“Nanotechnology has its roots in a talk delivered in 1959 by physicist Richard Feynman to the American Physical Society. He predicted a time when individual atoms and molecules might be used as the building blocks for a set of tools that could then make a smaller set, and so on. The scale he was talking about strains the imagination. A nanometer - nm - (from the Greek word nanos, dwarf) is one-billionth of a metre. To help you visualise how small that is, a red blood cell is about 7,000nm across, a human hair 80,000nm wide and a water molecule slightly less than 0.3nm in diameter. The science of nanotechnology generally inhabits the region of 0.1nm to 100nm.

The science behind the theory became a reality in the 1980s with the invention of specialist microscopes which allowed scientists to see how atoms and molecules behaved in different conditions. By manipulating those conditions - say, with other chemicals, heat, moisture, electromagnetism and so on - they could encourage atoms and molecules to form useful shapes.

This resulted in the creation of new nanomaterials built at the atomic level that promise to revolutionise everything from chemistry to aeronautics. Some nanotechnology products are already on the market - sunscreens, for example, make use of titanium oxide, TiO2. At larger scales TiO2 is white, opaque and good for blocking ultraviolet light. However, at the nanoscale it becomes transparent while retaining its UV-blocking properties, making it perfect for protection against the sun’s harmful rays.

Others look set to follow. Carbon nanotubes, for example, could revolutionise the construction industry. Seamless tubes of graphite one atom thick and 10,000 long (to the naked eye, large quantities would look like soot), carbon nanotubes are up to 100 times stronger than steel but around eight times lighter. They can be teased into a twine that can be woven into sheets and, potentially, mixed with composites to eventually overhaul the way - and the height to which - we build. And those buildings could be covered with solar cells made from nanomaterials that could supply all their energy needs. In medicine, “nanocapsules” containing pharmaceuticals that can be programmed to release their cargoes only on contact with, say, cancer cells, are promising new and improved treatments. Not surprising, then, that the proponents of nanotechnology predict that it will lead to a new industrial revolution.”

Source: Steve Boggan, The Guardian