When I first heard the word ‘nanotechnology’ I had no perception or knowledge of such word. It sounded very science but I could not reference or link to my understanding of biology, chemistry, nor physics. It felt different; it was something aside from the structural sciences we learn at school. So I googled images of nanotech and the first picture that comes up was.
Then it was followed by something scary.
I’ve always believed that robots in a distant future will create chaos in the world and take over the human society. I view technology as something very harmful to humans despite their advancements and benefits. Humans have grown attached to and dependent on these efficient machines that lessen the amount of energy we put. I viewed technology as a source of our laziness and the reason behind some of environmental problems as well as wars. (I’m sorry if this upsets any of you reading) We constantly search ‘to improve our lives’ as they say while I believe that we have grown accustomed to this efficiency. We ‘desire’ for our responsibilities to be placed on the machines and have them, work for us. Despite by negativity, I’m not trying to label technology as this evil invention.
I looked up nanotechnology on YouTube and found an animation, as satire about the nanotechnology. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0dYPnui3rM
From these two resources and my own intuition, nanotechnology felt like something fake, a science fiction. Maybe nanotechnology is just a study of sci-fi movies.
As Adam introduced the topic of nanotechnology, to my disappointment, it only deepened my negative view. Basically it’s a study of science in ‘nano’ scale, something very small. Nanometer is e-19 of a meter.
He briefly explained some of the applications of nanotechnology and one topic particularly sparked my interest. He mentioned silver nanoparticles that have a special ability to kill harmful bacteria. They are used in many appliances such as washing machine, refrigerator, and socks. There’s been an increase of necessity for these silver nanoparticles by the consumers. Samsung has launched several products such as the refrigerator which has silver nanoparticle coating covering all the surface area of the refrigerator. Because of these nano silver particles that suspend in the air, it kills these airborne bacteria by suppressing their respiration and in effect slows their metabolism, inhibiting their growths.
Silver nanoparticles work as a catalyst in an oxidation reactions. The silver particles kill these enzymes that are needed by the bacteria, fungi, and viruses to metabolize oxygen. In doing so, they ‘suffocate’ and die in less than six minutes. Particles can also generate oxygen from air or water which is used to destroy cell membranes of the bacteria. While bacteria and virus are becoming resistant towards antibiotic drugs, there has been a study that they will never adapt to silver particles. http://www.azonano.com/Details.asp?ArticleID=1695