Nanotech

At the razors edge of science is Nanotech.    While we don’t yet have the nano-assemblers envisioned by Eric Drexler, technology is making huge advances in the areas of both micro technology and nano technology.   

The applications for nanotech appear to be endlessly promising.   Advances in nanotechnology overlap the fields of biology, materials, computing, energy and medicine are finding its way into our lives.

Medical Technology

Nano scale applications in medical technology allow doctors to engineer devices which are small enough to travel in the bloodstream and bring highly targeted payloads to various organs, cells and even into the brain.   There is research going on into ways to specifically target parts of our body as small as individual genetic switches.    On a less dramatic, but equally important level, nano devices can carry sensors and tracking tools so that physicians can get an up close visual of what is going on in the body without having to go through the traumatic process of cutting it open.

Biology and Nanotechnology

The fields of biology and medicine are closely inter-related.   It is not surprising that we study biology to better understand the working systems of our own bodies.  In addition to medical applications, bio-nano devices are being created with the intent of physically restructuring cells at the basic level.   Usually this is done with microbes that are designed for a specific function.  By using micro scale devices that are capable of penetrating cell walls, the organisms can be fed with specific materials to shape their natural function.    This technique has important implications for creating cell lines that excel at converting highly toxic waste and producing energy.

Materials Sciences

This is the area where nano is generally associated with in most applications.  By understanding the physics and mechanical properties of very small scale objects amazing properties can be given to otherwise ordinary items.   At the smallest scale the physical properties of things follow completely different rules.   Nano tech allows the scientist to work directly at the atomic level and do things like pass current to strongly align materials.   This can result in properties like essentially non-stick surfaces, heightened elasticity and highly bonded metals or other substances which are incredibly strong.    

Additionally, the application of materials sciences allows us to layer materials in a way that was previously impossible.   This allows the creation of very high density circuits, superconductors which operate at very high or very low temperatures, and is vital in both the computer chip industry and solar power industry.

Experiments that rely on nanoscale applications also include the creation of previously non-existing compounds and materials, such as mimetic metals.

Computing

Besides computer chips, and the pv cells that go into solar panels, smart dust and other technologies are possible.   Other applications that involve computational elements include programmable micro machines which can perform a specific function or potentially work as a robot to create very small scale tasks.   The combined effects of trillions of microscopic scale programmed devices have the potential to work together to build things at the visible scale.   

In theory, a set of programmed nano devices could actually take a substance as basic as raw earth and transform it into a building, a car, or pretty much any other macro object.   If enough of these machines were in operation this process could result in things such as a bare patch of land being turned into a massive skyscraper in a matter of days, hours or even minutes.    The potentials of these applications are staggering.

Risks of Nano Devices

Nanotech scale devices are potentially extremely dangerous.   These machines could in theory be programmed poorly and have rapid unpredictable effects if let loose in the wild.   In many ways they resemble biological organisms, and placing a live nanobot capable of self reproduction into the wild presents all the risks of introducing a new live organism into a defenseless eco system.     There are some strong arguments for sticking with larger scale robots and controlling this type of live nanobot in the same way that viruses are contained in bio research facilities.

Like all types of transforming technology, including bio-technology, nano has powerful and potentially society changing ramifications.  As people begin to grasp the potentials and understand the details of these technologies their uses for destruction must be balanced against their transforming and constructive powers.