NanoSense – how Nanotechnology is improving our everyday lives – part 1

NanoSense – how Nanotechnology is improving our everyday lives – part 1

We are all now on a Fantastic Voyage

Do you remember ‘Fantastic Voyage’ – the sci-fi film in which scientists shrank a submarine and crew, injected them into a dying man , and saved him from certain death before being resized for more adventures?

Scripted by Harry Kleiner in 1966 and novelized for Bantam paperbacks 6 months later by Isaac Asimov, it spawned an animated TV series as well as a Salvador Dali painting.  Now, some 40 years later, it is seeing practical application in space and cancer medicine, as well as arguably more prosaic areas like materials science.   

Today it is called ‘Nanotechnology’ and in this series of brief articles we’ll be exploring how it is beginning to influence the world around us.  It begins by linking medical and building science.

Nanontechnology in a Nutshell

The science of Nanotechnology deals with very, very small structures, usually less than 100 nanometers in diameter.  With 1 nanometer being 1 billionth of a meter, you’ll get some idea of how small this is by imagining the earth as having a diameter of 1 meter with 1 billion apple pips (seeds) inside it.  Or, looked at another way, the dimension ratio between a meter and a nanometer is the same as between earth and an apple.  

For the mathematical purists among you 1nm = 10 -09 m, i.e. 1/1,000,000,000

Einstein might have imagined this by building a train wagon in his mind, giving this a length, width and height of 1nm and then fitting this inside a few hundreds of hydrogen molecules.

For scientists and technologists this has special interest because at this size materials reveal unique properties when compared not only with ordinary bulk sized materials, but also their molecules. In essence they take advantages of properties that neither individual molecules nor molecular structures exhibit.

For example, if we could see it a gold nanoparticle deposited on a surface would appear purple, rather than shiny and ‘golden’ that we presently recognize.

Again, if you can imagine a molecule as having a very small atom at it’s core with many electrons spinning around this, all held together by the power of attraction, then you’ll get some idea of the scale of things they are working with.

Another example of particular interest to scientists and technologists currently working, or considering working  in this area is that of Titanium Dioxide (titania).  This is used in paints to give that extremely white, opaque finish.  But nanonised titania is completely transparent.    


Nanomedicine

Drug discovery, drug delivery and continuing miniaturization are three areas in which medicine has joined our Fantastic Voyage. Long-term, in-vivo diagnostics and more targeted therapy without side effects are on the horizon. Being able to look for drug targets on a cellular rather than multi-cellular, or tissue basis can be much more precise. Biosensors and molecule probes allow cellular processes to be examined and drug development aimed at molecular targets.

Latest treatment techniques already allow a drug to be put inside a nanoparticle, like a carbon or silicon nanotube.  This might also hold antibodies to bind the drug, enabling smaller doses to be delivered direct to the targeted tissue. Various nanoparticle drug formulations are already being investigated in animal models and early stage clinical studies in humans.

Treating Cancer & Diabetes

Using such nanobots, i.e. vehicles for carrying treatments, radioactive generators are already being injected.  Going direct to the infected tissue these give small radiation doses to treat the cancer without all the unpleasant side effects of radiation therapy.