Is Nanotechnology Totally Useless According to You?
Is Nanotechnology Totally Useless According to You?
Nanotechnology is the science and art of constructing functional and sometimes powerful devices by manipulating single atoms until they are molecularly sized. In order to achieve some relativity on this, one must be aware that a molecule is measured in nanometers, which is, essentially, one billionth of a meter – an atom is ten times smaller than that.
As a revolutionary concept, nanotechnology covers a wide spectrum that can often be a double edged sword. In the right hands, the extreme capability of nanotechnology can be a positive contributor to medical advancements, environmental cleansing, energy conservation and many other areas that can largely improve human existence on our planet. The down side to nanotechnology is that in the wrong hands it can be a destructive force that may ultimately lead to the annihilation of human existence and even of our planet.
There are varying schools of thought on the benefits versus the threats of nanotechnology pursuits. One outlook is that replicating nanostructures could gobble up the entire planet in about three hours flat while another is that nanotechnology as a science could revolutionize medical treatments for conditions that are presently incurable using standard technology.
Nanotechnology has been credited with many beneficial improvements to existing products like fabrics that totally resist staining, scratch resistant eyewear and sunscreen that can endure greater exposure to the elements for longer periods of time. In addition, creating smaller, more powerful devices via this technology has been a positive contributor to revolutionary advancements in computers, more improved diagnostic medical testing and more efficient means of removing toxicity from areas afflicted with environment contamination. Anyone would have to agree that these advantages are certainly not totally useless attributes of nanotechnology.
Additionally, nanotechnology has been credited with creations from a biodegradable plastic made from waste products produced from fruit growing operations to experimental replacement bone tissue that will not be so easily rejected by the human body after transplant. The advantage of such a product will result in easing human suffering while actually contributing to an extended life span. Anybody wanting to improve on humanity would be hard pressed to declare breakthroughs like this as totally useless.
Despite its propensity to do good, nanotechnology could also lead to the creation of more compact and essentially more dangerous weaponry, which, if it fell into the wrong hands could lead to the development of chemical and biological weapons that are far more deadly, harder to avoid and much easier to conceal than conventional warfare.
Naysayers are quick to point out additional negativities of nanotechnology such as the ability of the military or other covert government organizations to conduct continuous, surreptitious surveillance on each and every citizen. Some go even further by concentrating on the hypothesis that nanotechnology, when used to advance greed and power, could result in total physical and/or psychiatric control of one faction over another.
Will nanotechnology ultimately result in ecophaghy – the consumption of the entire worldwide ecosphere – or will all these doomsday predilections just be totally useless fodder for overactive imaginations?
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Understanding Nanotechnology
Understanding Nanotechnology
- ISBN13: 9780446679565
- Condition: USED – VERY GOOD
- Notes:
Taken from the Greek, nano means ‘one billionth part of’ a whole; or very, very small. Nanotechnology is the next step after miniaturization. This book explores the cutting edge of a new technology that will find usage in almost every single aspect of modern society.
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Atom Computers – Benefiting From Nanotechnology
Computers of the future will use atoms instead of chips for memory. That’s a simplified way of saying that within the next few years, we can expect miniaturization to go into the atomic level to bring to the consumer and the office more power computers that require significantly less power and possess lesser footprints. Using nanotechnology advances, the computers that we know today will become more powerful and more energy efficient and can fit more snugly inside a handbag.
What we have today
Computers have evolved from using vacuum tubes in their earliest incarnation to transistors in the 60s to integrated circuits of the 70s and to Very Large Scale Integrated circuits (VLSI) of the 80s. The latest VLSI has reached its maximum miniaturization potentials using Lithography to engineer the laptops, netbooks and mobile hand-held phones and gadgets we use today. It’s a landmark technology of the 20th century. But Lithography can only go so far. The microprocessor chips that power the computing gadgets in our hands house millions of transistors in lithographed wafer thin circuit in multiple layers inside those chips. To get them more powerful with ever decreasing sizes and lower power requirements, we need a new technology. We’re headed for something far tinier.
The New Technology for the 21st Century
Tiny means in the vicinity of a billionth of a meter or around 1/500th the width of a hair strand. That’s mathematically called nano. And the engineering technologies behind working at such a microscopic atomic-sized level of parts fall within the ambit of nanotechnology. The benefits behind nanotechnology are so immensely far-reaching; they redefine the technology landscape to open new possibilities that are mostly considered impossible or at least expensive in today’s world.
Computers are among the first to get there. A nanocomputer chip designed at the molecular level is expected to be 3-4 magnitude orders smaller than the smallest chip in the market today and their computing power doubled or tripled. It offers the next generation of computer chip design and manufacture with greater possibilities after exhausting the most that current Lithography VLSI can offer.
Nanomemories
In the near future, expect to boot up a PC in no time. If you’ve ever started a PC or laptop, you know it can be excruciatingly slow. With a new nanotechnology derivative called nanomagnetics that can provide faster memory chips called MRAMs, waiting for the PC to boot up can be banished forever. The new MRAMs are non-volatile memory storage chips that remember virtually all that it captured before power is lost. That makes it useful as a computer DRAM. It is also expected to be employed in other mission critical areas like databases and sensors that require instance access to large quantities of data with minute powering requirements. Smart cards that have embedded chips will get a boost with larger data storage capacities that can contain a person’s entire life history.
When to Expect It
Nanotechnology is real. Realizing this promise is only a matter of time as engineers are perfecting the manufacturing processes for commercial-grade nanotech products to reach the market at the end of the next decade. Grade schoolers of today just might get their mobile phones on a ring by then. In the meantime, expect mobile phones and netbooks to get just incremental improvements in features, nothing radical until the first nanotech atom computers become available. GP
ITC Sales are a leading supplier of Dell and HP Laptops such as the Dell Precision and the Dell Vostro.
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