Nanotechnology Impact and Overview

Nanotoxicology is a study of potential health risks linked to nanomaterials. It is hard to pinpoint because every different nano material has a different health impact on our bodies. Overall however, nanotechnology is a legitimate issue because the nano-particles of nanotech can invade bodies and accumulate in organs and tissues. In addition, it is hard to regulate because the regulations would have to clarify a different set of regulations for each different nanomaterial: an unrealistic goal.

Nanomedicine is the medical application of nanotechnology. Nanotechnology has potential in many bio-sensory applications. Scientists and doctors are seeking to use Nanotechnology as a molecular tool and to gather empirical information. The desired product is to develop medicine and treatment procedures. Speculative theorizes hope that Nanotechnology will soon be able to revolutionize drug delivery procedures, cancer treatment procedures, and enhanced imaging and sensory-mapping. 

Molecular nanotechnology is a sub-level of nanotechnology that works to developing machines that could manipulate molecular arrangements of both health factors and abiotic factors. Similar to the grey goo end-world scenario, the green goo is the application that organisms will self replicate through nanotech methods and take over the world. On a more realistic note, the potential with molecular nanotech is boundless: soon, we'll be able to isolate specific malignant cells and destroy them. Cancer, HIV: in effect, any disease affecting our cells could be targeted and treated.

NEC and IBM: These are two major nanotech patent owners. They hold the legal right to the carbon nanotube; a promising technology that will soon have applications in electronics, construction, military, drug therapy and others. In 2003 alone there were over 800 nano-related innovative patents granted. Nanotechnology is a ripening study-focus field arising on the global stage right now.

Nanopollution in general is any and all waste made by nanomachines or during production of such devices. It is an issue because the nanomaterials can float rapidly through the air and developers still do not know if it can or will penetrate animal and plant cells. Some speculate that because these nanobits do not exist in nature that the environment as a whole will not know how to respond, inevitably suffering. In addition, even any attempts at disposal of such nanotech pieces could cause more environmental damage: it could be that the permanent damage has already been introduced into our ecosystems across Earth.

Buckminsterfullerene (Bucky Ball): An Advantage of Nanotechnology

            

            Buckminsterfullerene was made in 1985 by Harold Kroto, James Heath, Sean O'Brien, Robert Curl, and Richard Smalley--at Rice University, Houston Texas. The molecule, nicknamed Bucky Ball, looks like a soccer ball and is made of a cage of twenty hexagons and twelve pentagons with a carbon atom at each point in the polygon shape. Its formula is C_60.

              Bucky Balls are found in soot. It has also been found in both solid and gaseous forms in deep space. 

              The Bucky Ball is a class of molecule known as fullerenes. The discovery of Buckminsterfullerene led to the chemistry field studying fullerenes. In general, a fullerene is any molecule composed solely of carbon and makes a hollow sphere, tube, and other shapes.

              Application: Fullerenes in general have been experimented with to treat cancer and target radiation in people's cells. Bucky Balls have not been largely applied in the commercial scene--other than the toy that was marketed as neodymium magnetic superballs. In the medical field, Bucky Balls can be fitted and inserted with helium tracers that will travel through the body to track disease and the like. In addition, in the fight against the HIV virus, Buckminsterfullerene has been used to inhibit the virus before it can damage the body's cells. So far, to the small amount Bucky Balls have been applied, no health side-effect has been detected. 

NanoPollution: Even an Issue?

1.What is the future of nanotechnology?

2. Is nanotechnology really advancing us?

3. Is nanotechnology risky?

See Videos:

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=EiHTppZbWTo

The future of nanotechnology looks both promising and lucrative for impoverished nations and for widescale market producers. The nanotechnology of tomorrow’s tomorrow will open the door to medical breakthroughs and at the same time benefit and maintain our world’s ecosystems.

2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qc0KLV8CW08

      Such great potential coming from Nanotechnology must be balance with realistic aims to safeguard these new innovations.

3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpF8M3t39A8

            The essential question at hand is whether the use of nanotechnology is worth the risk and costs.

Possible Health Issues From Nanopollution

Reactive Oxygen Species (Free Radicals) and Similar Negatives of Nano-particles

                When nanoparticles get into our body’s cells, through inhalation or contact with our skin, they cause the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS’s), also known as free radicals. Free radicals and ROS’s are molecules or ions made by the incomplete reduction (by adding electrons) of oxygen. When these molecules circulate throughout the body, they can cause health issues such as inflammation, DNA and protein harm, and oxidative stress (stress on the body coming from failure to balance oxygen-intermediates and toxicity with normal healthy functions). Because of their large surface area, these nano-materials can attach to the outside of enzyme proteins and block them from functioning—causing catastrophic results for the body.

                In effect, the air humans and other organisms breathe is in danger of being filled with micro particles that can infiltrate our bodies. Normal defense mechanisms of the body are vulnerable to these micro assassins. Because these nano aggressors are so small, when inhaled they can pass through the defense barriers of our tissues and even make their ways to the brain. The potential risk need not be stated. Such causes of these air pollutants include car exhaust, nano technology production, use of Carbon-60 in designs and manufacturing, and finally from other manufacturing procedures including manganese oxide production from welding facilities. 

Gray Goo

             Gray Goo is a hypothetical situation in which the world comes to destruction by the hands of menacing nanotechnology machines.

             These perpetrators, in this Armageddon scenario, consume all the resources on Earth while self-replicating faster than we can stop them.

            Although this fanciful end-world story seems implausible, there are applications of nanotechnology concerns about the environment. Nanotech pollution is in fact a real problem on our Earth and needs to be analyzed and solved.