Week 8: Nanotechnology

Richard Feynman

This week's topic discussed the field of nanotechnology and how almost every aspect of science is impacted by technology. Dr. Gimzewski lead lectures this week, and his insight on the effect of nanotechnology made it clear that nanotechnology is beginning to push us over the edge in the 21st century, shifting the paradigm. For basics, nanotechnology is based on a scale of nanometers, in three scales of a thousand, a billionth of a meter. Richard Feynman lead a talk on "There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom" where he discusses about how there is room in technology to make tiny things change the world. His vision was that "the principle of physics do not speak against the possibility of maneuvering things from atom to atom," but how "we can manipulate things on the atomic scale." (Lecture). Feynman realized that as we shrink to the nanoscale, the laws of physics can change and allow quantum effects to dominate. 

Richard Smalley

Nanometer Scale

What really put nanotechnology on the map were Richard Smalley and Eric Drexler's theoretical concepts on carbon forms. The idea of seeing individual atoms in space and being able to manipulate them was a discovery that changed the thinking of technology. What made this possible was the development of the Scanning Tunneling Microscope. This microscope was designed to allow scientists to feel the surface of atoms by touch. The "finger" was a fine needle that could approach an atom and detect the surface of the atom. With this development, scientists could detect and even closer visual of the structure of molecules inside an atom. This development changed the way in which we can look at surfaces of molecules that can either be conducting or non-conducting.

Nanoparticles 

Nano particles also had an impact on nanotechnology because they had the ability to generate colors and pigments in particles. Nano particles can be used in a variety of applications and technologies, but the ones that has the mist to improve life is medicine. Nano medicine offers great benefits that can better our health. Quantum dots, for example, are made on the nano scale that can tag particular types of disease with the use of color killing tissue cells. 

In all, nanotechnology has improved our way of analyzing the structure of atoms and has given us the ability to self organize structures of molecules. 

Citations

Lecture with Professor Gimzewski

Richard Feynman <https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7Y0qhcAN9RZylQpWoGNMRCWfqBXhV_uZsDRFvHseTFd-WTqKsVKjF2sRn2k-ePgI6F_7_Il_eJQ-XTqc-IUtW9HHFNtjCaf9BWXFY1P3Xj4XAWO2U9FRojr9J4QexD3k7q_3bcVf4MjE/s1600/richard-feynman-nano-big.jpg%3E>

Nanometer Scale <https://www.nanosonic.com/images/large/108.jpg>

Richard Smalley <http://www.chemheritage.org/discover/online-resources/chemistry-in-history/themes/microelectronics-and-nanotechnology/smalley-curl-kroto.aspx>

Nanoparticles <http://cdn.phys.org/newman/gfx/news/hires/2008/anewpyrexnan.jpg>