An anagram is a word or phrase made by transposing or rearranging
the letters of another word or phrase. For example the letters
in "dormitory" can be rearranged to make "Dirty Room," or "desperation"
can become "A Rope Ends It"," and "Slot Machines" is also "Cash
Lost in." What if we could do something similar with atoms? What
if we could rearrange the carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen
atoms in discarded bald tires to make prime rib?
We can not rearrange atoms in that way--yet. But it could
be in the future. Today, however it is possible to place atoms
in order, one at a time, to produce lines only one atom thick.
All of the things people produce and use are made of atoms. Many
of those things are composed of essentially the same kinds of
atoms. For example, cotton, aspirin, sugar, vanillin, Mylar(r)
(balloons and cassette tapes), tetrahydrocannabinol and testosterone
are all composed of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen atoms. It is just
the number of atoms and the discrete grouping of those atoms into
definite geometrical arrangements that result in such diverse
products.
The properties of those products depend on how those atoms
are arranged. In the past, products with the properties we desired
were manufactured from the macro-level down to the molecular
level needed. It is analogous to stripping down the World Trade
Center floor by floor and brick by brick to build your house.
Nanotechnology strives to control the arrangement of atoms
so materials can be manufactured from the atom up, rather than
from the bulk materials down. Nanotechnology is fabricating
devices that are smaller and smaller. Products being developed
that are built atom-by-atom include computer hardware technologies,
medical technologies, and an entire new generation of products
that are cleaner, stronger, lighter, and more precise.
Computer hardware devices fabricated by nano-lithography produce
lines that are only nanometers in width.
The science-fiction idea of "nanobots" that can rearrange atoms
and molecules within a living body to restore injured limbs
and organs has become a popular idea. Manufactured molecules
that are biologically active is one area being explored in nanomedicine.
The Scanning Probe Microscope has a critical role in nanotechnology.
There are a family of scanning probe microscopes that have various
abilities to aid in the development and understanding of nanotechnology.
New tools and techniques for this growing field are being developed
continually.
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