Nanotechnology: The Future is Here

Nobody can disremember Marty Mcfly Jr.’s ‘auto-adjusting and auto-drying jacket’ from the 1989 super-hit Back to the Future Part II. A part of the 1989 classic depicted the year 2015. It was a pure piece of a farfetched fanciful portrayal of a world that any common man could never envisage. None realized that seeds for such a world had been sewn back three decades earlier.

On the luminous afternoon of December 29, 1959 scholars at Caltech witnessed one of the most influential lectures of the century by one of the most brilliant minds the human race has ever seen. The lecture was “There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom: An Invitation to Enter a New Field of Physics” by Richard Feynman.

In his lecture, Feynman had hypothesized the likelihood of direct maneuvering of single atoms and thus opening the Pandora’s Box of limitless opportunities that had been the themes of fictional topics till then. Feynman contemplated several thought-provoking implications of such ability. He was especially attracted by the possibilities of compressed computer circuitry and more powerful microscopes. His lecture seemed to bring to life the works of authors such as Sir Arthur Charles Clarke and Philip K. Dick.

Though Feynman is often credited as the initiator of the technology at nanoscale, a lesser known fact is that Russian scientists L.V. Radushkevich and V.M. Lukyanovich had already published a paper in 1952 in the Soviet Journal of Physical Chemistry illustrating void graphitic fibers of carbon that were 25 nm in radius. It was the first known publication of something directly related to nanotechnology. Before Feynman’s iconic talk two more accounts of carbon nanotubes had been published in 1955 and 1958.

Those observational publications were baby steps that eventually turned into reality with each passing year. The inventions of the scanning tunneling microscope, the atomic force microscope and storage systems such as IBM’s Millipede are just a very few well-known examples that portray how much far the scientific community has come. The latest advances in carbon nanotube technology have even brought the orbital elevator of Arthur C. Clarke’s The Fountains of Paradise closer to realization. 2013 saw a monumental step when Cedric a computer built solely utilizing carbon nanotubes based transistors were developed by the researchers at Stanford University.

Technology has taken huge leaps since that iconic lecture. Today, Marty McFly Jr.’s shirt is a reality, and an even a better version of what was shown in the movie. Swiss scientists have made the world’s first water-repellent fabric – clothes that don’t get wet! Today, Nanoparticles are being developed to treat serious ailments such as Cancer. Successful tests of killing cancer cells in rats have been reported. Efficient and cleaner batteries are being developed using carbon nanotubes. Quantum dot displays have been created; Samsung even markets a quantum dot TV. Chemists are using nanoparticles to develop more effective cosmetics and medicines. Even the latest dishwashing bars contain silver nanoparticles! Next time you buy such a product just look at its chemical composition. You might be a beneficiary of nanotechnology!

Nanoparticles are being used in every industry today, from pharmacology to metallurgy, from bioinformatics to electronics. This technology is changing lives. It is cost-effective, eco-friendly, and more effective.

Nanoscience is the science of the future and the future is here! 

The author of this article has also worked on a project which aimed to treat arsenic and fluoride-infected groundwater using functionalized Carbon Nanotubes. 


La nanotechnologie est incroyable!