European Journal of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences

NANOTECHNOLOGY: BEGINNING OF NEW GENERATION

Tanvay Jaithliya*, Shubam Sehgal, Zakarya Noorani, Abdul Hamid, Muddasir Ahmad Rather and Pankaj Chasta

ABSTRACT

Nanotechnology draws its name from the prefix "nano". A nanometer is one-billionth of a meter—a distance equal to two to twenty atoms (depending on what type of atom) laid down next to each other. Nanotechnology refers to manipulating the structure of matter on a length scale of some small number of nanometers, interpreted by different people at different times as meaning anything from 0.1 nm (controlling the arrangement of individual atoms) to 100 nm or more (anything smaller than microtechnology). Richard Feynman was the first scientist to suggest (in 1959) that devices and materials could someday be fabricated to atomic specifications. "The principles of physics, as far as I can see, do not speak against the possibility of maneuvering things atom by atom." This concept was expanded and popularized in a 1986 book Engines of Creation by K Eric Drexler, who applied the term nanotechnology to Feynman's vision. There's an unprecedented multidisciplinary convergence of scientists dedicated to the study of a world so small, we can't see it -- even with a light microscope. That world is the field of nanotechnology, the realm of atoms and nanostructures. Nanotechnology is so new, no one is really sure what will come of it. Even so, predictions range from the ability to reproduce things like diamonds and food to the world being devoured by self- replicating nanorobots.

Keywords: Nanotechnology draws its name self- replicating nanorobots.