Career in Nanotechnology

Nanotechnology is a phrase used for materials and devices that operate at the nanoscale. In the metric system of measurement. "Nano" equals a billionth and therefore a nanometer is one billionth of a meter. References to nanomaterials, nanoelectronics, nano devices and nanopowders simply mean the material or activity can be measured in nanometers. To appreciate the size of a human red blood cell is over 2,000 nanometers long, virtually outside the range of nanoscale.

Nanotechnology and Nanoscience is an extension of the field of materials science and the departments of materials science in universities around the world in relation to physics, mechanical engineering, bioengineering and chemical engineering departments are leading the advances in nanotechnologies. Nanotechnology is the term used to describe the interdisciplinary fields of science devoted to the study of nanoscale phenomena employed in nanotechnology. Nano science is the world of atoms, molecules, macromolecules, quantum dots and macromolecular assemblies and is dominated by surface effects as the attraction of Van der Waals force, hydrogen bonding, electronic charge, ionic bonding, covalent bonding, hydrophobicity, hydrophilicity and quantum mechanical tunneling, to the virtual exclusion of macro scale effects such as turbulence and inertia.

How are Nanotechnologies used today

Despite views that Nanotechnology is a far-fetched idea with no near term applications, Nanotechnology has already established a beached in several industries. The majority of nanotechnologies commercially used today are based on nono-sized particles.

Nanocomposites are also watching commercial use. nanocomposite plastics are used for stronger, lighter and rust-proof car components. Toyota recently began using nanocomposites in bumpers that makes them 60% lighter and twice as resistant denting and scratching. The biomedical field isa manufacturing artificial bone composites from nanocrystalline calcium phosphates. These composites are made of the same mineral as natural bone, yet have strength in compression equal to stainless steel.

History of Nanotechnology

The scientific community generally credited with first recognizing the importance of nanoscale range of Noble Laureate the brilliant physicist Richard Feynman in his famous 1959 lecture "There's plenty of room at the bottom" in which he first proposed that the properties materials and devices on nanometer range present future opportunities. The term came to greater public awareness in 1986 with the publication of "Engines of Creation: the coming era of nanotechnology" by Eric Drexler.

What is the future of Nanotechnology

Nanotechnology is expected to have an impact on nearly all industries. U.S. National Science Foundation has predicted that the global nanotechnology market will reach $ 1 trillion or more within 20 years. The research community is actively pursuing hundreds of applications in nanomaterials, nanoelectronics, and bionanotechnology. Most short-term (1-5 years) applications of nanotechnology are in the form of nanomaterials. These include materials such as nanocomposites lighter and stronger, antibacterial nanoparticles and nanostructured catalysts. Scientific and nanoelectronics are more distant, perhaps 5 to 15 years, and have applications in medical and diagnostic treatments, faster computers and sensors.

What are the safety, hazard and public issues with Nanotechnology?

Numerous articles have been published recently warning of the dangers of unregulated nanotechnologies. The great thing about them is the threat of gray goo, a substance resulting from the assumption of the dissolution of the fugitive from the land by self-replicating nanobots. While many of these concerns seem less science than science fiction, the vast scale of these materials do not present safety and the environment that must be addressed responsibly by the industry at least in the same manner as fine particles materials are currently handled under existing health conditions and safety guideline.