Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman is recognized as an early proponent of nanotechnology for his 1959 talk "There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom," in which he discussed the possibility of compressing machine engineering onto smaller and smaller scales. During his talk, he issued a challenge to engineers to create an electric motor smaller than 1/64th of an inch cubed. Read on for more images of nanostructures and the theories behind them.
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The mathematician Albert Hibbs, a friend of Richard Feynman's, created the idea of "swallowing the doctor," or medical nanobots. This is the premise of the 1966 film Fantastic Voyage, starring Raquel Welch (center).
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This is an artist’s representation of a nanobot working on a red blood cell in a human artery. How would one build a functional machine so small? All machines require moving parts, so in this case, you'd have to make the mechanical components out of structures that would be measured on the nanoscale.
Image Credit: Getty Images/The Image Bank/Frederik Skold
In this 2003 photo, Dr. Stephen Empedocles, co-founder of Silicon Valley startup Nanosys, shines a light through vials of a usually colorless material. Nanoparticles of different sizes cause the material to glow in different colors.
Image Credit: AP Photo/Eric Risberg
University of Albany Professor Pradeep Haldar holds a chip wafer embedded with 1,000 chips in 2006. His work with cryogenically cooled electronics was aimed at reducing the size of U.S. Navy warship power generators. Next, you'll see nanoparticles put to good use.
Image Credit: AP Photo/Tim Roske
Architect Richard Meier's Jubilee Church in Rome features self-cleaning concrete including nanoparticles of titanium dioxide. These titanium dioxide components are activated by the sunlight to weaken the attachment of dirty particles on the surface of the church's façade. Eventually, the dislodged dirt is carried away by rain runoff.
Image Credit: AP Photo/Marianna Bertagnolli
The inner shell of this tennis ball has a microscopic coating made by InMat Inc. that helps retain air longer. The company claims their technology allows tennis balls to be used for twice as long as others.
Image Credit: AP Photo/Mike Derer
This microscopic image shows metal wires just 8 to 10 atoms wide on a silicon surface at Hewlett-Packard headquarters in Palo Alto, Calif. in 2001. According to Moore's law, the number of transistors that we can build into an integrated circuit doubles approximately every 18 months, leading these transistors closer and closer to the nanoscale.
Image Credit: AP Photo/Paul Sakuma
In this colorized electron microscope image, an ant is posed above a 12-layer nickel chain made with electrochemical fabrication at the University of Southern California's Information Sciences Institute.
Image Credit: AP Photo/University of Southern California/Adam Cohen
The diatom alga is a type of phytoplankton found all around the world's oceans, lakes and rivers. This diatom has been magnified by a scanning electron microscope to show the three-dimensional structure of its silica-based cell wall -- a natural shell that blends in with the grains of sand in aquatic sediment.
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Some nanostructures occur in nature, and some are synthetic. Many scientists are hoping that natural nanostructures can teach us how to build better artificial ones -- such as in this figure, where the enzyme organophosphorus hydrolase (OPH) is rests within a synthetic nanomembrane (mesoporous silica). In this model, the OPH converts molecular toxins into harmless waste.
Image Credit: U.S. Department of Energy
This illustration shows nanostructured platinum arranged in a honeycomb-like pattern 1 million times smaller than those found in a beehive but still large enough to allow the transport of small molecules. With this production method, which was developed by Cornell University researchers, platinum nanoparticles automatically assemble into complex, ordered patterns.
Image Credit: National Science Foundation
Heme carrier protein 1 (HCP1) is a building block that is ideal for assembling nanostructures because it is so easy to work with. Assuming conditions are optimal, scientists can add a few cysteines to HCP1 and the donut-shaped proteins form nanotubes that can be lengthened or shortened, and topped with molecules that can give the tubes specific functions.
Image Credit: U.S. Department of Energy
Researchers at the National Science Foundation use controlled nucleation of silicon carbide nanowires on gallium catalyst particles to grow "nanotrees" -- a 3-D nanostructure. As the growth proceeds, individual nanowires "knit" together to form 3-D structures.
Image Credit: National Science Foundation
Above are several shots showing carbon nanotubes from different angles. This cylindrical fullerene model has many potential applications in future science. For example, carbon nanotubes are highly conductive of both heat and electricity, and could be used to create new types of conductive plastics. Check out the next page to see how nanostructures can be used in astronomy.
Image Credit: Courtesy of NASA
When astronomers peer into the stars, they need all of the light sensitivity they can get -- equipment that allows any amount of visible light to go undetected is wasting data. NASA researchers claim that this new nanotube coating multiplies the light-absorbing capabilities of equipment by 50 times. Next, you'll see the muscle of a nanotube fiber.
Image Credit: Courtesy of Stephanie Getty, NASA Goddard
This shows carbon nanotubes meshed together into a fiber and magnified to human visibility. Fiber composites like this are exceptionally strong for their mass -- in fact, they may perform better than the standard materials in bulletproof body armor. Click over to the next page to see a nanotube-based material with interesting electrical properties.
Image Credit: Courtesy of NASA
This photo from a scanning electron microscope gives us an up-close-and-personal view of the structure of purified nanotube paper. Scientists at NASA's Glenn Research Center have found that this nanostructure-based paper has strong thermiotic performance, meaning that heat can make it emit electrical charges. This could make such a substance useful in building electrode components.
Image Credit: Courtesy of NASA/Glenn Research Center
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