Big Buzz, Small Wonders
Nanotechnology 101

As printed in Hearing Health, volume 19:4, Winter 2003

By Karyn Butts, Managing Editor

Once talked about only among vanguards of science and engineering and venture capitalists, nanotechnology is seeping into mainstream vernacular, stimulating wild imaginings of its potential, not to mention considerable puzzlement about its definition. If you believe the hype and can wrap your mind around its fundamental principles, you may conclude that we are on the brink of a revolutionary age in which it will be possible to build just about anything so that it is faster, smaller, lighter, stronger, smarter … in short, inestimably better.

Nanotechnology refers to the ability to manipulate matter at the atomic level to produce new materials and devices. Think really small here. We are talking about stringing together particles that measure one billionth of a meter or about 100,000 times narrower than a human hair. Working at such a miniscule scale, scientists can create or rearrange structures to have novel and desirable properties.

Potential applications could permeate every aspect of life, from the fabric used to make ubiquitous khaki pants to medicines for rare diseases. The world may ride the nanotech wave for the entire 21st century, witnessing dramatic changes to industry, economies and health along the way.

It’s a Nanoworld
Silicon Valley giant Hewlett Packard has a commercial about nanotechnology in which the narrator asks us to imagine a “cell phone so small an ant can use it” and a “light bulb that never burns out,” the point being that nanotechnology pushes the limits of what is possible. Already on store shelves are stain-resistant khaki pants and clear sunscreens that owe their unique selling points to atom-sized engineering feats. These products and others benefiting from similar basic improvements to material properties are among the first real-life uses of nanotechnology. It may be decades before we see any major breakthroughs, however.

Not surprisingly, computers and electronics are at the forefront with the aim to increase processing speed and memory capacity on an ever-shrinking chip. But down the line, nanotech may be able to solve global warming or at least eliminate some of the chemicals used in pesticides or in manufacturing processes. And it could transform space travel and military operations.

Richard Feynman is credited with ushering the concept into the scientific consciousness in his oft-cited address before the American Physical Society in 1959. Although nearly a half century later nanotechnology remains in an exploratory phase of development, the nanotech market may be ready to explode. Some industry experts, including the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), expect it to reach $1 trillion globally in the next 10 to 15 years.

Some of the grander hopes lie in the realm of biology. Nanomedicine could be the future of healthcare as new ways to monitor health status and to study and treat disease emerge through the use of nanodevices. There may someday be molecules embedded with nano-sized computer chips that when injected into the body can scan for cancerous cells and destroy them.

“The breadth of potential applications is stunning,” said Robert Shannon, Ph.D., of House Ear Institute in Los Angeles after his initiation into the nanoworld when he joined a group of scientists from various disciplines to speak at the Workshop on Nanobiotechnology. Shannon admits to knowing very little of nanotechnology until this meeting, where he was asked about potential applications for hearing health. Information and ideas from the October 2003 meeting will help co-sponsors, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Science Foundation (NSF), set research and funding priorities.

Pondering potential advances in hearing health to come from a nanomedicine boom, Shannon tells Hearing Health that he “can imagine a drug that targets bacteria that cause ear infections” or “placing single receptors on cell membranes to make nerve cells in the cochlea more sensitive,” thereby repairing hearing loss. Devices such as hearing aids and cochlear implants will likely improve with advances in computer engineering or perhaps even become obsolete if non-invasive medical treatments for hearing loss become a reality. “The challenge for hearing researchers,” Shannon concludes, “is not to get left out of this technology. We must interact and direct research efforts to make sure hearing health benefits.”

Bigger Bucks
With the myriad of possible applications, almost every sector of the economy is clamoring for a piece of the nanotechnology pie. In December, Congress approved the 21st Century Nanotechnology Research and Development Act, authorizing nearly $3.7 billion in funding through fiscal year 2008 for this brain-teasing phenomenon. With $810 million allocated for 2005, these new funds continue the upward spiral from the $422 million budgeted in fiscal year 2001.

The money from the newly passed act will go toward a National Nanotechnology Program. Goals for this initiative set forth in the act include:

• Establishing interdisciplinary nanotechnology research centers
• Providing grants to individual investigators
• Accelerating the deployment and application of nanotechnology research and development in the private sector
• Ensuring United States global leadership in the development and application of
  nanotechnology

Taking a broader view, nanotech is also a growing international priority. According to a NSF report in the March 2003 edition of the Journal of Nanoparticle Research, worldwide spending reached $3 billion in 2003, six times more than what it was in 1997. Although not yet reaching American spending levels, the European Union and Japan have dedicated the most monies to nanotechnology. Meanwhile, according to a December report in The New York Times, Israel has begun raising funds to supplement the $150 million currently invested in nanotech research in that country and former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres “likes to talk about using nanotechnology to desalinate water, manufacture climate-controlled clothing and create military units without soldiers.”

In all, the NSF lists 35 countries that have national nanotechnology development programs. Beyond the allure of new products and nanomedicines, governments are banking on the possibility that a nanotechnology explosion will create millions of new jobs. The NSF estimates that nanotech enterprises have the “potential to create 7 million jobs overall by 2015 in the global market.”

Good, Bad or Nirvana?
Not to be overlooked among the goals outlined by Congress in the recently approved nanotech act is the proviso to ensure that “ethical, legal, environmental and other appropriate societal concerns … are considered during the development of nanotechnology.” What should temper current enthusiasm, even excitement, among scientists, engineers, developers and dreamers is the potential use of nanotech in “enhancing human intelligence” or even “developing artificial intelligence which exceeds human capacity,” according to language in the act.

This cautionary note adds fuel to a hotly debated topic among nanophiles over the feasibility of creating “self-replicating robots.” Believers conjure up fantasies of
the disastrous consequences when such machines take over the world. And just as nanomedicine could bring unprecedented ability to maintain good health, many fear that it will become a weapon for terrorists who would have new ways of producing
and introducing bio-weapons in mass quantities.

In striking contrast, other nanofans see it as the doorway to a utopia where the world shares in prosperity, global warming is reversed and humans live much longer. The Internet is full of websites where philosophical debate whirls as experts and non-experts alike speculate about the good and bad of the impending nanoworld.

Bottom line? In today’s reality, no one is certain when, how or if a nanotechnology revolution will occur. Skeptics may yet have their day but if you jump on the bandwagon now, take with you the words of Richard Feynman who said nearly 50 years ago, “I can’t see exactly what would happen but I can hardly doubt that when we have some control of the arrangement of things on a small scale, we will get an enormously greater range of possible properties that substances can have and of different things we can do.”
Stay tuned, hold on and get ready for what could be one astonishing ride.