THE INVISIBLE
FRONTIER Nanotechnology will provide us with more power in the volume of a sugar cube than exists in the entire world today
Ralph Merkle, computer scientist and inventor
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eemingly, nothing exists that cannot be improved with a sprinkling of nanotech. However, it is all too easy to get carried away with the hype, and we know that expectations for new technology travel at light-speed. The big questions are: will nanotech really keep its promises, and when can we expect to see them realised? In October, the Czech Embassy in London played host to a wide variety of nanotech businesses for their Czech Nano Day. Refreshments came in the form of water taken from the Thames that morning, rendered drinkable with the use of nanofiltration systems. Clothes were displayed, made from nanofibres that are antibacterial, stain-resistant, and incorporate UV protection. Meanwhile, the Embassy’s exterior wall had been painted with a special coating developed by FN Advanced Materials, which not only remains white for twenty years, but removes some car-generated pollutants from the atmosphere. The ‘big hitter’ of the day was bedding created from nanofibres so thin and tight, that it is rendered impenetrable to dust mites and allergens. What exactly is nanotechnology? Nano technology (generally accepted) is the study and use of structures between 1 and 100 nanometres (nm) in size. To put
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this into perspective, the diameter of a human hair is around 75,000nm. Although we have been experimenting on a nanoscale for centuries, the true age of nanotech began in 1989, when Don Eigler and Erhard Schweizer manipulated 35 individual xenon atoms to spell out the IBM logo, at the tech giant’s Almaden Research Centre. Although we have seen nanotech increase its presence in our lives (amongst other things, it has been making our golf balls fly straighter since the 1990s), advancements have been mainly in the field of incremental or evolutionary nanotech. While building on previous inventions and improving them is a clear priority, radical nanotechnology is its most exciting – and elusive – field. There are four areas of nanotechnology research that appear particularly interesting: personal sensors, material sensors, self-repair and the environment. Personal sensors These are pieces of technology that read our bio signs in different ways. The most famous of which is probably the Fitbit - increasing in sales from just over 58 thousand in 2010 to over 22 million in 2016. Tattoos and clothing that sense our vital signs are on trial. Meanwhile, nanotech-based medical solutions seek to prevent post-surgical inflammation and infection, along with the creation of organs for transplant patients. What about broader applications; sensors that can be implanted to tell doctors what’s wrong, and even fix the issue? The British pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) is already investing in this area. “If we look 10 years out, we should have a number of tiny devices—we call them bioelectronic medicines, because they are medicines—that will be treating conditions we use molecular medicines
