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Nanotechnology and Nanomachines

Nanotechnology ("Nanotech" or "Molecular Manufacturing") is the positioning of atoms and the reformation of molecular bonds so as to create materials, structures and machines that are less than 100 nanometers in size. Nanobex discusses both early stage applications and potential future directions in the field of nanotechnology. For matter and outputs in most fields, spanning electronics and medicine, being tinier is nearly always superior.  Smaller electronic circuits can accomplish more calculations with less energy demands.  Smaller medical machines will likely engage with cells in the human body at a molecular level for more fine-tuned diagnosis and focused healing of disease.   For these reasons, there is increasing interest in the field of nanotechnology -- science that deals with materials that are very, very miniature.  A nanometer is only one billionth of a meter, a length into which one can only place approximately 10 atoms. Nanotechnology is the capability to construct products by sequentially positioning small numbers of atoms and micro-scale materials.  Nanoscale control allows one to generate ground-breaking composites and designs with features that are superior to those formed using conventional techniques.  However, it can be prohibitively laborious to assemble something by manually pushing discrete atoms.  Thus, nanotechnology generally incorporates the production of micro-environmental conditions under which nanoparticles or alternative nanostructures will assemble themselves.   In some respects, self-assembly is alike to the reproductive aspect of organic organisms.  However, inorganic structures such as crystals also self manufacture under the proper conditions.  Nanotech integrated circuit circuits will potentially be grown like crystals rather than manually assembled one atom at a time. Nanotechnology is breaking down long-standing lines between scientific fields.  For example, biology has usually been distinguished by the potential of organic organisms to reproduce, adapt in response to their biosphere, and communicate with other biologic systems such as those within the human body.  Information innovation has been characterized by the capacity of machines to accumulate and compute vast quantities of quantitative information in a predictable and programmable manner.  As nanotechnology moves in the direction of the creation of nanomachines that may copy, react to their biosphere, communicate with living tissue, and perform complex computing functions... then many of the limits between physics, engineering, biology, genetics, medical care, composites science, machine science, and information technology will fuse even further.  Related Focal Point Microsystems. The vision of constructing an endless variety of items one atom at a time is so remarkable that it would be easy to dismiss nanotechnology as science fiction.  This has been reinforced by photos on television and in the films of swarms of self-replicating “nanobots.”  These visions are far from reality.  However, rudimentary and useful nanotechnology applications are already in use. Click on pictures for nanotechnology theme T-shirts and sweatshirts: Geometry is at the heart of nanotechnology.  Nanotubes are elongated carbon configurations with one or more curved polygonal cylinders.  They are grown from carbon under high-temperature, electrically-charged conditions.  Nanohexagons are nanotubes with hexagonal ends.  Nanoctagons are nanotubes with octagonal ends.  Due to their geometric similarity to the geodesic domes produced by R. Buckminster Fuller, nanotubes are additionally termed “Buckytubes.”  Nanocircles are circular nanostructures and nanospheres are spherical nanostructures.  Nanoshells are hollow nanospheres.  For more Online Virtual Reality. It is hard to build materials that you cannot handle.  During the past two decades, scientists have generated implements that allow them to observe, touch and move mass on the dimension of itemized atoms and molecules.  The Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) has an atomic probe that rendered images of the exterior of material at a perspective of nanometers.  The interaction of the probe with the exterior can also be used to estimate the hardness of the surface.  The Scanning Tunneling Microscope (STM) can move atoms across the outside of matter in a vacuum, liquid or gas.  It also can write on the veneer by making nano-level scratches. Nanomanufacturing is the creation of elements and commodities through: (1) Direct Molecular Assembly (DMA) -- unique, directed formation of individual atoms and molecules into larger scale substances and outputs; (2) Indirect Crystalline Assembly (ICA) -- formation of conditions that foster the growth of nano-scale crystals that are then combined into larger scale materials and commodities; or (3) Massive Parallelism Assembly (MPA) -- the creation of several nano-machines or nano-bots whose operating parameters produce them to work synergistically to engineer atoms and micro-scale materials into macroscale materials and inventions.  Also interesting, Nanotechnology Journals Database. Nanobots are very tiny robots that work on the scale of atoms and molecules.  Although they are made and function on the dimension of atoms and molecules, nanorobots may work together in reaction to ecology stimuli and programmed principles to create macroscale results.  Precursor devices to nanobots have been made.  Some will generally even walk or fly.  However, true nano-bots have not yet been made.   Some scientists include the capacity to self-assemble in the definition of a nanobot, but this is likely too ambitious for inclusion in the elementary definition.  Replication will predicted be an ability possessed by merely the many advanced nanobots.  More Virtual Networks. What differentiates instruments from living things?  Nanotechnology is moving closer to the assembly of microscopic mechanisms that will likely interact with life science tissue on a nanoscale level, adapt to their biosphere, and even reproduce.  Will these devices be alive despite their mechanical origin?  DNA is now being used as element of biologic machines.  Is DNA used in this fashion component of a tool despite its organic origin?  The borders between nanotechnology and biotechnology are blurring.  Hybrid machine/organisms give rise to more questions than answers. Click on likenesses for nanotechnology theme T-shirts and sweatshirts: Future developments at the intersection of substances science and nanotechnology will probably lead to the creation of intelligent substances that sense and respond to their biosphere.  These "smart materials" will respond to temperature, pressure, light, electricity, or other stimuli.  Nanotechnology may create smart materials (and things made with such materials) equipped with nanosensors and versatile internal configurations that modification structure and function with varying conditions and commands.  More Quantiam Technologies. Nanotechnology has the potential to completely revolutionize the electronics industry.  Nanomachines could some day assemble machine circuits from the “bottom up” -- one atom at a time. This would allow the manufacturing of nanochips on a much more miniature dimension than chips generated with contemporary “top down” etching techniques.  Nanocrystalline processes will likely furthermore be used to grow electronic processors subsets.  For example: (1) carbon nanotubes grown in targeted micro-environments will likely have super-conductive characteristics; and (2) nanowires as minuscule as strings of atoms may be grown like crystals and then assembled into circuits.  Circuits assembled atom-by-atom or grown using nanocrystalline techniques will be much more miniature, lighter, efficient, cooler, stronger, and faster than circuits made with normal manufacturing processes. Click on pictures for nanotechnology theme T-shirts and sweatshirts: In the telecommunications field, nanotechnology will play an important role in the coming years particularly with respect to fiber optics.  Nanocrystalline substances may be made with finer resolution than standard fibers for more advanced optic cables, switches, lenses and junctions.  In telecommunications more frequently, the areas of nanotechnology and holotechnology will overlap in the innovation of the projection screens and user interfaces of the next generations of holographic cell phones, “Holographones,” and televisions, “HoloTVs.”  See additionally InnovaLight. Nanomedicine is the use of nanotechnology for -- the prevention, diagnosis, and curing of illness and injury; and the enhancement of human health and functioning.   Early nanomedicine applications include: discovery of new drug agents; precise pharmaceutical delivery systems; “laboratories on a chip” that work multiple medical tests invitro or invivo; biomedical imaging using nanotechnology device coatings and nanoparticles that attach to certain types of cells; more evolved surgical tools and medibotics, both external and internal; and nanotechnology implants and tissue scaffolds. One of the many hopeful early usages of nanotechnology to the practice of medicine is localized medicine delivery using nanocapsules.  For several pharmaceutical uses, cancer healing for example, it is a challenge to get effective amounts of a medicine to a particular tissue within the body while keeping systemic effects low.  Drug-filled nanocapsules can be covered with antibodies or cell-surface receptors that bind to cancer or different cells and release their biological compound payload upon contact with those cells.  Nanocapsules also provide one of the few ways to get drugs across the blood-brain obstruction for curing of diseases affecting the eyes, brain, and different portions of the vital nervous system.  They work like a Trojan Horse that the barrier lets through. Nanotechnology could one day be able to form nanomedibots that function like artificial white-blood cells – repairing tissue at a nanoscale dimension.   We have already said that nanocapsules will potentially transport and release biological compounds.  They can also contain living tissue that release therapeutic agents, protecting the tissue from rejection or destruction by the host by camouflaging them from the host’s immune system.  Some day there might even be nanotech blood vessels for implantation in people with cardiovascular malady. Inquiries about this material and the domain Nanobex.com may be sent to: Nanobex.com © 2004-2006 by Nanobex.com