What is Nanotechnology?
Nanotechnology was born in 1959 when physicist Richard Feynman gave a lecture exploring the idea of building things at the atomic and molecular scale. He imagined the entire Encyclopaedia Britannica written on the head of a pin. However, experimental nanotechnology did not come into its own until 1981, when IBM scientists in Zurich, Switzerland, built the first scanning tunnelling microscope (STM). This allows us to see single atoms by scanning a tiny probe over the surface of a silicon crystal. In 1990, IBM scientists discovered how to use an STM to move single xenon atoms around on a nickel surface - in an iconic experiment, with an inspired eye for marketing, they moved 35 atoms to spell out "IBM".
Nanotechnology involves the manipulation of matter at the molecular scale and has the potential to fundamentally alter the way people live, by providing new drug delivery systems, faster and cheaper manufacturing processes, cleaner and more efficient energy generation, new materials, clean water and the next generation of computing devices. Nanotechnology can address key Australian economic and social challenges relating to mining and agribusiness; health and medicine; energy and environment; advanced materials and manufacturing; electronics; and information and communication technologies (ICT), which are also the areas where Australia has world-leading scientific expertise.
Nanotechnology refers to the projected ability to construct items from the bottom up, using techniques and tools being developed today to make complete, high performance products. Nanotechnology is sometimes referred to as a general-purpose technology. That's because in its advanced form it will have significant impact on almost all industries and all areas of society. It will offer better built, longer lasting, cleaner, safer, and smarter products for the home, for communications, for medicine, for transportation, for agriculture, and for industry in general.
Nanotechnology not only will allow making many high-quality products at very low cost, but it will allow making new nanofactories at the same low cost and at the same rapid speed. This unique ability to reproduce its own means of production is why nanotech is said to be an exponential technology. It represents a manufacturing system that will be able to make more manufacturing systems factories that can build factories rapidly, cheaply, and cleanly. The means of production will be able to reproduce exponentially, so in just a few weeks a few nanofactories conceivably could become billions. It is a revolutionary, transformative, powerful, and potentially very dangerous or beneficial technology.
Therefore, I can say that it is very useful in our lives. It makes our responsibilities and duties more easier. We can have the best one at a very affordable price.
