What is nanotechnology?

Give knowledge to the audience about what nanotechnology is, where it is applicable, achievements and what benefits it brings to humanity.

Most of us have ever heard the word "nanotechnology" in our lives, yet very few know what the true meaning of this word is, yet it is commonly related to things of very small sizes. However, the relationship with the small is correct, but in terms of applications very few people know for sure what nanotechnology can be used for.

Although it is a relatively new technology, it has had an extremely unbridled and rapid growth throughout its little existence, without a doubt it can be said that nanotechnology is one of the sciences of tomorrow.

Many countries have started investment programs to further study this science, since it is of great importance for different activities such as education and training, as well as for different social factors.

"Nanotechnology is a new approach focused on understanding and mastering the properties of matter at the nano-scale." (Schulenburg, 2004)

With the previous definition we can know a little better what nanotechnology is, however this concept is a bit broader than it actually seems. However, first of all, in order to give a correct meaning to this definition, we must know what the word nano means, since we only relate it to small, however we do not know how small something of that size is.

The wordreference website says that the word nano means "millionth part", however, having an idea of how small it is is not easy, as a reference something nano size can be the length of a molecule.

At this size, matter has extremely interesting and important properties, offering possible solutions to many problems that arise today using:

Materials Components Small Systems

These small systems have great advantages as they are extremely lighter, faster and with performance.

However, the solutions that nanotechnology can provide is not only for the industrial field, but also provides benefits to the environment, thus making it possible to solve some environmental problems, this being offered thanks to the processes and products that can be generated through nanotechnology can be:

Better adjusted to specific uses Great resource savings can be obtained Pollutant emissions and waste generated by this type of technology is vastly less than that of a process or product on a regular scale

Today many countries are already investing heavily in understanding and using nanotechnology on a regular basis. However, European countries began the investment of resources for the knowledge of nanotechnology in the decade of the 90s.

This has generated more knowledge to be obtained, bringing with it benefits both for society and for industry.

And this is how we can realize that human civilization has placed great expectations on the future of nanotechnology, however it is still difficult to imagine that nanotechnology is already in the present and that it is no longer science fiction.

That is why we call it the technology of the future, which many scientists believe may be able to revolutionize society again just as microelectronics did in the mid-20th century. Until today it is considered that the benefits of this science can be unlimited, so as this technology is used, side effects will arise with it or so call it "risks" due to the intensive use that it can be given.

So the passage from the laboratories to the market is somewhat uncertain, as it may be that it generates very large economic benefits for the companies that develop and explore this technology as efficiently as possible, or that the moral and ethical impact may be very large.. That is why always with something newly created, the benefits and side effects that it may contract with it must be evaluated, as if it were a new medicine that is going to be launched to cure some disease.

THE WORLD OF THE INVISIBLE

When we analyze the perspective of the world from our point of view as humans, smallness does not make us feel bigger, but it somehow puzzles us, so many times it is assumed that the world of tiny objects does not exist and this is absolutely normal, since our eyes are not prepared to see very small objects. However, if we were to see anything with a microscope, we would realize that there are many more things that exist such as:

Cells Bacteria Viruses Molecules Atoms

This is how we can say that the world of the invisible is as big as the universe, coming to assimilate that it is an extremely important challenge for us to be able to have an approach to the greatness of the small.

Over the years it has been possible to detect that the use of nanotechnology has brought with it a large number of benefits and applications for human life, although it is somewhat difficult for our minds to understand. Next, mention will be made of the applications that nanotechnology has been given to this day.

NANOMATERIALS

"Nanomaterials are materials with morphological properties smaller than a micrometer in at least one dimension." (Díaz del Castillo, 2012)

Nanomaterials have different types of properties and they all depend on their composition and the movement of electrons through it.

Nanomaterials have a classification given by the Environment Agency (EPA), this agency considers that there are four types of nanomaterials which are:

Carbon based. These are made up mostly of carbon and have different shapes such as hollow spheres, ellipsoids or tubes, based on metals. These nanomaterials include quantum dots, nanoparticles of gold, silver, and metal oxides such as titanium dioxide. Dendrimers. They are nano-sized polymers built from branched units, which combine nanoparticles with others or with larger materials. (Díaz del Castillo, 2012)

NANO TOOLS

Nano tools are tools that allow us to see and manipulate nanometer-sized elements with unimaginable simplicity, however, being able to use these tools requires technical knowledge. Nano tools would not have been possible to develop previously without quantum physics.

"These nano tools have many uses, such as in medicine, biology and biochemistry." (López Martínez, 2008)

This has made nano tools in constant development.

NANOCHEMISTRY

"Nanochemistry is all those activities of nanoscience and nanotechnology that have in common the use of traditional approaches and tools of chemistry to create, develop, and study objects that have useful properties due to their nanoscopic dimensions." (Veciana, 2008)

As could be seen in the aforementioned definition, nanochemistry is extremely important to be able to analyze nano-sized objects, with which some type of benefit can be achieved in different areas such as:

Energy Communication and information technology Health Quality of life Transport

This is why this field of nanotechnology must be studied very thoroughly, since the economic impact it can generate is very important.

NANOELECTRONICS

Nanoelectronics is basically the use of nanotechnology to create nano-sized electronic components.

Nanoelectronics is regularly used to manufacture transistors and processors that are used in current devices such as computers, cell phones, video game consoles, etc.

Nanoelectronics is seen as the next step in microelectronics, since with nanoelectric elements it is possible to have better efficiencies of electronic components.

NANOTECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY

As we have seen throughout the history of humanity, technology has evolved, making our ways of living completely different as time goes by, since new technologies are presented to make our lives more comfortable in some aspects..

The technological changes previously were seen in a slow way we can see it with the creation of the wheel, stone carving, agriculture, metallurgy, etc., however in recent years, technological changes happen so fast that we are just getting used to a technology when another is already emerging.

What will happen in the future? Will a new industrial revolution begin? Perhaps it is probable, but it is for all this that the new technologies will have to begin to worry about the environment and its sustainability.

As technology has evolved, many positive aspects have been created for human life, however these have not been entirely beneficial since some negative aspects have been generated, such as:

Overexploitation of resources Environmental damage Social inequality Regional imbalance

“It is already certain that nanotechnology is an ingredient in industries and the way in which we will carry out our daily activities. Society is going to change substantially throughout this 21st century, following the dizzying pace of changes that began in the last third of the last century ”(Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology, 2008)

This is how we know that nanotechnology will have multiple applications in the economic aspects of most nations, however there are other aspects in which it can have direct implications.

"NANO" + "BIO" + "INFO" + "COGNO": THE NBIC CONVERGENCE

The industrial changes that have originated in history have been involved with the union of various technologies. Generally, isolated technologies are incredibly useful for solving particular problems, however, after solving them, they reach a stagnation process and this results in the generation of obsolete products without any type of innovation.

When two or more disciplines converge, new technologies can be generated, observing that in many cases a single discipline could not generate this type of knowledge separately. A clear example is the new digital era in which we find ourselves living today, which facilitates the interconnection between all the individuals in our world.

In the same way as the digital age was generated, it can be said that nanotechnology is the convergence or union of different disciplines, which give us a look and understand what the nanoworld is, in order to achieve benefits and knowledge of it.

This is how we arrive at a new convergence of disciplines and knowledge, giving rise to the NBIC convergence, which is a union of the following sciences:

"NANO" has atoms as a unit and molecules "BIO" has proteins as a unit and genes "INFO" has a unit of information bits "COGNO" has neurons as units (Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology, 2008)

As can be seen in each of the disciplines that have just been mentioned, there are well-known units, all of them are of different sizes, covering the micro, macro and nano parts.

"The objective of this convergence is to produce nano-bio-devices that affect our health, allow us to better interact between ourselves and our environment and that generate information with which to make adequate decision-making." (Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology, 2008)

This new knowledge called NBIC convergence, is being developed so that we as human beings can have many benefits by implanting nanodevices in our bodies, thus increasing the life expectancy of each human being, so that this happens nanodevices could have the ability to monitor our health condition in real time and be linked to medical centers which could have a better diagnosis with the information that these devices could generate.

Not only the above could be the only benefit to our health, but it is also thought that these nanodevices have the powers to fight a tumor in its early stages, biodegradable prostheses can be made or even parts of our bodies can be reconstructed such as those of people who have had spinal cord damage due to some type of accident they have had at some point. However, as it is well known, all things have two sides of the coin, on the one hand there are the benefits that this new knowledge could generate and on the other, it could be that underdeveloped countries put some type of limitation or regulations due to the increase in life rate of human beings, which would bring with it scarce resources, increase of the elderly, etc.This is where science is limited to being able to generate new technologies that could help us have a better quality of life.

Likewise, as the direct benefits to the human being are mentioned, it can also be said that they want the quality of life to continue to improve globally, emphasizing in the same way to minimize the aggression that could be given to our planet, thus nanotechnology it could be beneficial for the environment, thus being able to provide tools with which we could guarantee that our planet does not become fragile.

CONCLUSION

As it could be observed, nanotechnology has a large number of applications in the environment of human beings, whether in the field of electronics, health or even in the environment that surrounds us, however, being a relatively new, the impacts that it could have on our human society are unknown for sure, even so, many organizations have decided to carry out tests in controlled ways to verify the positive and negative effects that this new knowledge could generate, so that in the future not very far this becomes a global reality.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Díaz del Castillo, F. (2012). Introduction to nanomaterials. Cuautitlán Izcalli: UNAM. Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology. (2008). Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Between the science fiction of the present and the technology of the future. Madrid: Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology López Martínez, M. (July 2008). Doctoral Thesis / Micro Nano-tools for life sciences. Schulenburg, M. (2004). Nanotechnology, Innovations for the world. European Commission, 58.Veciana, J. (2008). phantomsnet.net. Retrieved on February 23, 2016, from