Nanotechnology

[Clement]

What happened to nanotechnology? a few years back (five or more) there was a lot of excitement about it in the media, the last i remember was some kind of new material that was going to be made from carbon by re-arranging it's building blocks.

It was going to be much stronger than steel and lighter than carbon, they had an idea to make aeroplanes out of it and really increase safety, after that loads more materials would be in the pipeline, heck even scare stories started appearing about what could happen if nanotech went nuts.

Some kind of apocalyptic scenario where grey goo made with nanotechnology would eat into everything and expand uncontrollably was put forward, but now nothing, i have'nt read or heard anything about it in ages.

Anyone know of any news? any strange new materials in the pipeline? any grey goo eating into the pavements near you?

 

[lovexylitol]

I do not know what the gray goo is about, but nano-tech is being used to create semi-conductors and processors. You might have noticed how Intel like to advertise how they use 45-nm manufacturing to make their processors.

Your gray goo might mean carbon nanotubes, and I'm not really sure where they might be used in real life(yet).

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

The media keeps hyping up scientific "revolutions", ignorant of the fact that most scientific discoveries are made over years or even decades by multiple teams in multiple locations that continually reconfirm and improve results, and that said scientific discoveries may take time to engineer for real-life applications and also time to establish economic feasibility.

Your gray goo might mean carbon nanotubes, and I'm not really sure where they might be used in real life(yet).

"Gray goo" refers to the scenario by which nanomachines that break down everyday objects to manufacture other things run out of control, turning everything into more copies of themselves or some other substance, the proverbial "gray goo".

 

[Akkon888]

Nanotechnology is common now. No more hype about it.

I have heard hype though, about graphene. It is basically a component used in computer chips; it is made from carbon instead of silicon. If that stuff gets used, Moore's law can continue for a few more years, as the carbon atom is much smaller than silicon.

 

[Clement]

Nanotechnology is common now. No more hype about it.

I have heard hype though, about graphene. It is basically a component used in computer chips; it is made from carbon instead of silicon. If that stuff gets used, Moore's law can continue for a few more years, as the carbon atom is much smaller than silicon.

I think i saw that, is that the material that is so thin a small sheet of it floats in a very odd way?

I think i saw somewhere that you can make graphene yourself just by using some double sided sticky tape and and a pencil, well the graphite itself from the pencil, you need a microscope to see it though.

"Gray goo" refers to the scenario by which nanomachines that break down everyday objects to manufacture other things run out of control, turning everything into more copies of themselves or some other substance, the proverbial "gray goo".

Thats the one now i remember, they said they'd have to design some kind of blue goo to cancel it out, Goo wars hehe

 

[Seon]

Does this count?

 

[Clement]

Does this count?

Wow that really is quite an amazing video, that Morph thing is quite incredible, reminds me of a saying i heard somewhere, "when technology becomes sufficiently advanced it seems to be indistinguishable from magic", future generations will see some amazing things.

 

[Bluemofia]

What happened to nanotechnology? a few years back (five or more) there was a lot of excitement about it in the media, the last i remember was some kind of new material that was going to be made from carbon by re-arranging it's building blocks.

It was going to be much stronger than steel and lighter than carbon, they had an idea to make aeroplanes out of it and really increase safety, after that loads more materials would be in the pipeline, heck even scare stories started appearing about what could happen if nanotech went nuts.

Something made of carbon being lighter than carbon is rather implausible.

Just saying.

More seriously though, Nanotech is pretty common already. Just that it hasn't been exploited like the media hypes it up to be because of logistics.

How do you plan to build a macroscopic object atom by atom from the ground up on a reasonable timescale? How are you going to get your nano machines to coordinate? How are you going to get your machines to make it with a high degree of macroscopic accuracy when they themselves are so small? How are you going to get so many nano machines to make it quickly? How are your nano machines going to get power? How do you stop UV light from degrading your nano machines that becomes an inherent problem with tiny length scales?

Nanotech will probably not be used to fabricate everyday items atom by atom, but rather fine-tuning things for very specific properties, or very precise properties on the atomic scale.

 

[Bast]

What happened to nanotechnology?

It has left the realms of sci-fi and entered real science (which is nowhere as near exciting as sci-fi). That's why nobody talks about it anymore.

 

[uppi]

Something made of carbon being lighter than carbon is rather implausible.

Just saying.

Makes sense, though, if you think of carbon structures: Of course the atoms weigh the same, but if you structure them in a clever way, you need less atoms to build an object with the desired properties. So they weigh less.


Nanotechnology has went away from the Science Fiction of tiny nano-machines. Instead scientists are looking at real applications involving self-assembly and lithography.

And anyone having a modern computer is already enjoying the benefits of nanotechnology.

 

[Cheetah]

It has left the realms of sci-fi and entered real science (which is nowhere as near exciting as sci-fi). That's why nobody talks about it anymore.

Pretty much this. Nanotechnology is in use several places already, and we are finding new uses as time goes on. But it's not as fun as sci-fi made it out to be - yet.

The only time I hear much talk about nanotechnology in the regular (non-scientific) newsmedia these days are when people talk about needing better regulations for nanotechnology, as we don't yet know which effects nanomaterials will have as the degenerate in nature...

 

[Samez]

There are two types of nanotechnological applications:
Products at micro/nanoscale like electronics and MEMS and products at macroscale which use nanotechnological effects like super-hydrophobic surfaces (AKA lotus effect), conduction polymeres or nano-percipitation enforced metals.
MEMS were the dream of 80's scientists which hit the ground of reality a few years ago. MEMS is short for microelectromechanical systems and is often shown in the media as micro-engines and nanosubmarines and stuff like that. Even if it is possible (which is not trivial at that scale) to create something like that, every single part is "handmade" at ridiculous high costs as the production process can not be automated to a reasonable degree. (Either bottom-up or top down in processes which are very unstable (FIB Milling, nano-manipulation aso))
If it is possible to use a common surface manipulation technique like lithography production becomes a lot easier and cheaper. This explains why we see nanotech products like surface coatings and the electronics as common application today.
A big field of todays nanotech is seeding macro materials with nano-particles which results in new properties like conducting polymers (flexible displays aso) or applying a nano structure to bulk metals to increase their strength.

Carbon Nanotubes (CNT) are quite a special topic of nano-particles. Their big advantage is the highest known strength of all materials and their electrical properties. But of course there are some issues with CNTs: First there are different kind of CNT's like single walled CNTs or multi walled CNTs. Second they can have a different orientations like zigzag or chiral. All of them have different properties and during a standard production process you will get all types of them. Also defects and functional groups influence the properties and are common to CNTs. And of cause like for all nanoparticles agglomeration is a big problem.
CNTs are already in use to reinforce polymers. Applications are high quality sporting equipment like rackets, bike frames and stuff like that.

 

[GoodGame]

There are nano-spheres! Basically a way to delivery drugs to targets that they couldn't normally reach (e.g. problem of getting small peptides into the cell, past the membrane).

http://depts.washington.edu/chemcrs/bulkdisk/chem560C_spr04/handout_05-18-04_Pun.pdf

 

[innonimatu]

The media keeps hyping up scientific "revolutions", ignorant of the fact that most scientific discoveries are made over years or even decades by multiple teams in multiple locations that continually reconfirm and improve results, and that said scientific discoveries may take time to engineer for real-life applications and also time to establish economic feasibility.

Don't blame the media. Scientists are the ones actively increasing the media time of any new science fad in order to milk it for all the funding they can get. Nanotechnology has been used for a long time, but recently lots of researchers were doing the utmost to show that their research fell into the field just because it was where the money could be had.
I admit that I haven't figured out which new fad replaced it. Perhaps "global warming", or "climate change" or whatever it's called now, but that one seems to be spent also.

 

[Akka]

It has left the realms of sci-fi and entered real science (which is nowhere as near exciting as sci-fi). That's why nobody talks about it anymore.

Well, actually, I find real science often more exciting than sci-fi.
There is some things that are by actual science ("mind-controlled" devices, targeting systems that aim the weapons at the point you're simply looking at and so on) which look frankly sci-fi.

Additionnally, real science, being, well, real, isn't limited by the (often lacking) imagination of the writer, and is much more pervasive in day-to-day life than the sci-fi one - which is why so many sci-fi novels feel so "dated".

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

Don't blame the media. Scientists are the ones actively increasing the media time of any new science fad in order to milk it for all the funding they can get. Nanotechnology has been used for a long time, but recently lots of researchers were doing the utmost to show that their research fell into the field just because it was where the money could be had.

Can you demonstrate that this is true? And with the way media misrepresents most research, I doubt that's the case.