Have you ever imagined that there could one day be computers that expend hardly any energy and run thousands of times faster than those of today?  Or miniature robots circulating in your blood stream detecting and destroying cancerous cells? Or that you could build your house with materials stronger than steel, yet 10 times lighter and cheaper? Or fabrics that never get dirty or discolor? Or vehicles that run without fuel… Yes, it’s true, it sounds like magic or science fiction, but all these ‘fantasies’ could shortly become a reality, radically transforming our lives. Nanotechnology will be here soon… Get to know it so it doesn’t take you by surprise.

It is impossible to explain what nanotechnology is without having to previously describe various other basic concepts. We can begin as defining it as a multidisciplinary technology capable of manufacturing things from the individual assembly of atoms and molecules, producing as a result highly efficient new materials and devices that generally are no bigger than a bean and, in many cases, are simply invisible to the human eye. It still sounds like science fiction, doesn’t it?

It is important to understand that when material on the  miniscule scale of atoms and molecules (nano-scale) are being manipulated, the elements demonstrate totally new behaviors and physical and chemical properties. Electrical conductivity, heat, resistance, reactivity and elasticity of the materials behave in a different way at an atomic level, to those same elements at a larger scale. Thanks to this, ‘nanoscientists’ can create innovative materials and devices at a low cost and with unique properties and different to those which we are already familiar with. This revolutionary technology will extend to all areas and will be influential in almost all areas of human activity.

Nano?
Nano, is a Greek prefix that indicates a measurement and not a specific object or product. When we reach these scales, it starts to get complicated for our brains and we have trouble visualizing them, but we’ll go ahead and try. A nanometer is one thousand millionth of a meter, or in other words, a meter divided one thousand million times!!! For example, a human hair is about 10,000 nanometers thick, a virus, between 20 and 300 nanometers while the cells in our body are between 1,000 and 20,000 nanometers. It’s hard to imagine a single one of these ‘nanos’, isn’t it? Don’t worry, I still haven’t managed it either!

At the beginning of the 20th century, atoms were still something theoretical. There was very reliable evidence proving their existence, but how could anyone be sure if nobody had ever seen them? Today, not only can we see them, but we can move, swap and build things with them. “One of the things that distinguishes us from prior generations is that we have seen the atom”, says Karl K. Darrow in his book The Rebirth of Physics. In the last two decades, electronic and atomic instruments have been developed that act as eyes, hands and arms for the researcher in order to work with such small scales. 

Richard Feynman, a Nobel prize winner in physics in 1965, was the first to refer to the possibilities of nanoscience and nanotechnology in a famous talk he gave at the California Institute of Technology in  titled There's Plenty Room at the Bottom in which he expounded on the possibility (presently, still theoretical), of manipulating individual atoms and molecules and manufacturing products on the basis of a planned reorganization of them, taking advantage of  “the empty space that exists between atoms”.

According to José Vega, Director of the CENAT (National Center of High Technology) Nanotechnology Laboratory and one of Costa Rica’s experts on the subjects, in less than five years we will already see various nano-applications in our houses and industries. “In order to move on to the mass production of nano-components and nano-systems, some obstacles in quality control still need to be overcome and also it will take a few years in which the patents will have a great influence over the prices of the products, although this should be compensated for by the low manufacturing costs” he adds.

Presently, around 120 laboratories in the world are directing large amounts of money into research nanotechnology. Around 500 businesses have the phrase ‘nano’ in their name, although there are still few products on the market. All developed countries and a few developing countries are already allocating significant resources towards the investigation of nanotechnology. According to a report by Lux Research, the global leaders in nanotechnology are the United States, Japan, South Korea and Germany, followed by Taiwan, Israel, and Singapore. The United Kingdom, France, China, Canada, Australia, Russia and India lag further behind, but are projected to soon catch up with the leaders in this high-speed race.

“Costa Rica is the leader in Central America, and in the country both Lanotec ( National Lab of Nanotechnology) and some universities are carrying out cutting-edge research in the search for new applications and of alternative mechanisms of fabrication for those already patented.”  However, the resources on which these national institutions depend are also on a nano-metric scale and this has been a great restriction and something that has held back the possibility of more significant achievements. “We have the intellectual capital necessary to make great strides and if we could count on better financing we could advance at a faster pace and achieve more variety and efficiency in the research”, adds Vega.

Today, nanotechnology is no longer a promise; it is already a reality. It will be a few years more before we see it enter into our lives, but there is no doubt that it will happen. It is difficult to predict where all this will end, as with each new success comes new possibilities and new ideas. For now, ‘nano’ is an unfamiliar phrase for the great majority (although now not for you), but I guarantee that you will be hearing about it more and more frequently.
Welcome to the future! Nanotechnology is on its way, and now you are officially updated and ready to receive it.

NANO ROBOTS
What will they be like? What will they be made out of? According to researcher Robert Freitas, author of the book Nanomedicine, carbon will be the principle element making up nanobots. Many other components, such as hydrogen, sulpher, oxygen, nitrogen or silicone will be used for special purposes, in order to manufacture gears and other specific system components. It could be that many of these miniscule machines will be consist of DNA and will have nothing to do with the idea that everybody holds of what robots are like. What will nanobot therapy be like? A typical treatment, for example, to combat viruses and bacteria will consist of an injection of nanobots suspended in fluid. The typical therapeutic dose might include some 100 trillon nanobots. “These machines will do exactly what the doctor tells them to do. The only change seen in the patient will be that s/he will recuperate quickly”, writes Freitas.
Source: world-medicinenews.com


Some nano-advances that are already reality.
Hyper-realistic televisions: Scientists at the Cullen College of Engineering, USA,  have developed the FED system, a new type of screen of carbon nano-tubes, the most efficient light emitters in order to create images with a better resolution than LCD technology and various times thinner and lighter. They call it ‘Nanopantography’ and will hit the market in 2011.
Source: University of Houston, Cullen College of Engineering.

Hard as a diamond:  At the University of Beirut, Lebanon, they have created a carbon-free material whose hardness is almost equal to that of diamonds, although much more resistant to fractures and wear-and-tear. It is also super-abrasive and more resistant to high temperatures. It withstands temperatures of up to 2510 ºF, which means 1260ºF more than diamonds.
Source: Novaciencia, September 2007.

Artificial and economic photosynthesis: At the University of Kyoto, Japan, they have developed a nano-material which can be used to make, at a very low cost, devices that recreate the process of photosynthesis (the absorption of carbon dioxide and the release of oxygen), that is 300 times more efficient than trees and that will be used to reduce emissions, by installing them directly on sources of pollution such as cars or factories.
Source: National Geographic Society Bulletin

A vital solution:  With filters made out of carbon nano-tubes, it will be possible to desalinate sea water, leaving it ready for consumption in one single step. We are talking about a light, cheap and very efficient system. Manipulating polarity (electrical charges in the water and the tubes), these absorb and filter the water, with only six molecules of H2O entering each pore, leaving out other molecules, such as minerals, bacteria or toxins.
Source: Nano Letters Magazine

Non-burning reusable paper: A team at the University of Arkansas, U.S.A., has managed to create a paper resistant to temperatures of up to 1292ºF, that can be folded without creasing and can be erased and reused an infinite number of times. In addition it is biodegradable, non-toxic and very cheap. It is formed by super-elastic nano-metric cables of titanium dioxide and its mass production will begin in 2009.
Source: BBC News

Anti-hemorrhage Supergel: A biodegradable gel made out of peptides and nano-fibers, capable of stemming major hemorrhages in only 15 seconds. It has already been successfully tested on animals and is in the process of being approved for use on humans.
Source: Massachusetts Institute of Technology.


Nanoaplications
The most promising nanoaplications in the medium-term will be:

Energy generation, storage and conversion: We will be able to optimize the consumption, take better advantage of solar energy and end our dependency on hydrocarbons.
 
Water treatment: the purification, desalinization and even ‘improving’ water quality, at very low costs.
 
Diagnosis and treatment of illnesses: Nanobots in our bloodstream, looking for problems and fixing them directly.
 
Medicine administration systems: Be able to ‘instruct’ medicines to carry out more complex tasks and to work only on affected cells or so that the medication gradually releases itself over the course of a month.
 
Solutions to environmental contamination: All industry could be free of environmental contaminants and inclusive can have nano-machines that obtain their energy from ‘eating’ already existing pollutants.
 
Construction: New materials (light, solid and cheap), new equipment and techniques.

Information technology: Ultra-small storage systems, of a much higher speed and efficiency in the processing of data and new programming methods.

Electronic: Microminiaturization of components. “Today, systems depend on microelectronics. We have managed to arrive at this point in the last 20 years and in the next decade we will have moved on from the micro to the nano”, says Dr. Meyya Meyyappan, director of NASA’s  Nanotechnology Project.


Molecular fabrication The properties of the products depend on how their atoms are arranged. For example, if you rearrange graphite atoms (principally composed of carbon) from a lead pencil, we can make diamonds (pure crystallized carbon). If we rearrange the atoms in sand (basically composed of silica) and add some extra elements you can make computer chips. Until very recently, the manufacturing methods at a molecular lever were imperfect. They were as good as if we tried to stack piles of bricks with box gloves on our hands. We could pile one on top of the other but we couldn’t arrange them in the way we really wanted to. Nanotechnology is allowing us to take off the gloves. Today, we can arrange the bricks (atoms) as we want, without great difficulty, in any way possible, and at a very low cost.


For more information:
- Engines of creation – Drexler K.E.(1986) New York: Doubleday.
- Nanomedicine, Volume IIA: Biocompatibility. 2003 .
- Nanotechnology Research and Perspectives – Crandall (1992) Cambridge: M.I.T. Press.
- El mercado global de la Nanotecnología, reporte de Markets Monitor co. (2007).