25-05-2012, 05:26 PM
NanoTechnology
Nano_Technology sigarayakonda.doc (Size: 73 KB / Downloads: 58)
ABSTRACT
Imaging curing cancer by drinking a medicine stirred into your favorite fruit juice. A supercomputer no bigger than human cells. A super craft no larger or more expensive than the family car. These are just a few promises of nanotechnology. The future of technology at times becomes easier to predict. Computers will compute faster, materials will become stronger and medicine will cure more diseases. The technology that works at the nanometer scale of molecules and atoms will be a large part of this future, enabling great improvements in all the fields of human presence. We are in for some major changes. Nanotechnology promises to make us healthy and wealthy. And it will be able to do so without consuming natural resources or spewing pollution into the environment. But what does nanotechnology mean? Think all the way down to one-billionth of a meters-a scale at which hydrogen and carbon atoms appear as large as baseballs. Now imagine picking up those atoms and building a machine. In other words, nanotechnology is about building things atom-by-atom, molecule-by-molecule. Nanotechnology is much discussed these days as an emerging frontier-a realm in which machines operate at scales of billionths of a metre. It is actually a multitude of rapidly emerging technologies, based upon the scaling down of existing technologies to the next level of precision and miniaturization. The original vision for nanotechnology is sometimes termed ‘molecular manufacturing’ or ‘molecular manufacturing-based nanotechnology’. It is the basis for the original excitement about the field, and in the future, it could lead to the building of full-scale machine and mechanisms with nanoscale dimensions. Simply put, nanotechnology is the creation of functional materials, devices and systems through control of matter on the nanometer scale, and the exploitation of novel properties and phenomena developed at that scale.
OPTIMISTS SAY? : -
Active researchers in the field of nanotechnology are enthusiastic about its potential applications in such fields as energy, medicine, electronics, computing, security and materials. This enthusiasm is, however, primarily based on laboratory discoveries, some of which are already in the process of being translated into advantageous products.
Others are more cautious about the potential of nanotechnology, nothing that certain related technologies over-promoted and, in fact, failed to do most of the things that proponents of nanotechnology said it would do. It is indeed a fact that nanotechnology, in its infancy presently, has the potential to profoundly change the economy and to improve our standard of living, in a manner not unlike the impact made by advances over the past few decades, say, by Information Technology (IT).
While commercial products are starting to come to the market, some of the major applications are yet to come out in a big way. The goal of nanotechnology is to build tiny devices called nanomachines. To build things on such a small scale, one has to be able to manipulate atoms individually. The challenge of nanotechnology is to place atoms precisely where you wish on a structure. Research in chemistry, molecular biology and scanning probe microscopy is laying the foundations for molecular machine systems. Although we are yet to build a nanomachine, molecular machines are working in our body right now. For example, consider a protein in the human body. You could think of it as a machine that moves molecules. This is basically an oxygen pump used red blood cells. The heat of other molecules around it powers it. A channel opens periodically to the centre of the protein, allowing oxygen to pass from the outside and bind with iron for transport throughout the body. Scientists can now construct natural proteins even synthesize new ones with novel properties never seen in this nature. With enough understanding, we may be able to turn proteins into microscopic to do the jobs we want.
ADVANTAGES: -
What if we could inexpensively make things with every atom in the right place? From nanotechnology we’ll be able to snap together the fundamental building blocks of nature easily, inexpensively and in most of the ways permitted by the laws of physics. This is essential to continue the revolution in computer hardware right down to the molecular gates and wires-something that today’s lithographic methods, which are used to make computer chips, could never achieve. Additionally, we could inexpensively make very stronger, lighter, cleaner and more precise materials according to our convenience.
This may include shatterproof diamond in precisely the shapes we want and over fifty times lighter than steel of the same strength. We could make surgical instruments of such precision and deftness that they could operate on the cells and even molecules from which we are made-something well beyond today’s medical technology.
The list goes on and on-almost any manufactured product could be vastly improved, often by orders of magnitude. Also the ‘bottom-up’ manufacturing approach-making materials and products from the bottom-up that is, building them up from atoms and molecules-would require less material and create less pollution.
THE MOLECULAR ASEMBLER:-
The goal of early nanotechnology was to produce the first Nano-size robotic arm capable of manipulating atoms and molecules either into a useful product or copies of itself. One nano-assembler working atom by atom would be rather slow because most desirable products are made of trillions and trillions of atoms. However, such an assembler robot arm is designed to make copies of it and those copies are capable of making further copies. This would soon result in a situation where objects would be assembled quickly by trillions of such nano supercomputer-controlled assemblers working in parallel. But why focus on manufacturing from the molecular dimensions? This is because manufacturing is basically a method for arranging atoms. Most methods arrange atoms crudely even the finest commercial microchips are grossly irregular at the atomic scale, and much of today’s nanotechnology faces the same challenge. The molecular assembler is the answer to this challenge. Once perfected, it will position the molecules, bringing them together to the specific location and at desired time. By holding and positioning molecules in this way, the molecular assemblers will control with precision how the molecules react, building up complex structures that finally lead to the desired product.
With its ability to make a wide range of structures with atomic precision, molecular manufacturing will greatly expand the limits of technological possibility. It will make possible micron-scale computer CPUs efficient enough (with operating power of approximately 100 nanowatts) to let air-cooled desktop systems contain a billion processors. As computing becomes more central to the socio-economic mechanisms of society, secure computing is also growing.
INEXPENSIVE: -
Molecular manufacturing will be inexpensive because it uses small amounts of material and energy, and its costs of capital, land and labour will be low. Capital will be inexpensive because molecular manufacturing systems can be quickly used to build additional molecular manufacturing systems. Land and labour will add little to the costs because little of either will be needed. Setting aside costs external to manufacturing, the intrinsic costs of products made by molecular manufacturing would typically be little more than the cost of the required raw materials and energy.
ENERGY-EFFICIENT: -
Molecular manufacturing can be energy-efficient because the key feature of its basic mechanisms – guiding the motion of molecules using mechanical systems – imposes no great energy cost. All molecular processes, whether in biological systems or chemical processing plants, move molecules to bring molecules together in new patterns, and molecular machine systems can move molecules more efficiently than systems that subject them to fluid drag. Molecular manufacturing can be resource – efficient as well, because its products will typically contain far less material than would the products of conventional technologies. Resource – efficiency, in turn, will contribute to energy – efficiency.
Nano_Technology sigarayakonda.doc (Size: 73 KB / Downloads: 58)
ABSTRACT
Imaging curing cancer by drinking a medicine stirred into your favorite fruit juice. A supercomputer no bigger than human cells. A super craft no larger or more expensive than the family car. These are just a few promises of nanotechnology. The future of technology at times becomes easier to predict. Computers will compute faster, materials will become stronger and medicine will cure more diseases. The technology that works at the nanometer scale of molecules and atoms will be a large part of this future, enabling great improvements in all the fields of human presence. We are in for some major changes. Nanotechnology promises to make us healthy and wealthy. And it will be able to do so without consuming natural resources or spewing pollution into the environment. But what does nanotechnology mean? Think all the way down to one-billionth of a meters-a scale at which hydrogen and carbon atoms appear as large as baseballs. Now imagine picking up those atoms and building a machine. In other words, nanotechnology is about building things atom-by-atom, molecule-by-molecule. Nanotechnology is much discussed these days as an emerging frontier-a realm in which machines operate at scales of billionths of a metre. It is actually a multitude of rapidly emerging technologies, based upon the scaling down of existing technologies to the next level of precision and miniaturization. The original vision for nanotechnology is sometimes termed ‘molecular manufacturing’ or ‘molecular manufacturing-based nanotechnology’. It is the basis for the original excitement about the field, and in the future, it could lead to the building of full-scale machine and mechanisms with nanoscale dimensions. Simply put, nanotechnology is the creation of functional materials, devices and systems through control of matter on the nanometer scale, and the exploitation of novel properties and phenomena developed at that scale.
OPTIMISTS SAY? : -
Active researchers in the field of nanotechnology are enthusiastic about its potential applications in such fields as energy, medicine, electronics, computing, security and materials. This enthusiasm is, however, primarily based on laboratory discoveries, some of which are already in the process of being translated into advantageous products.
Others are more cautious about the potential of nanotechnology, nothing that certain related technologies over-promoted and, in fact, failed to do most of the things that proponents of nanotechnology said it would do. It is indeed a fact that nanotechnology, in its infancy presently, has the potential to profoundly change the economy and to improve our standard of living, in a manner not unlike the impact made by advances over the past few decades, say, by Information Technology (IT).
While commercial products are starting to come to the market, some of the major applications are yet to come out in a big way. The goal of nanotechnology is to build tiny devices called nanomachines. To build things on such a small scale, one has to be able to manipulate atoms individually. The challenge of nanotechnology is to place atoms precisely where you wish on a structure. Research in chemistry, molecular biology and scanning probe microscopy is laying the foundations for molecular machine systems. Although we are yet to build a nanomachine, molecular machines are working in our body right now. For example, consider a protein in the human body. You could think of it as a machine that moves molecules. This is basically an oxygen pump used red blood cells. The heat of other molecules around it powers it. A channel opens periodically to the centre of the protein, allowing oxygen to pass from the outside and bind with iron for transport throughout the body. Scientists can now construct natural proteins even synthesize new ones with novel properties never seen in this nature. With enough understanding, we may be able to turn proteins into microscopic to do the jobs we want.
ADVANTAGES: -
What if we could inexpensively make things with every atom in the right place? From nanotechnology we’ll be able to snap together the fundamental building blocks of nature easily, inexpensively and in most of the ways permitted by the laws of physics. This is essential to continue the revolution in computer hardware right down to the molecular gates and wires-something that today’s lithographic methods, which are used to make computer chips, could never achieve. Additionally, we could inexpensively make very stronger, lighter, cleaner and more precise materials according to our convenience.
This may include shatterproof diamond in precisely the shapes we want and over fifty times lighter than steel of the same strength. We could make surgical instruments of such precision and deftness that they could operate on the cells and even molecules from which we are made-something well beyond today’s medical technology.
The list goes on and on-almost any manufactured product could be vastly improved, often by orders of magnitude. Also the ‘bottom-up’ manufacturing approach-making materials and products from the bottom-up that is, building them up from atoms and molecules-would require less material and create less pollution.
THE MOLECULAR ASEMBLER:-
The goal of early nanotechnology was to produce the first Nano-size robotic arm capable of manipulating atoms and molecules either into a useful product or copies of itself. One nano-assembler working atom by atom would be rather slow because most desirable products are made of trillions and trillions of atoms. However, such an assembler robot arm is designed to make copies of it and those copies are capable of making further copies. This would soon result in a situation where objects would be assembled quickly by trillions of such nano supercomputer-controlled assemblers working in parallel. But why focus on manufacturing from the molecular dimensions? This is because manufacturing is basically a method for arranging atoms. Most methods arrange atoms crudely even the finest commercial microchips are grossly irregular at the atomic scale, and much of today’s nanotechnology faces the same challenge. The molecular assembler is the answer to this challenge. Once perfected, it will position the molecules, bringing them together to the specific location and at desired time. By holding and positioning molecules in this way, the molecular assemblers will control with precision how the molecules react, building up complex structures that finally lead to the desired product.
With its ability to make a wide range of structures with atomic precision, molecular manufacturing will greatly expand the limits of technological possibility. It will make possible micron-scale computer CPUs efficient enough (with operating power of approximately 100 nanowatts) to let air-cooled desktop systems contain a billion processors. As computing becomes more central to the socio-economic mechanisms of society, secure computing is also growing.
INEXPENSIVE: -
Molecular manufacturing will be inexpensive because it uses small amounts of material and energy, and its costs of capital, land and labour will be low. Capital will be inexpensive because molecular manufacturing systems can be quickly used to build additional molecular manufacturing systems. Land and labour will add little to the costs because little of either will be needed. Setting aside costs external to manufacturing, the intrinsic costs of products made by molecular manufacturing would typically be little more than the cost of the required raw materials and energy.
ENERGY-EFFICIENT: -
Molecular manufacturing can be energy-efficient because the key feature of its basic mechanisms – guiding the motion of molecules using mechanical systems – imposes no great energy cost. All molecular processes, whether in biological systems or chemical processing plants, move molecules to bring molecules together in new patterns, and molecular machine systems can move molecules more efficiently than systems that subject them to fluid drag. Molecular manufacturing can be resource – efficient as well, because its products will typically contain far less material than would the products of conventional technologies. Resource – efficiency, in turn, will contribute to energy – efficiency.