Issue link: https://industrialmanagement.epubxp.com/i/285723
Companies, universities and governments around the world have invested billions in nanotech research. While biotechnology has developed from its nascent research beginnings into incredible commercial applications and social benefits, the ramifications of the second technological global tectonic remain more difficult to predict. This next force, nanotechnology, is positioned to have major global tectonic effects – yet, ironically, what it makes use of is so small that it cannot be seen with the human eye. One nanometer is one-billionth of a meter. Put another way, there are 1 million nanometers in 1 millimeter. For perspective, the width of a human hair is approximately 80,000 nanometers. Nanotechnology is used to rearrange molecules so that essentially every atom can be put in its most efficient place. Ralph Merkle of the Georgia Institute of Technology explains it this way: "Manufactured products are made from atoms, and the properties of those products depend on how those atoms are arranged. If we rearrange the atoms in coal, we can make diamond. If we rearrange the atoms in sand and add a few other trace elements, we can make computer chips. If we rearrange the atoms in dirt, water and air, we can make potatoes." New material, new properties But nanotechnology is not just the miniaturization of products and rearranging of atoms. When moving from the micro level (1 micrometer is one-millionth of a meter) to the nano level, materials exhibit new properties. For example, "large" particles of titanium (on the micron scale) absorb sunlight; therefore they are used in some sunscreens. Unfortunately, these large particles show up white on the noses of lifeguards. The nanoscale titanium particles absorb exponentially more light due to greater surface area. As a result, they appear translucent, leaving lifeguards with more natural-looking noses. Nanotech sunblock also lasts longer on the skin. In addition to having a larger surface area, "nanoparticles in the three-to-five nanometer range behave a lot like gas particles," said Peter Dobson, a professor of engineering science at Oxford and the founder of several nanotechnology startups. Nano-enhanced materials offer new combinations of material character- istics. Scientists can use nanotechnology to produce materials that are both hard and tough, whereas hard materials are usually brittle and tough materials usually soft. And these are just some of the many different characteristics and possibilities nanotechnology presents. Though Richard Feynman, who received the Nobel Prize in physics in 1965, conceptualized the idea behind nanotechnology more than half a century ago, we are beginning to see wide uses for these emerging nanotechnologies in this century. A decade ago, Jack Uldrich and Deb Newberry wrote in their book The Next Big Thing is Really Small: How Nanotechnology Will Change the Future of Your Business that nanotechnology was not a far-off, fuzzy, futuristic technology: "It has already established a beachhead in the economy. The clothing industry is starting to feel the effects of nanotech. Eddie Bauer, for example, is currently using embedded nanoparticles to create stain-repellent khakis. This seemingly simple innovation will impact not only khaki-wearers, but dry cleaners, who will find their business declining; detergent makers, who will find less of their product moving off the shelf; and stain-removal makers, who will experience a sharp decrease in customers. This modest, fairly low-tech application of nanotechnology is just the small tip of a vast iceberg – an iceberg that threatens to sink even the 'unsinkable' companies." Within the past decade, advancements in new instruments and technologies that provide scientists and researchers with the ability to better examine and manipulate matter now allow for a foreseeable future nanotechnology revolution. Since nanotechnology's beginnings, companies, universities and governments around the world have invested billions in nanotech research. According to M.C. Roco and his co-editors in Nanotechnology Research Directions for Societal Needs in march/april 2014 19 IM MarApr 2014.indd 19 3/24/14 12:13 PM