Nanotechnology is already the most promising and funded field in science…

Michelle Zavslayskaya

Nanotechnologies are the future: Their innovative potential is huge, and their scope is rapidly expanding.

Nanotechnology is a set of methods that lets you create objects of nanoscale sizes (from 1 to 100 nm).

These objects have unique properties that will allow them to be used for the latest scientific achievements.

According to the National Institutes of Health, the field of application of nanotechnologies in medicine is as extensive as medicine itself.

Fred Hjertsedt

Fred Hjertsedt

From painting hospital walls with special bactericidal paints containing silver nanoparticles to creating artificial organs, scientists can use nanotechnology.

Pharmacologists find use in nanotechnology to assist the assimilation of biologically active substances, depending on their conclusion inside nanocomplexes.

However, any disease is easier to prevent than to treat.

Nanotechnology provides a whole arsenal of tools, including x-rays, magnetic resonance imaging, and ultrasound diagnostics.

Especially surprising are the methods of rapid diagnostics, which allow using biochips to determine in minutes by a drop of blood whether a person is ill with one of several dozen tested diseases.

Nano-sensors will provide progress in the early diagnosis of diseases and therefore can potentially increase chances of recovery.

Fred Hjertsedt, CLC biology professor, said nanotechnology will continue to develop relatively quickly, as most technologies do.

“There will be all sorts of applications, and it will run from a human genome to the nervous system to the cardiac system potentially to repair systems that need to be replaced at the nano level,” Hjerstedt said. “They’re developing products and technologies so small that they can actually be put in the body and sit inside cells.

  “I envision us being able to do this futuristically where we develop these nano technologies devices, we might certainly be able to control them externally with another device. We can already do that with pacemakers’ defibrillators, neurostimulators and things like that so we can communicate with devices that are implanted in our body.”

In addition to the medical field, Nanotechnology can help in mechanical engineering and construction.

According to Purdue University, all bulky equipment will be replaced by robots, which are easily controlled.

They will be able to create any mechanisms at the level of atoms and molecules.

New nanomaterials that can reduce friction, protect parts from damage and save energy will be used for the production of machines.

Fred Hjertsedt

Fred Hjertsedt

However, nanotechnologies do not enter real practice very quickly. Not many devices – mostly electronics – work with nano.

 This is partly because of the high price of nanotechnology and the low return on nanotechnology products.

Regarding construction, nano-sensors of building structures will monitor their strength and detect any threats to their integrity.

Objects built using nanotechnology can last five times longer than modern structures.

The houses will adapt to the needs of residents, providing them with coolness in summer and keeping them warm in winter.

Scientists believe that the emergence of nanotechnology is the beginning of a new scientific and technological revolution that will change the world in the 21st century.