About Nanotechnology
The field of Nanotechnology is vast and touches industries from medicine to transportation. Researchers, scientists, engineers and students are exploring our world on the nanoscale and are developing many products, processes, and services through their efforts.
On TryNano.org, we have gathered resources to help you explore the global impact of Nanotechnology. By reviewing the materials, applications, and current areas of research, we hope you’ll experience Nanotechnology in a new light.
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What is Nanotechnology?
The major focus of nanotechnology is to view, measure and even manipulate materials at the molecular or atomic scale.
Nanomaterials
In “nanomaterials,” the size and shape of the very small domains that compose the bulk material affect its properties.
Nanoscale Properties
Properties of materials at the nanoscale are different in many cases from the properties of materials observed in other scales.
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Is it Chemistry? Is it Physics?
Nanotechnology also involves biology, several disciplines of engineering, material science, and medicine. Anywhere molecules and atoms are concerned, nanotechnology can potentially play a role.
Social Implications, Environmental Impact
Many potential applications of nanotechnologyhave social implications. Enhanced computing and sensing, for example, can be very useful objectives in the right hands – they can improve human welfare, and support healthcare, safety, information exchange, and entertainment. However, in the wrong hands, these technologies also enable more effective surveillance and analysis of communication that may be detrimental to freedom and human rights.
History of Nanotechnology
History of Nanotechnology As is the case with many other disciplines, applications of nanotechnology (for example, in making steel and creating paintings) were in use centuries before the field was formally defined. Early contributors to the field include James Clark Maxwell (Scottish physicist and mathematician, 1831-1879) and Richard Adolf Zsigmondy (Austrian-German chemist, 1865-1929). Zsigmondy studied colloids (chemical mixtures where one substance…
The Future of Nanotechnology
The Future of Nanotechnology The future of nanotechnology has been the subject scientific and nonscientific speculation including dystopian visions in popular culture that predict self-replicating nanoparticles taking part in massive assaults on humanity and the environment. An example of such a scenario is given in Michael Crichton’s popular novel Prey where “grey goo” self-replicates and overwhelms…