Nanotechnology is an area that really fascinates! As usual when talking about really powerful technique, the possibilities are enormous but so are also the threats. There are excellent articles in Wikipedia on Nanotechnology so I will not and can not go particularly deep in this area.
Instead, we dive straight into the analysis and a brief classification:
- Material: with nano-engineering, one can obtain materials with properties that we never before seen. Eg super thin and super strong material, material that adapts to temperature, light or other external factors, "intelligent" materials that change depending on some circumstances etc.
- Medicin: We will see drugs that are tailored for a particular purpose and has no side effects. Nano-robots that can get into the body and locate the right area and perform micro-surgery or other local tasks.
- Other: We will have nano-machines that can not be perceived by our ordinary senses. These nano-machines can be spread in food, water or air. They can, for example, be our rescue in an environmental disaster but also a terrorists wet dream or a warring nation's invisible weapon.
There are many ethical questions we must ask ourselves. Think about this for a nano second. What will happen when our environment is full of these for us new particles? Are they biodegradable? What happens when different nano machines interact with each other? Will they get new features then? We are talking about Nano garbage, leaking nanotoxicity into our macro world.
Heaven or hell?
To get a broader picture, please read my previous blog post and the two blog-posts soon to follow.
Some links of interest:
- futuramb unfiltered about (h+ Magazine Spring 2009 Issue)
- American scientists have no idea what they're doing re: nanotechnology (crunchgear.com)
- Phone sniffs your breath to detect diseases (makezine.com)
- Artificial trees could function as solar-wind harvester (engadget.com)
- Nanotechnology on Wikipedia (link in the text above)
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