Nanotechnology Technology has evolved from ideals once seen as unbelievable to common everyday instruments. Computers that used to occupy an entire room are now the size of notebooks. The human race has always pushed for technological advances working at the most efficient level, perhaps, the molecular level. The developments and progress in artificial intelligence and molecular technology have spawned a new form of technology; Nanotechnology. The definition of Nanotechnology is research and technology development at the atomic, molecular or macromolecular levels, in the length scale of approximately 1-100 nanometer range, providing a fundamental understanding of phenomena and materials at this scale and creating and using structures, devices and systems that have novel properties and functions because of their small size. Richard Feynman, Nobel Prize winner in physics, envisioned the theoretical capability of nanotechnology in 1959, starting: “I want to build a billion tiny factories, models of each other, which are manufacturing simultaneously… The principles of physics, as far as I can see, do not speak against the possibility of maneuvering thing atom by atom. It is not an attempt to violate any laws; it is something, in principle, that can be done; but in practice, it has not been done because we are too big” (Feynman). Shortly after this envisioned molecular machinery is created, it will result in a manufacturing revolution, probably causing severe disruption. In its advanced form, it will have significant impact on almost all industries and all areas of society. It will help create better built, longer lasting, cleaner, safer, and smarter products for the home, for communications, for medicine, for transportation, for agriculture, and for industry in general. To understand its implications, try to imagine a medical device that roams through the human body to find and destroy tiny clusters of cancerous cells before they can spread. Or a box the size of a sugar cube that holds the entire contents of a public library. In the future, nanotechnology will be responsible for being able to build devices that kill a single cell. Ralph C. Merkle explains how a device of this sort will affect cancer cell: “The device would have a small computer, several binding sites to determine the concentration of specific molecules, and a supply of some poison which could be selectively released and was able to kill a cell identified as cancerous” (Merkle). Nanotech will result greatly improved efficiency in almost every aspect of life. It will have both commercial and military uses. It can be used to create powerful weapons and tools of surveillance. So it comes with benefits. Nanotechnology implies not just better products, but a much improved manufacturing process. With nanotech, building products becomes as cheap as the copying of files on a computer. This explains why it is sometimes seen as “the next industrial revolution”. “Nanotechnology will let us build computers that are incredibly powerful. We’ll have power in the volume of a sugar cube than exists in the entire world today” (Merkle). In 2007, $60 billion worth of nano-enabled products were sold, and this figure is predicted to rise to$150 billion by 2008. Nanotechnology will also produce employment opportunities, with an anticipated 7 million jobs generated globally by nanotechnology in the next decade. By 2014, the Lux Research group predicts that $2.6 trillion in manufactured goods will incorporate nanotechnology -- about 15 percent of total global output. Nanotechnology may have its biggest impact on the medical industry. There is even speculation that nanorobots could slow or reverse the aging process, and life expectancy could increase significantly. “Nanorobots could also be programmed to perform delicate surgeries such nanosurgeons could work at a level a thousand times more precise, a nanorobot could operate without leaving the scars that conventional surgery
