Is Nanotechnology A Field Of Applied Science?

The use of nano-materials and extreme precision micro-engineering has the potential for great improvement in the world of electronics and information technology by providing smaller, faster, and more powerful computers and this has been at the forefront of the nanotechnology commercialization . Great examples of how nanotechnology is currently being used in these fields are products such as processors, data storage, and memory components made with nano-materials, TVs, monitors and even smartphone screens that use organic light-emitting diodes (OLED), and waterproof electronics such as smartphones due to the application of nano-coatings

Nanotechnology is a term of two words: the first word is “Nano” and derives from the Greek word “Nanos” and it means “Dwarf” or something very small. The second word is “Technology” and it means applied application of knowledge in a certain field. So nanotechnology is the technology of very small substances, and it specializes in treating the substance on the Nano measure to produce new, useful, and unique resultants in its properties [22-23].The Nano is a unique measuring unit and from the physical and mathematical point of view, the Nano equals one part of a billion of the measured unit. The nanometer (nm) equals a part of a billion part of a meter. Thus, it is 10-9 of a meter. The Nano is used as a measuring unit for very minute particles [24-26].

Nanotechnology is a novel technology what generally deals with structures and systems with a size less than 100nm. [1] Due to its unique tiny size, the properties are quite different from bulk properties include physical properties, chemistry properties, biological properties. For example, gold in bulk form is inert, but in nano scale, it tends to be very active. Moreover, different sizes, structures, and surface areas of gold nanoparticles make it exhibit different colors.

The conclusion of the paper restated the benefits of the usage of gold nanoparticles, citing its flexibility of usage, and reviewed the discoveries of the experiments. It was discovered that benign cells need more than twice as much light intensity to be killed than malignant cells. Finally, it discusses how the procedure would need to be altered to be used in vivo. Since a wavelength between 650 and 900 nm would be required to penetrate even a few centimeters of tissue, the next step in research is altering the pure gold nanoparticles in order to maximize absorption. The

Nanotechnology involves the handling of functional systems at a very small scale (Bamrungsap, Zhao, Chen, Wang, Fu, Tan & Li, 2012). When talking about nanotechnology in relation to health, it can commonly be referred to as nanomedicine. Nanotechnology, specifically nanoparticles, have had a recent uprising in research studies. Fortunately new studies are proving to show how nanoparticles can aid in the diagnosis and treatment of lung cancer. The correlation between both lung cancer and nanotechnology in modern day medicine, is believed to be very beneficial to patients and doctors

Nanotechnology, the manipulation of matter on the molecular scale, can be applied to numerous scientific fields, such as medicine, surface chemistry, micro fabrication, and organic chemistry (Destito, Schneemann & Manchester, 2009). In general, these small-sized particles are used to improve the functioning of commercial products and, in the subsection of nanomedicine, are used for therapeutics, tumor targeting, and vaccines (Crisci, Bárcena & Montoya, 2012). For example, the use of molecular nanotechnology improves vehicle fuel cells and catalytic converters, helps filter wastewater, and strengthens commercial products, such as bowling balls and glue. (Doll et. al., 2012). Harisinghani, through multiple experiments, also discovered that nanoparticles such as iron oxide can be used to image lymph nodes in patients with prostate cancer (Destito et. al., 2009). However, even with their vast range of applications, nanotechnology continues to raise issues on its toxicity and negative impact on the environment (Destito et. al., 2009).

Today, nanotechnology research and development is quite wide spread, although not high profile yet. Numerous universities, such as Univ. of Washington and Northwestern Univ., have established centers and institutes to study nanotechnology, and the U.S. government has created an organization, the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI), to monitor and guide research and development in this field. In fact, as noted in an April 2001 Computerworld article, the Bush administration increased funding to nanoscale science research by 16% through its National Science Foundation (NSF) budget increase. DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) and the NSF are currently the two largest sources of funding for nanotechnology research and have an enormous influence on the direction of scientific research done in the United States. With so many resources dedicated to its development, nanotechnology will surely have an impact within our lifetime, so it is

The encapsulation and site-directed mechanisms can also be translated and utilized in bioimaging – the field of study concerned with developing imaging techniques and devices that are used to obtain anatomical images and provide tissue analysis. Medical professionals are always looking for answers as to what is going on inside one’s body. Nanoparticles can serve as excellent scaffolds in this area of research because they have such a high surface area- to- volume ratio [9]. Ferritin, in particular, has been modified in different ways, mainly using the techniques described earlier, to further advancements in this field.

Nanotechnology is the development of atoms in a certain object. Nanotechnology has become very popular in the past few years. It is a way to rebuild the systems of life. To make systems move faster than ever before. Nanometer is about 10 times the size of an atom. Each of these has a huge effect on a system. Still there are questions out there that keep people wondering how important nanotechnology is to us. Many wonder how will it affect them and if we should continue this research. I myself wondered about nanotechnology. After researching this topic I have learned new and interesting facts to help me understand the entire concept.

Nanoscience is the study of objects measured in nanometers. To give a better perspective of size, one nanometer is one-billionth of a meter, or about eighty thousand times smaller than the diameter of a single human hair. A particular application of nano-materials in nature is the use of nano-finger tips which allow geckos to walk on walls. The gecko adhesive system incorporates one million foot hairs or setae in on each finger. One hair or seta contains a thousand of spatula tips which allow the geckos to attach to the wall. Synthetic nano-materials can be produced which exhibit strong adhesion effects similar to the gecko nano-finger tips. There are already many nano-tech products on the market which utilize synthetic nano-materials.

The average diameter of the particles was determined by unimodal analysis through photon correlation spectroscopy (PCS) at 25oC and at a fixed angle of 173º. Samples were transferred to a DTS0012 cell and analyzed in Zetasizer NanoZS90 equipment (Malvern Instruments, England). The data reported were particle size, and the polydispersity index (PDI). Data were expressed as the mean ± standard deviation of at least three different batches of each formulation.

Ever since their discovery in 1991, Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have gained a lot of interest due to their many unique physical and chemical properties. They are almost one dimensional structures with high mechanical strength (100 times stronger than Steel), ultra-light weight (1/6th the weight of steel) and exhibit excellent electrical and thermal conductivity. Most importantly, CNTs have the ability to effectively cross biological barriers and cellular membrane allowing their use in a wide spectrum of biomedical applications such as bio-imaging, disease targeting and the delivery of therapeutic molecules, genes or drugs.

Nanoparticles show different and distinctive properties from the bulk materials and they can be incorporated in different fields such as, biomedicine, catalysis, and energy conversion, so they have gained significant considerations from the researchers in the last two decades. For example, biologist and scientists have just started to apply nano-pattering techniques to create detection systems for genomic studies. On the other hand, engineers and physicists are aiming to shrink the size of transistors and MEMS components by using the method of nanofabrication in order to make high performance electronic devices. In general, material properties are completely dependent on the structure, so changing the macroscopic bulk properties, such as

Nanoparticles are widely researched because of their size dependent properties that progressively differ from their bulk formations. Nano, meaning these particles are measured to be ~100 nm or less, are structures where the majority of the atoms are located at the surface of the particle. This gives nanoparticles a high surface area to volume ratio. In comparison to their bulk counterparts, when materials are in the nano scale, the physical and chemical properties of these different materials tend to stray from the norm. These changes allow nanoparticles to be effective in several fields of science and engineering based research, for example, chemical catalysis. These size dependent properties will be analyzed through three experiments: (1) absorption and fluorescence emmission of CdSe nanocrystals, (2) Plasmon resonance of metal nanocrystals, and (3) Raman scattering and surface enhanced Raman scattering.

I spent a month looking up a fascinating idea for my science project but it was useless. Luckily, on my birthday, my friend gave me a book called “Nanotechnology” which was written by Truong Van Tan- a Phd who works for Australia Department of Defense. Each chapter was about a different aspect of how nanotechnology had been applied in our lives. Among these, the fifth chapter: Nanomaterial for Medical application, attracted me