Anyone who is old enough to remember a popular science fiction movie produced in the 1960s that dealt with shrinking people, machines, and equipment so that they could be injected into a man’s body to perform a life-saving medical procedure may remember thinking that there was no way that could ever happen. The premise of shrinking people is still just imaginary; however, shrinking machinery and equipment isn’t just stuff of the imagination.
In fact, not only is it a reality, it has a name: nanotechnology. Simply put, it means exactly what the movie depicted–working with existing or newly-created materials to shrink them to such a scale that they can be used to build extremely small, and in some instances, microscopic machinery.
If you’re still not sure exactly what nanotechnology is, think of a computer chip. A computer chip can be so small that its size is measured in micrometers (a micrometer is one millionth of a meter; a meter is 100 centimeters). You get the picture. It’s very, very small.
If you own a laptop computer, you know these smaller machines can perform many tasks. If you own a hand-held mobile device that functions as a phone, Internet browser, music player, and so on, then you know that the chips that run them must be very small. Making these chips, as well as other small things, requires nanotechnology.
Nanotechnology is becoming so widespread that there are entire companies that are devoted to this form of technology alone. Some concentrate on making smaller and smaller components that can be used not only in electronics but also in other areas, while others turn their attention to nanotechnology research—trying to determine new and better ways to use this technology. There are even some applications for nanotechnology in the medical field. Maybe the premise of that movie isn’t too far-fetched after all!