineteen fifties. Richard Feynman, a well revered and respected physicist first raised the subject at a lecture to the American Physical Society. The lecture explained Professor Feynman's theory that in a half a century or so it would be possible to write the entire contents of Encyclopedia Britannica on a pinhead, as a way of introducing nanotechnology. It is a tribute to the esteem in the world of physics research that the learned Professor was held in, that he was not led from the room by two large men in white coats. Instead the theory of nanotechnology remained just that for about a quarter of a century more, till another learned researcher Eric Drexel launched his famous publication " Engines of Creation" in which he laid out the extensive list of possibilities that nanotechnology would present to the World in the future, Some of the advancements that Eric Drexel explained are already with us, however the full extent of the benefits of nanotechnology will not really begin to take affect till the middle of the next decade, and then the limitless applications that nanotechnology will offer will touch every aspect of our day to day lives. In manufacturing technology, in medicine, in the environment and in military use, nanotechnology will be a vital tool in the hands of these nations of the World who embrace it and have the desire and ability to further the research into this mind boggling field, The development of nanotechnology from pure physical theory into a practical reality within the space of less than a half a century is one of the greatest achievements of mankind and comes as a natural progression of the computer driven scientific development of our times. Man's heightened ability to firstly comprehend and then physically manipulate till it reaches dimension that the human brain finds hard to comprehend is going to make all our lives increasingly better. |
