Nanotechnology (A great achievement or A greater demise)

Definition:Nanotechnology is the engineering of functional systems at the molecular scale. This covers both current work and concepts that are more advanced.

History! 

Nanotechnology is a  scientific research,it's idea was created over long period of time.                  

     According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanotechnology "the  emergence of nanotechnology in the 1980s was caused by the convergence of experimental advances such as the invention of the scanning tunneling microscope in 1981 and the discovery of fullerenes in 1985, with the elucidation and popularization of a conceptual framework for the goals of nanotechnology beginning with the 1986 publication of the book Engines of Creation." It is developed by  k Eric Drexler later he united by Richard Feyman. And the Nano was an idea of Norio Taniguchi. It is said that "One nanometer (nm) is one billionth, or 10⁻⁹, of a meter. By comparison, typical carbon-carbon bond lengths, or the spacing between these atoms in a molecule, are in the range 0.12–0.15 nm, and a DNA double-helix has a diameter around 2 nm. On the other hand, the smallest cellular life-forms, the bacteria of the genus Mycoplasma, are around 200 nm in length. By convention, nanotechnology is taken as the scale range 1 to 100 nm following the definition used by the National Nanotechnology Initiative in the US. The lower limit is set by the size of atoms (hydrogen has the smallest atoms, which are approximately a quarter of a nm diameter) since nanotechnology must build its devices from atoms and molecules. The upper limit is more or less arbitrary but is around the size that phenomena not observed in larger structures start to become apparent and can be made use of in the nano device.These new phenomena make nanotechnology distinct from devices which are merely miniaturised versions of an equivalent macroscopic device; such devices are on a larger scale and come under the description of microtechnology."

Nano Materials

Interface and colloid science

Nanoscale materials

DNA nanotechnology 

Examples

• giant magnetoresistance in nanocrystalline materials
• nanolayers with selective optical barriers, hard coatings
• dispersions with optoelectronic properties, high reactivity
• chemical and bio-detectors
• advanced drug delivery systems
• chemical-mechanical polishing with nanoparticle slurries
• new generation of lasers
• nanostructured catalysts
• systems on a chip
• carbon nanotube products
• nanoparticle reinforced materials
• thermal barrier
• ink jet systems
• information recording layers
• molecular sieves
• high hardness cutting tools                                                                                                               (Read more: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Examples_of_nanotechnology#ixzz1RHZ4d21M)

Application

One of the major applications of nanotechnology is in the area of nanoelectronics with MOSFET's being made of small nanowires ~10 nm in length. Here is a simulation of such a nanowire.

Four Generations