Engines the size of a single atom. A world map 1/1000 the size of a grain of salt. Nanobot soccer on a single grain of rice. All of these futuristic feats are now possible due to advancement in nanotechnology. Nanotechnology is a field of science that deals with the manipulation of atoms and molecules at the nanoscale (one nanometer is 10-9 meters). Nanotechnology has been harnessed throughout history unsuspectingly in the creation of materials such as stained-glass windows and Damascus steel. However, the last century has been a time of great development in our understanding of the properties of substances at the nanoscale. In this article, we explore some of the major events that have shaped the field of nanotechnology.
- On December 29, 1959, American physicist Richard Feynman gave his famous speech “There’s Plenty of Room at the Bottom” at the annual American Physical Society meeting. Unrecognized by most at the time, this speech suggesting the manipulation of atoms would be a groundbreaking beginning to the field of nanotechnology. In this speech, Feynman challenged physicists to write the entirety of the Encyclopedia Britannica on the head of a pin, and offered $1000 to anyone who could achieve the needed minimization of text by 1/25,000 of a scale.
- In 1974, Japanese scientist Norio Taniguchi coined the term “nanotechnology” as a field of study that focuses on the manipulation of individual atoms.
- In 1981, physicists Gerd Binning and Heinrich Rohrer invented the Scanning Tunneling Microscope which used a sharp tip close to a conductive surface allowing electrons to pass back and forth when a voltage is applied. This allowed for imaging at the atomic level for the first time.
- Feynman’s challenge was finally completed in 1985 by Tom Newman, a graduate student at Stanford University who printed the first page of Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities in the required scale. Newman utilized a pattern generator to scan a beam of electrons over polymethyl methacrylate, which broke its bonds allowing certain areas to be carved away.
- In 1986, Eric Drexler popularized the idea of molecular engineering through his book Engines of Creation: The Coming Era of Nanotechnology, which described atomic-level machines which can self-produce nanostructures.
- One of the first instances of direct manipulation of atoms was in 1989 when Donald Eigler, a physicist at IBM, discovered he could move individual atoms by bringing the tip of a Scanning Tunneling Microscope close to Xenon atoms. Eiger and his colleague Schweizer completed a groundbreaking project on November 11th when they moved Xenon atoms to carefully spell out “IBM.”
- In 1985, Robert Curl, Harold Kroto, and Richard Smalley discovered that carbon can exist in hollow spheres known as fullerenes or buckyballs. Buckyballs prove immensely useful due to their durability and ability to serve as trackers when another molecule is suspended within. 1991, Iijima discovered carbon nanotubes, which are the tube form of fullerenes. Nanotubules are strong and flexible and have been utilized as composite fiber to improve the thermal and electrical properties of substances. Later, Xu et al. discovered carbon dots, a new class of nanomaterials that are inexpensive and non-toxic.
- Today, nanotechnology is harnessed in a variety of increasingly interdisciplinary scientific fields. Current medical usages of nanotechnology include detecting diseases at early stages through molecular imaging. Nanotechnology can also create polymers that destroy antibiotic-resistant bacteria or chemotherapy drugs for aggressive cancers. Additionally, nanotechnology is also being used for energy purposes, with nanomaterials serving as molecular sieves for catalyzing the refinement of fossil fuels or used as more effective solar cells for converting sunlight into electricity.
Nanotechnology possesses immense potential for transforming science and technology. Through zooming in to processes at the atomic scale, we can create huge changes to the world as a whole.
Works Cited
Bayda, Samer, et al. “The History of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology: From Chemical–Physical Applications to Nanomedicine.” Molecules, vol. 25, no. 1, Dec. 2019, p. 112, https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules25010112.
Lozano, Carey. “Nanotechnology.” Education.nationalgeographic.org, National Geographic Society, 12 Nov. 2024, education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/nanotechnology/.
“Nanotechnologies: 1. What Is Nanotechnology?” Ec.europa.eu, 2006, ec.europa.eu/health/scientific_committees/opinions_layman/en/nanotechnologies/l-2/1-introduction.htm.
“Nanotechnology | IBM.” Www.ibm.com, http://www.ibm.com/history/nanotechnology.
POWERFUL Things from a TINY WORLD. http://www.nano.gov/sites/default/files/pub_resource/nano_energy_brochure_upload_feb_12_2014.pdf.
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