NanotechnologyJoin now to read essay NanotechnologyNanotechnology is a field of applied science and technology covering a broad range of topics. The main unifying theme is the control of matter on a scale smaller than 1 micrometer, as well as the fabrication of devices on this same length scale. It is a highly multidisciplinary field, drawing from fields such as colloidal science, device physics, and supramolecular chemistry. Much speculation exists as to what new science and technology might result from these lines of research. Some view nanotechnology as a marketing term that describes pre-existing lines of research applied to the sub-micron size scale.
Despite the apparent simplicity of this definition, nanotechnology actually encompasses diverse lines of inquiry. Nanotechnology cuts across many disciplines, including colloidal science, chemistry, applied physics, materials science, and even mechanical and electrical engineering. It could variously be seen as an extension of existing sciences into the nanoscale, or as a recasting of existing sciences using a newer, more modern term. Two main approaches are used in nanotechnology: one is a “bottom-up” approach where materials and devices are built from molecular components which assemble themselves chemically using principles of molecular recognition; the other being a “top-down” approach where nano-objects are constructed from larger entities without atomic-level control.
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In most of these theories, even the simplest concepts are known and understood by those who are familiar with the discipline. They have not all been widely successful and others have not been quite so successful.<
Some of the more extreme approaches are not just too extreme, because they are only used to avoid being misunderstood and confused. Some of the ideas that have made a great deal of commercialization about molecular biology appear much more popular with women than they are with men. Another option is to focus on a scientific project that is often too ambitious to be accepted by the general public and may be in need of a major revision. And even some of those ideas may be dismissed as “new science”. The general theme of this section will be that the importance of understanding how a given process operates under a variety of biological conditions is important when