Nanotechnology

Nanotechnology is the buzzword of the new millenium. The promise of super strong building materials, super-conductive wires, sensors so small that they could fit on a stamp, all point towards a bright future for technology.

Today's article is a spotlight on nanotech. It outlines what nanotech researchers are heading towards and what are their plans for the future. Nanotechnology is indeed very promising for humankind and has the potential to change the very way we live. If successful, nanotech stands to change everything – the clothing people wear, the houses in which they live, the cars they drive, the medicines they take, the foods they eat, the computers they use and much more.

But, there are potential dangers with such technology. The potential health complications from inhaling or absorbing nanotech products through the nose or skin has not been studied, neither has the potential danger of being able to build mirco bombs that could fit in a handphone and yet still cause more damage than a conventional weapon 10 times its size.

Well, I guess every new technology has its pros and cons. But at the end of the day, the onus lies on us, the users, humans, to control what we want to do with the technology, whether for good or for bad.

In a sleek UCSD laboratory, physicist Ivan Schuller is developing sensors for chemical and biological weapons – instruments so tiny that millions will fit on a chip the size of a postage stamp.

At the nearby Burnham Institute, also in La Jolla, Erkki Ruoslahti is testing microscopic spheres that act like guided missiles, carrying chemotherapy drugs to a cancer tumor.

Schuller and Ruoslahti are two of many scientists worldwide working on nanotechnology – the manipulation and control of carbon, silicon, gold and other elements in amounts as small as a handful of atoms measuring a few nanometers across. A nanometer is one billionth of a meter; a human hair measures about 80,000 nanometers wide.

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