Nanotechnology Scientists have Wonderful Imaginations
Nanobots look to have a busy future ahead of them with mending the ozone layer and self-replicating to create new forms. Those are just a couple of the (outrageous?) predictions scientists are making. In the future, computers will become even faster, more power efficient and versatile as a result of nanotechnology developing new transistor materials and data storage equipment. Nanotechnology will change our lives as we know it. That is a fact. The predictions on this page of the website are not yet fact but are surprisingly well backed up by experts.
Looking through these ideas it is difficult not to think of Isaac Asmitov, best known as an influence for Star Trek, and other science fiction writers and wonder if they are, in fact, that far a cry from fiction. The idea of a world run by robots is not so ludicrous now. For every idea in nanotechnology there are many more critics waiting to laugh at it. But the history of technological development is littered with people, including scientists, eventually proven wrong by persistent optimists with great ideas. The Wright brothers and the inventors of the STM were both hounded by skepticism and criticism before and after breakthroughs so we shall keep open minds.
Looking through these ideas it is difficult not to think of Isaac Asmitov, best known as an influence for Star Trek, and other science fiction writers and wonder if they are, in fact, that far a cry from fiction. The idea of a world run by robots is not so ludicrous now. For every idea in nanotechnology there are many more critics waiting to laugh at it. But the history of technological development is littered with people, including scientists, eventually proven wrong by persistent optimists with great ideas. The Wright brothers and the inventors of the STM were both hounded by skepticism and criticism before and after breakthroughs so we shall keep open minds.
Energy Generating Windows
The Completely Clear Solar Cell Prototype
If a new development from labs at MIT pans out as expected, someday the entire surface area of a building’s windows could be used to generate electricity — without interfering with the ability to see through them.
Lead researcher and author Somenath Mitra, PhD, professor and acting chair of NJIT’s Department of Chemistry and Environmental Sciences said “Someday homeowners will even be able to print sheets of these solar cells with inexpensive home-based inkjet printers. Consumers can then slap the finished product on a wall, roof or billboard to create their own power stations.” [46]
On that solar power note Power Up with Nano FlakesNano flakes sound like something we'd eat but they're not; what they may be is the next generation of clean energy production. Nano flakes are semi-conducting nanostructures that can absorb the sun's energy more efficiently and cheaply than current solar panels. The scientists working on this project, which is in the prototype stage, believe nano flakes will be able to convert up to 30 percent of solar energy into electricity. That's approximately twice the amount of electricity produced by solar panels [source: Science Daily].
The real pay-off will come when the fabric in your clothing can help power your cellphone. The army is already investigating this possibility.
Lead researcher and author Somenath Mitra, PhD, professor and acting chair of NJIT’s Department of Chemistry and Environmental Sciences said “Someday homeowners will even be able to print sheets of these solar cells with inexpensive home-based inkjet printers. Consumers can then slap the finished product on a wall, roof or billboard to create their own power stations.” [46]
On that solar power note Power Up with Nano FlakesNano flakes sound like something we'd eat but they're not; what they may be is the next generation of clean energy production. Nano flakes are semi-conducting nanostructures that can absorb the sun's energy more efficiently and cheaply than current solar panels. The scientists working on this project, which is in the prototype stage, believe nano flakes will be able to convert up to 30 percent of solar energy into electricity. That's approximately twice the amount of electricity produced by solar panels [source: Science Daily].
The real pay-off will come when the fabric in your clothing can help power your cellphone. The army is already investigating this possibility.
'Nanotechnology is based on the concept of tiny, self-replicating robots. The Utility Fog is a very simple extension of the idea: Suppose, instead of building the object you want atom by atom, the tiny robots linked their arms together to form a solid mass in the shape of the object you wanted? Then, when you got tired of that avant-garde coffeetable, the robots could simply shift around a little and you’d have an elegant Queen Anne piece instead.
The color and reflectivity of an object are results of its properties as an antenna in the micron wavelength region. Each robot could have an “antenna arm” that it could manipulate to vary those properties, and thus the surface of a Utility Fog object could look just about however you wanted it to. A “thin film” of robots could act as a video screen, varying their optical properties in real time.
Rather than paint the walls, coat them with Utility Fog and they can be a different color every day, or act as a floor-to-ceiling TV. Indeed, make the entire wall of the Fog and you can change the floor plan of your house to suit the occasion. Make the floor of it and never gets dirty, looks like hardwood but feels like foam rubber, and extrudes furniture in any form you desire. Indeed, your whole domestic environment can be constructed from Utility Fog; it can form any object you want (except food) and whenever you don’t want an object any more, the robots that formed it spread out and form part of the floor again.
You may as well make your car of Utility Fog, too; then you can have a “new” one every day. But better than that, the *interior* of the car is filled with robots as well as its shell. You’ll need to wear holographic “eyephones” to see, but the Fog will hold them up in front of your eyes and they’ll feel and look as if they weren’t there. Although heavier than air, the Fog is programmed to simulate its physical properties, so you can’t feel it: when you move your arm, it flows out of the way. Except when there’s a crash! Then it forms an instant form-fitting “seatbelt” protecting every inch of your body. You can take a 100-mph impact without messing your hair.
But you’ll never have a 100-mph impact, or any other kind. Remember that each of these robots contains a fair-sized computer. They already have to be able to talk to each other and coordinate actions in a quite sophisticated way (even the original nano-assemblers have to, to build any macroscopic object). You can simply cover the road with a thick layer of robots. Then your car “calls ahead” and makes a reservation for every position in time and space it will occupy during the trip.
As long as you’re covering the roads with Fog you may as well make it thick enough to hold the cars up so they can cross intersections at different levels. But now your car is no longer a specific set of robots, but a *pattern* in the road robots that moves along like a wave, just as a picture of a car moves across the pixels of a video screen. The appearance of the car at this point is completely arbitrary, and could even be dispensed with–all the road Fog is transparent, and you appear to fly along unsupported.'' -Utility Fog: The Stuff that Dreams Are Made OfJuly 5, 2001 by J. Storrs Hall [47]
The color and reflectivity of an object are results of its properties as an antenna in the micron wavelength region. Each robot could have an “antenna arm” that it could manipulate to vary those properties, and thus the surface of a Utility Fog object could look just about however you wanted it to. A “thin film” of robots could act as a video screen, varying their optical properties in real time.
Rather than paint the walls, coat them with Utility Fog and they can be a different color every day, or act as a floor-to-ceiling TV. Indeed, make the entire wall of the Fog and you can change the floor plan of your house to suit the occasion. Make the floor of it and never gets dirty, looks like hardwood but feels like foam rubber, and extrudes furniture in any form you desire. Indeed, your whole domestic environment can be constructed from Utility Fog; it can form any object you want (except food) and whenever you don’t want an object any more, the robots that formed it spread out and form part of the floor again.
You may as well make your car of Utility Fog, too; then you can have a “new” one every day. But better than that, the *interior* of the car is filled with robots as well as its shell. You’ll need to wear holographic “eyephones” to see, but the Fog will hold them up in front of your eyes and they’ll feel and look as if they weren’t there. Although heavier than air, the Fog is programmed to simulate its physical properties, so you can’t feel it: when you move your arm, it flows out of the way. Except when there’s a crash! Then it forms an instant form-fitting “seatbelt” protecting every inch of your body. You can take a 100-mph impact without messing your hair.
But you’ll never have a 100-mph impact, or any other kind. Remember that each of these robots contains a fair-sized computer. They already have to be able to talk to each other and coordinate actions in a quite sophisticated way (even the original nano-assemblers have to, to build any macroscopic object). You can simply cover the road with a thick layer of robots. Then your car “calls ahead” and makes a reservation for every position in time and space it will occupy during the trip.
As long as you’re covering the roads with Fog you may as well make it thick enough to hold the cars up so they can cross intersections at different levels. But now your car is no longer a specific set of robots, but a *pattern* in the road robots that moves along like a wave, just as a picture of a car moves across the pixels of a video screen. The appearance of the car at this point is completely arbitrary, and could even be dispensed with–all the road Fog is transparent, and you appear to fly along unsupported.'' -Utility Fog: The Stuff that Dreams Are Made OfJuly 5, 2001 by J. Storrs Hall [47]
Gray Goo
It has been suggested that self-replicating "nanobots" could become a new parasitic life-form that reproduces uncontrollably. Grey Goo is a hypothetical end-of-the-world scenario involving molecular nanotechnology in which out-of-control self-replicating robots consume all matter on Earth while building more of themselves, a scenario known as ecophagy ("eating the environment").Self-replicating machines of the macroscopic variety were originally described by mathematician John von Neumann, and are sometimes referred to as von Neumann machines. The term grey goo was coined by nanotechnology pioneer Eric Drexler in his 1986 book Engines of Creation, stating that "we cannot afford certain types of accidents." In 2004 he stated "I wish I had never used the term 'grey goo'." [Source: Wikipedia]
Nano-robots and Medicine
Current research points to nanorobots that could be used to target and destroy tumors, deliver medicine to specific points in the body or break up blood clots. How they'll move will depend on the design. Ideas include an internal power source or using the patient's body to generate power. Sperm are even being considered to send these tiny bots all around the body [48].
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Brains in Cars
The Discovery Channel say that the day is coming when your car will have a brain ten thousand times faster than yours. Predictions for cars are out of this world. These predictions include coatings which 'heal' themselves when the car is scratched, much like out own skins healing powers. With the tiny information processors which nanotechnology offers the automobile industry the possibilities in car manufacture are endless.
The US Army
An Institute has been set up called the Institute of Soldier Nanotechnologies. The ISN is a three-member team designed to leverage the unique capabilities of the US Army, industry, and MIT. Their mission includes not only decreasing the weight that soldiers carry but also improving blast and ballistic protection, creating new methods of detecting and detoxifying chemical and biological threats, and providing physiological monitoring and automated medical intervention. The ultimate goal is to help the Army create an integrated system of nanotechnologies for Soldier protection.
Corning Glass ManufacturersWhen it comes to permeating mainstream nanotechnology the glass company 'Corning' are ahead of the game. Corning, the company behind the famous Gorilla Glass used in smartphones and tablets has released a concept video showcasing the possibilities of transparent tablets/display in the future. With over eighteen million views on one of their two YouTube videos, 'A Day Made of Glass', they're making a splash. Take a look at 'A Day made of Glass 2' (shown across) which I think is even more impressive.
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Basing Nano on Nature
Nature's NanocreaturesMarine algae, known as diatoms, contain light-bending nanostructures that convert sunlight into energy needed for reproduction. Scientists think replicating these structures could help develop biosynthetic devices such as a light-activated drug delivery system [50].
The beautiful blue wings of the Morpho Rhetenor butterfly of Brazil are the result of layers of nanostructures. These nanostructures absorb light and reflect a wavelength creating an optical interference and the resplendent blue we see. Laboratories can use this same process to analyze light [49]. It may also be possible to replicate the construction of nanostructures in butterflies' wings to create improved "optic effects" in products like paint and varnish [51].
The beautiful blue wings of the Morpho Rhetenor butterfly of Brazil are the result of layers of nanostructures. These nanostructures absorb light and reflect a wavelength creating an optical interference and the resplendent blue we see. Laboratories can use this same process to analyze light [49]. It may also be possible to replicate the construction of nanostructures in butterflies' wings to create improved "optic effects" in products like paint and varnish [51].