Home • About • Contact
Welcome • Page Content • Site Map

Search
GH.com   GH.com dir
Wikipedia   Web

Nanotechnology deal with devices on a molecular scale (10E-9 m). This is a rapidly emerging field whose influence will be as wide and as great as that of the computer revolution. See also my blog posts on nanotechnology.

• Visualize a Nanometer
• Keywords
• Cool Nanotechnology Pictures
• Links

Visualize a Nanometer

One nanometer
    = 1 nm
    = 10^-9 m
    = 0.000 000 001 meters
    = 1/1,000,000,000 (1 billionth) of a meter
    = 1/1,000,000 (1 millionth) of a millimeter
    = 1/1,000 (1 thousandth) of a micron
    = 10 Angstroms.

One meter
    = 10³ mm (1 thousand millimeters)
    = 10⁶ µm (1 million microns)
    = 10⁹ nm (1 billion nanometers)
    = 10¹⁰ Å (10 billion Angstroms).

One inch = 25,400,000 nm.

The scale of some small things:

• The head of a pin is roughly 2 mm = 2,000 µm  = 2,000,000 nm.
• A human hair is roughly 1/10 mm = 100 µm = 100,000 nm in diameter. The size of a human hair is actually [§] from 17-181 µm.
• A typical cell or the size of the smallest individual items perceptible to the average naked eye is 1/40 mm = 25 µm = 25,000 nm.
• A red blood cell is roughly 10 µm = 10,000 nm.
• An Escherichia Coli O157:H7 bacterium (associated with food poisoning) is roughly 2 µm = 2,000 nm.
• A Vaccina virus (associated with Cowpox) is roughly 0.2 µm = 200 nm.
• A T4 bacteriophage is one of the largest bacterial viruses (it attacks E. Coli) and is roughly 0.1 µm = 100 nm all around.
• A Marburg virus (a.k.a. Ebola) is cane shaped and roughly 75 nm x 650 nm. Nature has been using biological "nanotechnology" for millions of years.
• A Rhinovirus (often associated with colds) is sphere shaped and is roughly 25 nm.
• A DNA strand is roughly 2 nm wide.
• A typical atom is roughly 0.1-0.2 nm = 1-2 Angstrom. "Another way to remember their size is this: if an apple is magnified to the size of the earth, then the atoms in the apple are approximately the size of the original apple." -Lectures on Physics (1963) by Richard Feynman.

Keywords

Keywords in alphabetical order.

• buckyball fullerenes, C₆₀. One of the earliest manifestations of nanotechnology. Wacky properties!
• CNT (Carbon NanoTubes). Arose from buckyball concepts. Strange properties, including stronger than steel by a factor of 20+.
• DNA assemblage, DNA computing. 330 trillion operations per second, super computer in the size of a drop of water, self-powered by chemical bond breakage, a million times more energy efficient than silcon computers, pre-rigged for parallel processing. See Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel.
• FEDs (Field-Emission Displays). Nanotubes used to make very large sized, high image quality screens.
• MEMS (Micro Electrical Mechanical Systems)/NEMS (Nanometer-scale EMS)
• Millipede by IBM. "a data storage density of a trillion bits per square inch -- 20 times higher than the densest magnetic storage available today. ... -- enough to store 25 million printed textbook pages on a surface the size of a postage stamp...."
• molecular biology, nanobiotech, nanomedicine
• nanowires, nanomaterials, nanostructures, nanoelectronics, nanodevices, nanocantilevers, nanolithography. Think single electron transistors.
• nanosensors. Capable of detecting even a single molecule.
• Organic Electro-Luminescent displays (aka Organic Light Emitting Devices). Heat free lighting.
• quantum computing
• self assembling/reproducing
• self healing, self cleaning, self adjusting materials
• space elevator. Space shuttle substitute using nanotube cabled elevator to outer space. Such an elevator would reduce the cost of delivering space satellites from $10,000 per pound to $10 per pound. Originally proposed in 1895, Konstantin E. Tsiolkovsky, a Russian visionary. Re-popularized by The Fountains of Paradise (1978) by Arthur C. Clarke. [HighLiftSystems.com  and others]

Cool Nanotechnology Pictures

  [via wikipedia.org]

Links

• bbBlogs
  • nanobot.blogspot.com. By Howard Lovy.
• Investment specific sites
  • NanoBusiness.org.
  • NanoIndustries.com.
  • NanoInvestorNews.com.
  • Here is a small list of publicly traded nanotech companies:
    • Altair. Developed unique process for making nanocrystalline materials. Expected uses include fuel cells, batteries and thermal coatings. (NASDAQ:ALTI)
    • Nanogen Inc. Integrates nanotechnologies and molecular biology into a platform technology. Commercial applications are in the fields of medical diagnostics, biomedical research, genomics, genetic testing and drug discovery. (NASDAQ:NGEN)
    • Nanophase Technologies Corp. Uses a unique Physical Vapor Systhesis (PVS) process to fabricate nanomaterials. (NASDAQ:NANX)
    • NanoPierce Technologies GmBH. Specializes in integrated circuit connectors, LED arrays and smart labels. (OTC:NPCT)
• Jobs
  • NanoGuys.com
  • TinyTechJobs.com. ' tinytechjobs is a unique career website devoted to jobs at the convergence of nanotechnology, biotechnology, and information technology. '
  • WorkingIn-Nanotechnology.com. Nano jobs.
• Miscellany
  • CNanoTech.com. Carbon Nanotechnologies Inc. "CNI is the preeminent world producer of single-wall carbon nanotubes". They are selling ingle-walled carbon nanotubes at $500/gram [2003-10-22].
  • "Forbe's list of big nanotech players" [2003-04-22].
  • "From cars to medicine, nanotubes may be miracle material" [2003-10-22]. Describe some potential applications of nanotubes.
  • Institute of Nanotechnology. I'm including a British nanotech company for the heck of it.
  • Journal of Nanotechnology. Published by the Institute of Physics.
  • Molecular Media Project. 'The aim of the Molecular Media Project is to use cells and atoms to perform useful computational tasks at the micron (10^-6m) and/or nanoscales (10^-9m) of organisation. There are 1000 mm in a metre (10^-3m), there are 1,000,000 µm in a metre (10^-6m), there are 1,000,000,000 nm in a metre (10^-9m)!'
  • NanoApex.com.
  • Nanodot.org. Nanotechnology news done in the style of Slashdot.org.
  • NanoElectronicsPlanet.com.
  • Nano.gov. Site for the NSTC's (National Science and Technology Council) subcommittee on NSET (Nanoscale Science, Engineering and Technology). EG: The site lists that the US President's R&D budget for nanotechnology in 2004 is $847 billion.
  • NanoMagazine.com. Lots of interviews.
  • NanoSIG.org. ' the leading Northern California based membership organization focused on the commercial development of nanotechnology. Based at Nasa/Ames, we are part of a global nanotechnology network and act as a liaison to our European and Asian counterparts. '
  • Nanotech links. Links by Extrotech.net so they include links that can bleed into fiction.
  • Nanotechnology Database. NSF (National Science Foundation) sponsored database on nanotechnology. Includes listings of entities working on nanotechnology including academic sites, companies, government labs, and government agencies.
  • Nanotechnology FAQ. Published by the Foresight Institute.
  • Nanotech-now.com. Links to easy to digest articles.
  • Nantero.com. "Nantero is developing NRAM™, a high-density nonvolatile random access memory chip, using nanotechnology. The company's objective is to deliver a product that will replace all existing forms of memory, such as DRAM, SRAM and flash memory, with NRAM serving as universal memory. "
  • NASA's Nanotechnology Team.
    • Nasa's view on nanotech. An old but good article.
  • News.NanoApex.com.
  • SmallTimes.com.

Page Modified: (Hand noted: 2008-05-06 19:11:36Z) (Auto noted: 2010-12-24 22:59:21Z)