During our second lecture on ‘Future Visions’ we briefly talked about a technology which is rapidly being developed and it is thought that it will be a massive element of medical technology in the near future. This technology is called nanotechnology. Firstly, it is important to try and explain what ‘nanotechnology’ literally means.
Although ‘an internationally standardized definition of nanotechnology has not yet been established’ we can try and come up with some sort of way of explaining what ‘nanotechnology’ is. Firstly the word ‘‘nano’ means one billionth. One nanometer...is 1/1,000,000,000 of a meter...To get a sense of the nano scale, a human hair measures 50,000 nanometers across, a bacterial cell measures a few hundred nanometers across...The smallest things seeable with the unaided human eye are 10,000 nanometers across.’
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| This image shows how small nano is. |
The simplest way I found to describe what ‘nanotechnology’ actually is as a whole is: ‘Nanotechnology, shortened to “nanotech”, is the study of the controlling matter on an atomic and molecular scale. Generally nanotechnology deals with structures sized between 1 to 100 nanometer in at least one dimension, and involves developing materials or devices within that size’
A brief history of ‘nanotechnology’
Although ‘The term ‘nanotechnology’ was introduced by Professor Norio Taniguchi in 1973...’ Richard Freynman actually came up with the idea of ‘nanotechnology in 1959 with his famous lecture ‘There’s Plenty of Room at the Bottom’. ‘In it, Feynman challenged scientists to think about constructing atomic scale devices; a speech that 20 years later encourages Drexler to publish his early nanotechnology speculations’
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| Freynman |
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| Taniguchi |
During my research I came across a flash website which featured a pretty cool timeline showing where nanotechnology originated from, who has developed it and how up to the present day. A very intresting and detailed education tree about nanotechnology
Nanotechnology and Health care
‘Nanotechnology has the potential to revolutionise healthcare for the next generation. There are three key areas in which it could do this: Diagnosis, Prevention and Treatment.’
‘The vision of the future is of harnessing the qualities of nanotechnology to eventually provide healthcare which operates purely from a preventative state, identifying and stopping potential sources of disease/illness in the body before they even get started.’
Diagnosis
‘Nanotechnology is of great use for medical diagnosis and various nanoparticles have exhibited tremendous potential for detecting disease markers, pre-cancerous cells, fragment of viruses and other indicators. Various metal coating and metal nanoparticles functionalized with different biomolecules has been found useful in detecting specific proteins, antibodies and other disease indicators.’Prevention
‘The majority of healthcare is reactive rather than preventative. This is often some time after the initial infection or trauma, which means that tissue damage and suffering has already occurred. In some cases this damage can be irreparable, in others permanent reminders remain (such as loss of function of that body part or scarring). ‘
.Therefore, possibly the most important aspect of nanomedicine in the future will be its potential to prevent illness, rather than simply treating it. Nanotechnology will contribute to this through more effective monitoring of individuals’ health (allowing diseases to be caught in their infancy) and more sterile hospital environments (limiting the opportunity for bacteria, viruses and other microbes to cause secondary disease). Understanding the genetic make-up of the patient will also allow the doctor to prescribe personalised medicine.’
Using nanotechnology in order to prevent illness is an amazing thought. It means that hundreds maybe even thousands of lives could potentially be saved and doctors will be able to treat patients with more confidence as they would know exactly what medication a patient’s body needs. ‘It will be possible to provide personalised medicine designed for individual patients and their particular illness.’
Treatment
‘At present, treatment of illness tends to use quite old-fashioned, well-established methods. These methods are obviously not always entirely successful, with general solutions and treatments often being applied to very specific problems.
Furthermore, current healthcare can often cause additional problems such as rejection or a bad reaction to a transplant.
The danger of implant rejection can be minimised through ‘body-friendly’ nano-coatings, whilst there are also new techniques being developed to allow drugs to be more accurately targeted.’
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| The above image shows 'nanotechnology' at work reparing a damaged red blood cell. |
I think that the use of 'nanotechnology' in medicine is an amazing achievement and after learning more about it I believe a huge growth in the development and use of 'Nanotechnology' in the near future.
Although this blog focuses on 'nanotechnology' in medicine, it is also being used in other sectors for example
These links will take you to some blogs I found whilst doing my research and I think you will find them very intresting...
Refrencing
Books
Malanowski, N, 2006, ‘Growth market nanotechnology: an analysis of technology and innovation’. Wiley VCH, P. 8.
Ratner, M, 2003, ‘Nanotechnology: a gentle introduction to the next big idea’. Pearson Education, P.7
Tibbals, H, ‘Medical nanotechnology and nonomedicne’. CRC Press, P.31
Online sources
http://www.nanoforum.org/educationtree/othersections/nanotimeline.htm Last Accessed 20/10/2010
No named Author, 2010,’Nanotechnology in cosmetics’, No date, Available at; http://www.idea.ideabing.com/2010/08/15/nanotechnology-in-cosmetics/# Last Accessed: 20/10/10 http://www.nanoforum.org/educationtree/healthcare/healthcare.htm Last Accessed 20/10/2010
http://www.nanoforum.org/educationtree/healthcare/healthcare-prevention.htm Last Accessed 20/10/2010
http://www.nanoforum.org/educationtree/healthcare/healthcare-treatment.htm Last Accessed 20/10/2010
http://www.nanotechnologydevelopment.com/medical/nanotechnology-for-medical-diagnosis.html Last Accessed 20/10/2010
Garber, C, 2007, ‘Nanowork’, ‘Nanotechnology food coming to a fridge near you’, 28th December 2006, Available at; http://www.nanowerk.com/spotlight/spotid=1360.php Last Accessed; 20/10/2010
No named author, 2004, ‘Nanotech in fashion: The trend in New Fabrics’, 7th September 2004, Available at: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=3892457 Last Accessed; 20/10/2010
Images
How technology works: http://science.howstuffworks.com/nanotechnology.htm Last Accessed: 20/10/10
Freynmann: http://particlezoo.wordpress.com/2008/09/08/what-would-feynman-do/ Last Accessed 20/10/10
Taniguchi http://www.euspen.eu/default.asp?ContentID=712 Last Accessed 20/10/10
Nanotechnology at work http://www.piercemattie.com/blogs/2006/05/nanotech_sunscreens_at_risk_co.html Last Accessed 20/10/10
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