Nanotechnology Is the Predictable Capability

Nanotechnology is the predictable capability to form things from the base level by the application of the tools and methods that are being devised presently to set each of the atoms and molecules in its desire place. When such type of development is accomplished in the sphere of molecular engineering, that seems likely, it gives rise to manufacturing revolution. (Introduction to Nanotechnology) We are required to concentrate on this meticulously and on the potential scopes and risks involved in it.

Intro to Nanotechnology-past, present, future, benefits, drawbacks

Past

Richard Feynman, an imminent Nobel Prize winning physicist gave a renowned speech in the year 1959 disagreeing that the laws of physics do not control man's capacity to control single atoms and molecules. He explained an apparition for building materials using a bottom-up, rather than a top-down, approach. This idea of setting atoms exactly where we want, just as a potato knows how to place the atoms from the nearby dirt, water, and air to form itself instead of cutting down wood, combining metal, casting plastic, or making the newest computer chip by engraving an ever-finer circuit out of silicon is almost on the brink of fulfillment. (Uldrich, 12) the scientific society around the world is talking in gleaming terms about the capability of the tiny technology of the single-walled nanotubes, which were found in the early 1990s. With a width of about 10 hydrogen atoms aligned, nanotubes are self-generated from an electrical discharge involving electrons. (Schick, 44)

The man who first laid out the multifaceted possibility of nanotechnology with his 1986 book Engines of Creation to a well-liked spectator was Eric Drexler. (Thompson, 6) While making the concept of 'nanotechnology' familiar, Eric Drexler was discussing about creating machines as small as molecules, having width of a few nanometers, motors, robot arms and even the entire computer physically smaller than a cell. Drexler then engaged for the next decade narrating and analyzing such amazing tools and countering the indictments of science fiction. Simultaneously the general technology was imbibing adequate competency to construct simple structures on a molecular scale. While the nanotechnology is being an agreeable terminology, it was reformulated to mean the simple types of nanometer-scale technology. With a view to funding such type of nanotech the U.S. National Nanotechnology Initiative was instituted. (Introduction to Nanotechnology)

Present

The systems which are needed for achieving the objectives of nanotechnology are picking up the pace. (Uldrich, 12) the possible insinuations of nanotechnology, the science of controlling matter at the atomic and molecular level, have been judged against with the Industrial Revolution. At present it is one of the best growing fields of research in many fields like electronics, medicine and information technology. (Winner, 111) in the most recent years, scientists have commenced with one significant improvement after another in nanotechnology and science fiction has slowly been revolving into science fact. Almost every month new articles appear in the main scientific magazines and university research departments are starting to fill with aficionados. Chemist Paul Alivisatos at the University of California, Berkeley, says that, 10 years ago, he was the lone person in his department functioning on nanotech; but at present about 30% of the department is performing it. It is at present too problematic and costly to use these nanotubes to make innovative structures from the ground up, but we are not faraway from being proficient to combine them with, for example, the materials presently used to make airplane wings. It is also quite probable that, in 10 or 15 years, we may be talented to make use of something like Smalley's molecules to make complete airplane wings or wide scale power systems based on molecular solar panels that take up only a minute portion of the space required for such systems today. (Thompson, 5)

Future

Molecule-sized machines can provide a multitude of wonderful advantages from organ restoration to habitat reinstatement. (Schick, 44) the insinuations are wide and traverse many different conventional industries. The chance for molecular computing is offered by nanotechnology. Devices will be so tiny that they will be incorporated into anything that includes our body's cells too. All objects will turn out to be chips or passively chip-like as a minimum. With regard to domestic devices, they will turn into real-time smart devices. For instance, a temperature sensor fixed to a frying pan will be replaced by an auto-sensor wherein the whole pan will turn out to be a sensor and it can produce its own heat, as is the case of a 'smart' device. (Jones, 73) in some future date, these can substitute human beings as the planet's leading power. Many advances were made in the last few years in the direction of the vision of achieving machines that control matter at the level of molecules. Molecular machines are a part of nature for a quiet a long time. At the simplest level, plants and animals are groups of such nanomachines. DNA, RNA and the enzymes that aid in the duplication and restoration of cells and in the production of proteins are the most famous of these nanomachines. Manmade molecular machines already exist and they are mainly used as antibiotics to deal with disease organisms. If man can build a new nanomachine that can do what DNA and its related enzymes are doing, that is a real advancement. (Roland, 23)

The capability to manoeuvre matter to the exact level of atoms will definitely go a long way in varying the economic, ecological, and cultural structure of our lives. (Crandall, 17) Nano-based microelectrical mechanical systems, actuators, sensors and mirrors will come up at the level of devices. Some suggest that the nanatechnology will ultimately do what the chips are doing, like producing PCs that operate billions of times faster. (Schick, 45) as nanotechnology is tiny, it will lead to dramatic change in the manner we live and use products. Distinctive unforeseen actions will happen due to the inherent nature of nano-materials. Additionally, with nano materials we can do things hitherto not possible at all, like inserting them inside living cells with no disturbance to the functioning of the cells. Nanotechnology will transform materials. (Jones, 73) Nanoscience and nanotechnology will be fundamental to the next era of the information age, and will be as innovatory as science and technology at the micron scale have been since the early 1970's. (Crandall, 133) Thus, nanotechnology can certainly be the upcoming technology. (Schick, 45)

Benefits

The Nanotechnology was expected to develop efficacy in all spheres of life. The Nanotechnology is also mostly referred to a general-purpose technology. It is due to the fact that in its fully grown form it is expected to influence almost all the industries and all the fields of the society. It extends better construction, durability, security and smartness to the home use products with regard to communications, medicine, transportation, agriculture and for industry in general. The most important feature of the nanotechnology is that it not only provides better products but also a vast improved means of production. A computer generates copies of data files-mostly as many copies as is desired at little or no additional cost. The manufacturing of the products are to be so cheaper like copying of the files. What matters simply is some more time. That is considered to be a valid meaning of nanotechnology and often visualized to be the next industrial revolution. (Introduction to Nanotechnology)

The nanotechnology not only permits making so many high-quality products at a lower cost however, it will facilitate generating new nano-factories at the similarly lower costs and at the equal rapid rate. The nanotechnology is also termed as the exponential technology due to its exceptional efficacy in regenerating its own means of production. It stands to be a manufacturing system that is capable of making more manufacturing systems-in a quickly, cheaply and transparent manner. The factors of production is capable of being reproduced multiply as a result of which there is every possibility that the few existing nanofactories now could result in billions of them within a matter of few weeks. (Introduction to Nanotechnology)

Drawbacks

Evaluators of nanotechnology are advocating carefulness, guideline or even a suspension on the use of these small particles even though the nanotechnology industry is presently a favorite of both the public and private funding sectors. (Bailey; Lattimore, 35) in producing nanotubes with carbon base, one of the challenges is to make them in well-controlled environments that have the right type of electronic properties. (Schick, 46) Others have proposed that nanotech takes extraordinary risks in its dependence on the management of matter at the atomic scale. (Ball, 4) as the building blocks of nanotechnology are discrete atoms that are so dreadfully small, the full promise of nanotechnology is very hard to visualize. The most demanding test that nanotechnology proposes is the necessity to understand how human beings are made up of and for what purpose we are made. (Crandall, 135)

Established nanotechnology will permit the construction of systems, as small as a white blood cell, with a capacity to generate the processing power of a human brain. It is very hard to map the intricate brocade of a human mind onto such a machine with a reasonable resolution, but the formation of artificial intelligence or machine intelligence is anticipated to offer an approachable challenge. It maybe a device with full Turing-test interactivity which is capable of fulfilling our wish or would be an interlacing dense layer of memory around a shifting model of existential realty, and covered with a matrix of desire. It is not easy to imagine the consequences of a speeding technology. (Crandall, 135) Anyway, nanotechnology is not a solution for all problems. (Schick, 46)

2. Commercialization of Nanotechnology- Global Nanotechnology Market, Funding-Government vs. Venture Capitalists-(USA, JAPAN, EU)

Fresh sources of funding from venture capitalists and daring governments and strong competition, has brought about the formula for a big upheaval from a very small technology. (Uldrich, 13) U.S. funding for nanotech is as high as about $600m; in Japan the expenditure has leapt to $750m; and the EU has assured 1bn pound sterling in the 2004 financial year. National Science Foundation, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration - NASA and the departments of Energy, Health and Defense, fund Nanotech initiatives in the U.S. (Schick, 46) Though the universities and corporations have only lately invested in this new field, so far the results have been spectacular. (Jones, 74) One venture capital-VC fund is the Seraphima Ventures that is targeted to raise about $100 million for worldwide investment in starting up companies on nanotechnology. It funded about U.S.$38 Million to Nanosys and about U.S.$22 million to Nanostream during 2003. The $17.5 million series B. round was advanced to Zetacore led by Klener Perkins Caulfield and Byer and Us $30 million series B. round was advanced to Molecular Imprints just prior to the end of the year 2003. (Seraphima Ventures)

It appears improbable that individual companies will start strongly building these molecular computers or mining into nanotechnology's other potential uses. We are in the midst of a scientific breakthrough. Though we are aware that the technology is plausible and promising, we are yet to advance sufficiently for private industry to pledge money to more than periodic or focused research. Consequently, companies most probably appear to encourage niche research. Examples are: Nanophase, the company manufacturing sunscreen, is researching nanocrystals; Hewlett Packard is investigating how nanotechnology can enhance computer memory. Hence, funding for research into the huge issues appears more likely to come from public sources. In order to advance further, it is required to share information incessantly, which may not happen from companies eager to patent the eventual technique. Actually, governments mostly fund whatever important advancements made so far in the research. For instance, James Tour and Mark Reed accomplished much of their research into molecular computing with assistance from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency - DARPA. Thus, strong government participation in nanotechnology is more than a realistic compulsion from a research and national defense point-of-view. It is close to turning into a moral necessity. (Thompson, 6)

United States has a global dominance in the field of research activities, centers and the companies associated with the nano science and technology sector with more than 400 home companies presently involved in this area. The funding of nano technology research in U.S. has geared up during the period from 1997 to 2004 which is seen as an increment from U.S. $115 million to U.S. $849 million, as per QunetiQ Nanomaterials, irrespective of the fact that the signing of 'The 21st Century Nanotechnology Research and Development Act' by Congress on 3rd December, 2003 authorized to generate U.S. $3.4 billion during the following four years. Many research networks have been instituted in the U.S., that involves the NSF-funded National Nanofabrication Users Network, established during 1996. (Crandall, 136) Nanotechnology in packaging) the U.S. National Nanotechnology Initiative- NNI was generated in FY 2001 to back the secular nanoscale research and development giving rise to the prospective burst through in respective fields like materials and manufacturing, nano-electronics, medicine and healthcare, environment and energy, chemical and pharmaceutical industries, biotechnology and agriculture, computation and information technology and national security. (Tracking Commercial Applications in Nanotechnology)

Most of them regard the influence of the nanotechnology on the national and international economy and on the health and welfare of people to be at least as significant as the collective impact of microelectronics, medical imaging, computer-aided engineering, and man made polymers generated during the last century. The federal research for the NNI is performed in DOC, DOD, DOE and NIH laboratories and in the university firms by means of research grants and contracts. The functioning of initiative is regulated by the National Nanotechnology Coordination Office-NNCO and the NSTC Subcommittees on Nanoscale Science, Engineering and Technology-NSET. The NNI is regarded as a major enterprise entailing FY' 2003 budget request in addition of $700 million and management team constituted from 16 federal departments, institutes and agencies. In several instances such activities are making the initiatives easier in the research of completely new fields; in others, new tools are being applied to the traditional research subjects. The programs comparable in supporting to the NNI have been instituted in Europe and Asia and the NNI has already entered into collaborations with the European Union. The regional nanotechnology initiative exceeding 40 in numbers have been launched in U.S. alone in 21 States. (Tracking Commercial Applications in Nanotechnology)

In the field of commercialization, research and development of nanotechnology Japan is considered to be next only to the U.S. within the decade of its initiatives during 2001 in the field through the ¥25 billion Ministry for International Trade and Industry - MITI program on atom manipulation. With the inception of the Fourth Framework Program - FP4 that continued from 1994 to 1998, the EU funding of the nanotechnology projects have been initiated. The funding is also extended under FP5 and was significantly enhanced with prioritization of 'nanotechnologies and nanoscience, knowledge-based multifunctional materials and new production processes and devices' became a priority under FP6 and was apparently provided €e1.3 billion for the projects funded during 2003-06. The Pira International has a great role in the four-year EU sustainability project that was initiated during the first phase of 2004. (Nanotechnology in packaging)

The project aimed at generating complex multifunctional packaging materials with the application of nanotechnology. The group generating the initiatives consists of 15 research institutes, incorporating Pira, ten of the universities and eight industrial organs involving Kappa Packaging, Smurfit and Stora Enso. There is a growing attention towards nanotechnology that is evidenced by the reaction that the Commission entailed its first FP6 call for proposals. About 1000 proposals were put forth entailing the collaborative response for nanotechnology and material production processes and devices. The total funds proposed in this respect were e7.5 billion. There is considerable growth in funding of the nanotechnology research in Europe recorded to be from U.S.$125 million in 1997 to U.S.$300 million in 2002 and is still progressing in 2005. (Nanotechnology in packaging)

3. Commercial Applications of Nanotechnology

The application of the nanoscience in the field of medical sciences is considered to have great prospects entailing several potential advantages to the humanity. Some field of nanoscience has the objective of getting lessons from the biological nanosystems while others are concentrating on the assimilation of the organic and inorganic at the nanoscale. Research is going on to explore the possibility of its application in several other applications. The implants and prosthetics are considered the pioneering fields in this series. The emergence of new materials and the efficacies of nanotechnologies and biotechnologies made it possible to generate artificial organs and implants that are equivalent to the original through the growth of cells on artificial or biosynthetic coatings that enhances the biocompatibility and decline the rejection. This may involve the retinal, cochlear and neural implants, repair of the damaged nerve cells and substitute of corrupted skin, tissue or bone. (Commercial Applications of Nanotechnology in Medicine and Health)

The second filed of its application is diagnostics. Inherent to the MEMS - the Micro Electro Mechanical Systems, laboratory on a chip technology for quicker diagnosis that entails less of the sample is being devised in combination with micro-fuidics. It is anticipated that the common personal health monitors may also be developed with its application. The development in both genomics and nanotechnology are prone to energize the sensors that resolve the genetic make-up quickly and precisely, increasing the knowledge of the predisposition of the people to genetic related diseases. Lastly, the drug delivery system will exploit the development of nanotechnology. With nano particles the drugs may effectively be accorded better solubility giving rise to better absorption. Moreover, the drugs are to contain within a molecular carrier, either for its protection from stomach acids or to regulate the release of the drug to a particular targeted area declining the side-effects. Clinical or pre-clinical trials on such drugs have already been initiated as per the stringent regulatory essentialities for new pharmaceuticals. The cost of generation as a result of this are sometimes high and the consequences of research often are quite confined. (Commercial Applications of Nanotechnology in Medicine and Health)

Already the nanoparticles have been grouped into commercial products. Endo points out that most people consider skin-treatment products as lotions or creams or sticky products that stay on the skin. But we can in fact devise micro-powder to pierce and deliver skin benefits straightly upon application using technology at the nano-level. The little silicon, zinc and carbon molecular products of biomimetic procedures are bustling through the boardrooms of cosmetic giants like L'Oreal, Shiseido and Kose, bringing earnings to them. (Nakada, 15) for instance, nano-sized granules of titanium dioxide are used in sun creams prepared by BASF and L'Oreal. It is translucent and absorbs ultraviolet light and so the skin does not look as if it is coated with chalk. (Ball, 5) L'Oreal's Lancme Resurface anti-wrinkle cream makes use of an original nanocapsule procedure developed at the company's European lab to include vitamin a inside a polymer capsule. The capsules works like a mop that drenches and seizes the product inside till the outer shell melts. (Nakada, 14)

These compounds are so minute and are just 200 nanometers; they do not stay on the surface of the skin but go down into it right through the pores. Currently Lancome products Primordiale Intense and Hydra Zen Serum are also applying biomimetic procedures. For instance, Primordial Intense nanocapsules, are filled with Vitamin a, wheat germ, sunflower seed extracts and honey. The dispensing prospective of Fullerenes, which makes you handsome both inside as well as outside is the stimulation for beauty and health researchers. Noted for their similarity to Buckminster Fuller's geodesic domes, these closed carbon molecules are one bold new expectation to provide life-saving medicines directly into unhealthy tissue. The database for nanotechnology applications is widened by the research carried out by cosmetic companies. The present day smooth skin could mean tomorrow's life-saving medical system. (Nakada, 14)

In covering it is growingly accepted hat the nanotechnology will have significant application to the areas across paper, packaging and printing. The Nanomaterials are visualized to be applied for Longer shelf-life - improved barrier properties, absorbing compounds, UV absorbers, chemical fixers, anti-oxidants; Hot-fill -improved temperature performance; flexible packaging -thin films; functionality - anti-counterfeit, anti-tamper, anti-microbial sensors, integrated power. The packaging of nano-composites is expected to have extensive application in respect of Gas barriers; Oxygen barriers; food packaging and films. The application of nano barcodes is seen for track and trace film electronics for the purpose of sensory packaging. The nanotechnology is used in the paper industry in the production process as well as in the material itself. There is a wide variation in the packaging and printing industry with: application of nanoscale pigments in respect of inks; nanomaterials to generate color with out the application of dyes or traditional pigments and; development of the competing systems, i.e. nanomaterial electronic display systems capable of paper quality. (Nanotechnology in packaging)

In the field of mobile telephones, nanomaterials and nanoelectronics is expected to influence optics, acoustics, displays, antennas, batteries, sensors, actuators, paints and coating. The nanotechnology will assist the generation of color-varying plastics and self-healing materials that presents and better surface, flame retardation, chemical conflict, thermal stability and recyclables. The telephones utilise nanobiotechnology for the function of sensing, actuating and power. The carbon embedded nanotubes-based displays are considered to be larger, brighter and cost effective. The Nanoscale fractal antennas assist the phones to apply multiple spectra and broadband. The high capacity nanopower sources like advanced fuel cells and photonic energy will make it possible for better energy storage and conversion. (Grace, 6)

4. An intro to potentially successful Nanotechnology Companies

With the help of nanotechnologies, companies are developing products ranging from clothing and sunscreen to high-tech computer parts and complicated medical devices. (Bailey; Lattimore, 36) While taking into consideration the nanotechnology, most of the industry is thinking of taking up some activity in this sphere. Ever since the last decade the electronic industry is seen to have applied the potentialities of the tools of nanotechnology for generating the high performance computer chips. Recently the biotech companies have initiated enhancing the same instruments for diagnosing and treating the disease. Presently the food industry is looking towards nanotechnology while it is searching of innovations that entail secured, healthier, and tastier products to the public. During 2000, the Kraft Foods, stationed in Northfield, Ill., initiated to support one of the most determined efforts in the application of nanotechnology to food research and development. Commonly termed as the NanoteK consortium, the project included members that incorporated researchers from 15 universities, 3 national labs, and 3 start-up companies.

By extending financial support in the field of research in nano-technology, the multibillion dollar food industry is anticipated to evolve a set of smarter and more personalized food products. (Goho, 43) IBM, the $70-billion-a-year behemoth, has already come into the field. (Grace, 7) L'Oreal, the global industry giant has emerged as an early adopter of nanotechnology in cosmetics. Keiko Hirata from Nihon L'Oreal's Lancome marketing department reports that they first launched nanotechnology product in 1998. Company researchers tried out with 350 formulas and performed 2,500 tests before arriving at the end product. As per a prediction by a Japanese business organization, Nippon Keidanren, the domestic market for nanotechnology could reach yen 2.4 trillion by 2005, with an expected jump to yen 27.3 trillion by 2010. Research is being done on nanotechnology applications by other national and global cosmetic houses. (Nakada, 15)

Nanosys, one among the top most Nanotechnology companies generates nanotechnology-enabled systems that applied in molecular sensing, optoelectronics, and nanoelectronics is largely successful in this respect. Nanosys, being founded by the CEO Larry Bock is considered to be one of the largest corporations in the field of nanotechnology and they are quite reluctant to reveal its strategies and pioneer efforts in entering the market, however has shown significant achievement in the sphere of nanometer transistors that will thus enable a new generation of computer chips. Moreover, another company in such fields, Hybrid Plastics, a U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory bi-product has made remarkable progress in devising of revolutionary plastic technology out of sand that is extremely strong, efficient and do not entail air pollution in the process of production. The product is being utilized by various customers involving optical, computing and electronics and beauty corporations. The Chemat Technology, INC, considered to be a survivor of the government funded research and development has become a profitable business in 2000, a decade since the inception of sol-gel-based company. The objective is the generation and commercialization of sol-gel based advanced materials and technologies, for its own application and to support its customers with technologies that they apply to generate leading-edge products with application of advanced materials. (Top 10 Nanotechnology Companies)

Caltech-UCLA byproduct, Luxtera's product is based on Caltech developments in the field of nanophotonics. Such technology is relied upon the optical structures those are an order of magnitude smaller then those conventionally used in integrated optical devices. Such technology thus declines the cost of optical electronic movements and optoelectronic systems. Broadly-James is another nano-technology and has established itself successfully in entering into the biotech-pharmaceutical market this is an industry that has enhanced the production severely and thus generated strong market potential. Nanodevices, are considered to be another company in such industry presently engaged in the shipment of its Active Probe ™ technology in respect of the Digital Instruments, Veeco Metrology NanoScope® IV. NanoDevices disclosed their products EasyTube ™ NanoFurnace in November 2001 as a measure to strengthen the research in the field of nanotube. This company has been taken over by NanoGram Devices Corp. Another subsidiary of Caltech, Insert Therapeutics generated a non-viral, non-toxic, intracellular delivery system for small molecule drugs and genes.

Similarly the Rockwell Scientific, a nanotechnology-based company is regarded as the most significant research and development labs concentrated on a varied range of innovative technologies that has been modified to devise a portfolio of technology and intellectual property that is applied to several fields. Cyrano considered as another successful venture is taking advantage of the value that is revealed by the efficacies of digitalization, archive and analyze smell and to extend the low cost chemical information. The products of the Cyrano are considered to be a sensory range of technology that entails revolution capability to radically change the scents into digital 'smellprints' through a small, cheaper NoseChip™. Gnefludics is regarded as a bio-focused nanotech company, since its inception before two years of the efforts of scientists and researchers at UCLA, engaging itself in the production of cutting-edge devices to bring radical changes in the field of molecular analysis. The enhanced functionality and capabilities of the disposable unit will be besieged for applications in pharmaceutical and life science research. (Top 10 Nanotechnology Companies)

5. An intro to Nanotechnology companies' Business Models

The companies are presently in search of the possibilities to enhance the prospective of the technology. (Bailey; Lattimore, 38) the basic goal of the most business organisations is to generate wealth for their shareholders. This is typically attained through business models that promote rapid revenue creation, along with royalties from licensing, and other means of enhancing the share price. While the management primarily concentrates on the development of technology at the elimination of other business activities that can generate revenue, at some particular moment the cash reserves will decline and the company will be at the stake of being dissolved. Such process has been illustrated by the biotech boom prior to a decade. Most of the companies were found successful at enhancing the investment dollars to enhance technology, but too few had promoted business models that transformed technology into revenue generating commercial uses irrespective of in the fields of pharmaceuticals, medical devices or agricultural products. This observation was quite evident that during an investment panel at a biotech conference in 2002 where the varied biotech investors had expected the degeneration of about 30 to 70% of companies in their portfolios in the coming three to five years. (Crandall, 142)