Nanotechnology

Nanotechnology and Manufacturing

Four years ago, words like “impossible,” “futuristic,” and “science fiction” filled discussions about nanotechnology. Since the announcement of the US National Nanotechnology Initiative in 2000, though, worldwide investment in nano research and development has raced forward, with $8 billion invested in 2004 alone. That kind of growth has leaders at major companies sitting up and [...]

Nanotechnology with Carbon Nanotubes

Columns, pipes, bearings and springs are a few common ways that engineers have made use of the geometric shape known as a ‘cylinder.’ The utility of this shape is apparent in architecture, plumbing and mechanical devices. Carbon nanotubes are molecular cylinders that are rapidly extending our ability to fabricate nanoscale devices by providing molecular probes, [...]

Nanotechnology risks

ano-this and nano-that. These days it seems you need the prefix “nano” for products or applications if you want to be either very trendy or incredibly scary. This “nanotrend” has assumed “mega” proportions: Patent offices around the world are swamped with nanotechnology-related applications; investment advisors compile nanotechnology stock indices and predict a coming boom in [...]

Multifunctional nanotechnology device for integrated, cell-based nanotherapy

One of the promises of medical nanotechnology is a drug-delivery nanodevice that can image, target, and deliver drugs to a specific cancer location inside the body and monitor and if necessary adjust the drug release at the target location. Researchers in Taiwan have now designed a nanodevice that comes pretty close to this vision.

“We have [...]