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by Tondoteottotote on February 10th, 2005

Tondoteottotote

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What are some possible applications of nanotechnology?

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Answers. 11 helpful answers below.

  • by Dialach on March 7th, 2005

    Dialach

    "Imagine a medical device that travels through the human body to seek out and destroy small clusters of cancerous cells before they can spread. Or a box no larger than a sugar cube that contains the entire contents of the Library of Congress. Or materials much lighter than steel that possess ten times as much strength." - U.S. National Science Foundation

    The applications of nanotechnology are near limitless, but the main focus seems to be on its use in medical applications. That seems to be what's driving the research, since it would give us the opprotunity to cure most diseases, even possibly eliminating the concept of natural death. There are so many other applications, however, ranging from mundane to incredibly profound.

    It's possible for there to be clothes destroy bodily odor, that don't stain, that don't tear without mending themselves. You could have nanorobotic blood cells that would carry oxygen more efficiently, allowing you to hold your breath for much, much longer. We could virtually eliminate the damage radiation does to our bodies. Oil spills could be easily and efficiently cleaned. There are limitless possibilities.

    Therea are a few down sides, though. There's the possibility of what they call "gray goo." Here's an excerpt from a New York Times article:

    "The strategy would be to create nanofactories or ''auto-assemblers'' the size of cells, which would be programmed to collect raw material from the natural world (atoms, molecules) and convert it (slowly, piece by piece) into the building blocks of the desired product. In order to build the product on a human scale, these auto-assemblers would have to be able to reproduce themselves -- also using raw material from the natural world -- in massive numbers.

    Gray goo is what would happen if one of the auto-assemblers went haywire and the self-replication never stopped. In just 10 hours an unchecked self-replicating auto-assembler would spawn 68 billion offspring; in less than two days the auto-assemblers would outweigh the earth."

    Of course, by the time that's possible, there should be a multitude of ways to prevent that from happening, but it's still something to keep in mind. Nonetheless, it's no reason to be afraid of the development of nanotechnology.

    Links that may be of interest to you:

    Center for Responsible Nanotechnology
    http://www.crnano.org/

    The Ethics of Nanotechnology by Andrew Chen
    http://www.scu.edu/ethics/publications/submitted/chen/nanotechnology.html

    National Nanotechnology Initiative
    http://www.nano.gov/

    Nanotechnology Now
    http://www.nanotech-now.com/

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  • by Anonymous on December 23rd, 2005

    Anonymous

    Unfortunetly nano tech can be the most insidious weapon ever created. You can create nano tech that is capable of destroying the oppositions technology on all levels. Nano tech can be used to kill people on mass scales. Although I admire the enormous possibilities our culture is incapable of controlling such all encompassing possibilities. If it were released it would be an escalating race to counteract each of possible approaches that would be unleashed against us. Eventually both sides will fail. This will be another Mutally Assured Destruction scenario. I fear we are just not ready for such GOD like capabilities. It may even change mankinds long term makeup and make all of us immortal.

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  • by 8 Jan 2004-10 Dec 2009 on August 29th, 2005

    8 Jan 2004-10 Dec 2009

    A minor one I have not seen mentioned here is Monowire. It's a Bucky-tube, just one, long molecule with great tensile strength. Think Kevlar on steroids.
    Of course, cyberpunk fiction uses it more to slice people in half, either with a weighted end (as a whip) or bonded to the edge of a bladed weapon (better thatn Ginsu!).

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  • by intellagency on August 11th, 2005

    intellagency

    Medical use would be the main thing, of course (as mentioned in the first article), but with nanotechnology, you could replace everything you own with nanotechnilogically manifactured items. Then, all of the the fibers in those items could be strenghened individually, making them virtually more detaile and almost everlasting.

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  • by zeropointburn on April 22nd, 2005

    zeropointburn

    One of the most interesting applications of nanotechnology principles that is in production today is Texas Instruments' digital light processor (DLP).
    This device is an array of tiny mirrors on cantilevers, controlled by electrical impulses. It's purpose is to digitally produce a high-resolution optical image, most commonly replacing LCD projectors. DLP chips are also used in some high-definition televisions. Granted, it's not the kind of nanorobot most people envision, but within the field of optics, it's a tremendous step forward. Also, it works, and you can buy one today.
    See: http://www.dlp.com

    This is only one application of the technology, however. Digitally manipulating light is critical in developing computers that use light impulses, rather than electrical impulses, to process data. If the device can be controlled by optical, rather than electrical, configuration data, you can expect to see it in optical computers and networking equipment.

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  • by Patent Attorney on April 8th, 2005

    Patent Attorney

    Nanotechnology is here. The first major commerical application will likely be in computer memory chips. They are use an array of miniaturized cantilevered arms to read the surface of a memory for 1s and 0s. IBM and a Silicon Valley start-up both plan to roll-out nanotech memory chips in 2006. The application will eventually provide much increased storage capacity, for example, 25 full length movies on a single DVD.

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  • by Tondoteottotote on February 28th, 2005

    Tondoteottotote

    The applications in the Costs of nanotechnology:

    Moreover, would you like to know about the costs? They may cost a significant amount when humans first make their prototypes but once nanofactories (probably the size of toasters) come about and become programmed to create them, the costs will probably be nil.

    What about the cost of Raw Materials, you say? Probably nil again; Have you seen common household dust? A nanofactory may turn any speck of dust into just about anything. One might have suction to draw in as much dust from the room as possible, or might send nano-"probes" to actively seek out and capture every last speck of dust in the building. Once in the nanofactory, they will get atomically edited and transformed into whatever the owner desires (not including prohibited items, like illicit drugs, weapons, and so on. There will be safety features against them.)

    Beyond that, they could draw in pollutive air and turn them into useful items. For example: we have excess Carbon Dioxide on the planet and it's contributing to global warming. Therefore, nanofactories can draw in the excess and use them to produce diamonds, make computers, cars, tools, and even buildings out of diamond!

    So due to the self-replicating abilities of nanotech, the cost of almost everything will go down, down, down, and way-y-y-y-y down.

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  • by Tondoteottotote on February 28th, 2005

    Tondoteottotote

    A few of many, many applications in nanotech:

    When nanotech arrives, self-sufficient nano-mechanics will have a "nanoautocenter" inside both bumpers of a vehicle.

    That way, in the event of an accident, if the forces still overcome the energy shields used to protect the car, thus cause damage of various sorts, then the nanomechanics will get right to work and autonomously repair the vehicle.

    If the other vehicle struck is an antique that the owner decided not to put nanoautocenters in, the nanomechanics will still repair the other car as well.

    This way, instead of saying "I hope you have insurance, you impotent!", they'd say, "Ok, lets just stand back and watch them repair themselves. Gotta love the technology these days, eh? What's next? Vehicles that reproduce??? Oh well, we'll be back on the road in about a minute! Just be careful next time, ok?"

    And since there are injuries or deaths in an accident, vehicles will also become fitted with "nanohospitals", so their nanosurgeons, nanodoctors, and nanonurses quickly and autonomously heal the driver and any occupants affected, as well as those in other vehicles involved if necessary.

    In the event of death, nanotech will make it possible to resurrect them after a much longer period of time. I'll leave the how up to your imagination.

    (So I make sense to you, "nanosurgeons", "nanomechanics", and so forth will be nano-robots destined to perform tasks that their human counterparts would normally do.)

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  • by Anonymous on August 3rd, 2007

    Anonymous

    Medical applications are boundless. Military applications are apocryphal.

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  • by Greg Griffin on August 4th, 2007

    Greg Griffin

    Almost limitless.

    Medical, electronic, environmental, military (unfortunately) - the list is endless.

    And we shouldn't be afraid of new technology because it may cause harm - best to encourage the technology and fight those who would pervert it to evil ends. We should treat the causes of evil in society (i.e. nearly every politician on the planet) and not shy away from the future.

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  • by lilsissy on August 3rd, 2007

    lilsissy

    Morgellons

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