Hard to define

1. On its Web site, the Center for Responsible Nanotechnology (CRN), admits that if you ask 100 people, “What is nanotechnology?” 90 will have no idea, and 10 offer varying definitions. The proper definition, says CRN, is as follows: “Nanotechnology is the projected ability to make things from the bottom up using techniques and tools that are being developed today to place every atom and molecule in a desired place. If this form of molecular engineering is achieved, which seems probable, it will result in a manufacturing revolution. It also has serious economic, environmental, and military applications.”

In terms of dimensions, one nanometer (nm) is a billionth, or 10^–9, of a meter, or one thousandth of a micron. By comparison, typical carbon-carbon bond lengths, or the spacing between these atoms in a molecule, are in the range 0.12–0.15nm, and a DNA double-helix has a diameter around 2 nm. On the other hand, the smallest cellular lifeforms, the bacteria of the genus Mycoplasma, are around 200 nm in length.

To put that scale in another context, the comparative size of a nanometer to a meter is the same as that of a marble to the size of the earth. Or another way of putting it: a nanometer is the amount a man's beard grows in the time it takes him to raise the razor to his face.

2. Two main approaches are used in nanotechnology. In the “bottom-up” approach, materials and devices are built from molecular components which assemble themselves chemically by principles of molecular recognition. In the “top-down” approach, nano-objects are constructed from larger entities without atomic-level control.

NB: bottom up approach – a technology with which it is possible to arrange smaller components into more complex assemblies

Notes

bond n – связь, соединение DNA double-helix n – двойная спираль дезоксирибонуклеиновой кислоты

cellular a – клеточный marble n – стеклянный шарик для игры beard n – борода

5.11. Read the following text and discuss how the new technology can change our lives and whether we can predict all its effects.

Nanotechnology

3. Nanotechnology, or, as it is also sometimes called, molecular manufacturing , is a branch of engineering that deals with the design and manufacture of extremely small electronic circuits and mechanical devices built at the molecular level of matter. The Institute of Nanotechnology in the U.K. expresses it as “science and technology where dimensions and tolerances in the range of 0.1nanometer (nm) to 100nm play a critical role.” Nanotechnology is often discussed together with microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), a subject that usually includes nanotechnology but may also include technologies higher than the molecular level.

Nanotechnology is extremely diverse, ranging from novel extensions of conventional device physics, to completely new approaches based upon molecular self-assembly, to developing new materials with dimensions on the nanoscale, even to speculation on whether we can directly control matter on the atomic scale.

There has been much debate on the future of implications of nanotechnology. Nanotechnology has the potential to create many new materials and devices with wide-ranging applications, such as in medicine, electronics, and energy production. On the other hand, nanotechnology raises many of the same issues as with any introduction of new technology, including concerns about the toxicity and environmental impact of nanomaterials, and their potential effects on global economics, as well as speculation about various doomsday scenarios. These concerns have led to a debate among advocacy groups and governments on whether special regulation of nanotechnology is warranted.

Notes

tolerance n – допуск, наибольшее допустимое отклонение novel a – новый, неожиданный implication n – скрытый смысл, значение

doomsday n – светопреставление, конец света warrant v – оправдывать

5.12. Translate the text Larger to Smaller: a Materials Perspective. Write an annotation on the text (3–4 sentences).