Nanotechnology
Author: Lilly Wang
Nanotechnology is a hot topic these days. Just imagine you now can control the construction of material on the molecule level, it is really an exciting step in both science and engineering.
In regular organic reactions, the molecules tend to form a random state to achieve the maximum entropy for the stability. In another word, the material won’t be stable if the structure is not in a random state. In contrast to this, the nanotechnology basically builds up the structure with molecules aligned (ordered state). And if the molecules are polar (meaning it has dipole), the material constructed in this way will create enhanced electrical and optical effects. Also the way this type of material interacting with other material including human cells will be different since they are polar and have magnetic effects.
As a matter of fact, the nature has built material in this way much long before we found the nanotechnology. Think about protein and DNA, they are all self-assembly, ordered structures that our bodies can create themselves. Some of the techniques used these days borrow that idea. When I was in graduate school, my dissertation was working on the synthesis of constructing aligned material (thin-layer) on gold surface. Those good old days...
If you are interested in nanotechnology, the wikipedia site has really good coverage. Maybe we can discuss more later ...
Wiki pedia nano technology link