Nanotechnology: What is it, and how corporations are using it.
Loukas | 20.02.2005 16:20 | Technology
This is part of briefing published by Corporate Watch.
Full text at:
http://www.corporatewatch.org.uk/newsletter/issue22/issue22_part6.htm
Full text at:
http://www.corporatewatch.org.uk/newsletter/issue22/issue22_part6.htm
What is Nanotechnology?
Nanotechnology is the manipulation of matter at a size so small that it is measured in Nanometres,(one billionth of a metre) the scale of atoms and molecules. It’s difficult to grasp quite how small the nanoscale is. To give some reference points: one nanometre (nm) is one millionth of a millimetre, a human hair is 80,000nm across, a red blood cell is 5,000nm in diameter, a DNA molecule is 2.5nm wide and it takes 10 hydrogen atoms arranged side by side to measure 1nm wide.
Everything is the same
When viewed at the nanoscale the whole world starts to look the same, everything both living and non-living on this planet is made up of atoms and molecules, and at the nanoscale that’s all you see.
Things behave differently
Below about 50nm the rules that govern the behaviour of the elements of our known world start to give way to the rules of quantum mechanics, and everything changes. To take the example of gold, we are all familiar with gold at the macro scale, for instance, a normal gold ring is a familiar shiny orangey/yellow colour. The same is true of a particle of gold 100nm wide, but, a particle of gold 30nm across is bright red, slightly bigger than that it is purple and going smaller still it’s brownish in colour. It’s not just colour that changes at the nanoscale -- other properties including strength, reactivity, conductivity, electrical properties also change as size and shape change.
Why is the nanoscale interesting to corporations?
For corporations nanotechnology opens up a whole new world of possible applications and product opportunities across all sectors of the economy: smaller and faster computers; drugs that permeate the body more effectively and can target specific cells; catalysts (used to speed up chemical reactions, including oil-refining processes) can be made more reactive; sensors can monitor everything with much greater precision; materials can be stronger, lighter and 'smarter'. Given the diverse range of applications to which nanotechnology can be put it is perhaps more accurate to talk of nanotechnologies.
Nanotechnology is the manipulation of matter at a size so small that it is measured in Nanometres,(one billionth of a metre) the scale of atoms and molecules. It’s difficult to grasp quite how small the nanoscale is. To give some reference points: one nanometre (nm) is one millionth of a millimetre, a human hair is 80,000nm across, a red blood cell is 5,000nm in diameter, a DNA molecule is 2.5nm wide and it takes 10 hydrogen atoms arranged side by side to measure 1nm wide.
Everything is the same
When viewed at the nanoscale the whole world starts to look the same, everything both living and non-living on this planet is made up of atoms and molecules, and at the nanoscale that’s all you see.
Things behave differently
Below about 50nm the rules that govern the behaviour of the elements of our known world start to give way to the rules of quantum mechanics, and everything changes. To take the example of gold, we are all familiar with gold at the macro scale, for instance, a normal gold ring is a familiar shiny orangey/yellow colour. The same is true of a particle of gold 100nm wide, but, a particle of gold 30nm across is bright red, slightly bigger than that it is purple and going smaller still it’s brownish in colour. It’s not just colour that changes at the nanoscale -- other properties including strength, reactivity, conductivity, electrical properties also change as size and shape change.
Why is the nanoscale interesting to corporations?
For corporations nanotechnology opens up a whole new world of possible applications and product opportunities across all sectors of the economy: smaller and faster computers; drugs that permeate the body more effectively and can target specific cells; catalysts (used to speed up chemical reactions, including oil-refining processes) can be made more reactive; sensors can monitor everything with much greater precision; materials can be stronger, lighter and 'smarter'. Given the diverse range of applications to which nanotechnology can be put it is perhaps more accurate to talk of nanotechnologies.
Loukas