Nanotechnology

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Everybody likes big ideas. Here’s a tiny idea that’s really big – nanotechnology. Today, on Engineering Works!

Nanometer, nanoparticle, nanotechnology. Big words to talk about stuff that’s really small. How small? Take a nanometer – that’s something that’s one-billionth, with a B, of a meter across. About one-twentyfive millionth, with an M, of an inch. Doesn’t help much, does it?

Try this. You could fit – five average-sized atoms into a nanometer. You could line up 50,000 nanometers across the end of a hair from your head. A nanometer is really small. Working with stuff that you measure in nanometers is what nanotechnology is all about.

One of the things that engineers find most interesting about nanotechnology is that when you’re measuring in nanometers, things often act differently when they’re different sizes. For instance, nanoparticles made of gold can act quite differently – melt at different temperatures, conduct electricity differently, even be different colors – if they’re different sizes.

Engineers are using gold’s odd nano-behavior to build tiny gold bubbles that could be used to kill cancer tumors. Because the bubbles are hollow, the gold soaks up energy from light. A lot of energy – much more than big chunks. So, inject gold bubbles into a tumor, shine infrared light onto them and they heat up enough to kill the tumor. Engineers and scientists are exploring nanoparticles for everything from building faster computers to cleaning up toxic water pollution.

Our time is shrinking down to nano-scale, so we’ll stop now.

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