Great Things Come In Little Packages: Nanotechnology Offers Promise
It's a time where the lines between computer support and human support are changing. In Nassau County computer repair means people fixing computers. In Suffolk County computer repair means people fixing computers. But in the labs of esteemed universities studies are underway that would flip the relationship. Computer repair would mean essential body immune response would be carried out by miniature computers. Nanotechnology has evolved and it is poised to change everything. An area most affected will be in the health industry.
Nanotechnology is the use of technology using very small things. A nanometer is a unit of measurement. Nanotechnology useunits running between 1 and 100 nanometers. If you took 800,000 nanometers and laid them next to each other it would be about the width of a hair. That's small stuff. Being able to operate and manipulate elements at such a small level holds great potential benefit in the medical arena. Many institutions and researchers are engaged in exciting studies that could change the face of health care. Some changes are already occurring.
Currently there are many different studies using nanotechnology in a various methods. One application is in how nanotechnology can assist in diagnosing and treating cancer. A major downside to cancer treatments such as chemotherapy, is that it can't specifically target only cancer cells. Healthy and unhealthy cells are assaulted. With nanotechnology specific cells can be treated. There are studies that employee RNA strands that can find and attach to cancer cells. These strands, when connected can release anti-cancer agents into the afflicted cells. Other studies have focused on creating a color coding system using nanotechnology that would create protein indicators that would attach to cancer cells making them easier to trace. An additional application nanotechnology in the treatment of cancer is nanoshells. Nanoshells are made of minute beads with various densities made of gold. These shells are drawn to cancer cells, surround them and then are heated with near infrared light which destroys the cancer cells, but doesn't harm healthy cells in close proximity.
Nanodevices would be small enough to operate inside a cell. They would be little enough that they could interact with proteins and DNA. Nanodevices could monitor the cell and detect disease using a smaller quantity of cell tissue. This means that diseases and change in cell tissue could be monitored and detected much earlier in the process. Since success in fighting cancer often depends on early detection, this would be a major advance in cancer fighting technology.
Nanotechnology is a rapidly developing area of science that combines many disciplines including; physics, chemistry, biology, engineering, and many other sciences including political and social science. With ongoing discoveries in all different fields, the advent of Nanotechnology will be fully upon us.
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