Brito del Rosario Wellington Daniel

ICI-S-CO-4-10-MRI-1

English 4

NANOTECHNOLOGY

Introduction

In the world, nanotechnology is considered key in the development of the 21st century society.
It is an interdisciplinary and emerging field in which physics, biology, chemistry and social
sciences come together. Its objective is to understand, determine, manipulate and exploit the
physical characteristics of matter at the nanoscale to generate technological innovations taking
into account their social and environmental impact. The possibility of creating new materials
and devices, from atoms and molecules, seems limitless. Studying how nanotechnology can
affect the quality of life worldwide involves sectors as diverse as the economy, medicine, the
environment, weapons development, among many others. Just as it is assumed that
nanotechnology will revolutionize manufacturing, health care , travel, energy supply, food
supply, and war, it is necessary to consider that it will in turn transform workplaces, the
medical system, transportation and energy infrastructure, the agricultural enterprise and the
military.

Methodology

The meeting of science and technology began in the last part of the 19th century, accelerating
the innovation process, and therefore the process of transformation of society as well. History
shows us that new technologies rarely arise in isolation. The industrial revolution was not
simply about harnessing the power of steam to increase production capacity, but also about
transformations in transportation, communications, construction, agriculture, resource
extraction, and, of course, weapons development. These technological systems permeated in
the most internal niches of society such as the home and family, schools, workplaces and
communities and forced them to change. Karl Polanyi pointed out: "Separating work from
other activities of life to submit it to the laws of the market is to annihilate all organic forms of
existence and replace them with another type of organization, an atomistic and individualistic
one", in the same way nanotechnology now permeates inevitably the social events of
individuals. According to the National Science Foundation, nanotechnology will trigger a new
technological development in the world comparable to the Industrial Revolution of the 18th
century. In the short term, the current state of knowledge may suggest that the first wave of
useful nanotechnologies will be in the area of coverage and detection. The ability to detect,
precisely identify, and perhaps isolate individual molecules, viruses, or other complexes at the
nanoscale has wide application in areas such as medical diagnostics, forensics, national
defense, and environmental surveillance and control. In medicine, the impact on good
important. Medical sensors that can, for example, "detect a series of medically relevant
signals at high sensitivity and selectivity" not only promise to help diagnose and treat disease,
but also to develop predictive profiles of people's health.

Nanotechnology offers immense potential for military application. One area of nano-
innovation currently in high demand lies in increased use of automation and robotics to offset
reductions in military manpower, reduce risks to troops, and improve vehicle performance.
One of the risks of Molecular manufacturing is the possible imbalance of the current economic
structure, with a possible massive reduction in the value of many material and human
resources, including a large part of our current infrastructure. Molecular nanotechnology
allows the economical manufacture of devices with very high performance. What
environmental damage can they cause? The potential for potential damage is immense, from
low-flying supersonic personal aircraft harming animals, to the implementation of stronger
materials that will allow for the development of much larger machines, capable of digging into
or destroying large areas of our planet at a much faster pace. The compact nature of
machinery made by nanotechnology could encourage the use of very small products, which
could in turn become a type of nano-waste over time that would be difficult to clean up and
could cause health problems.

Conclusion

It can be affirmed that when taking into account the negative social impact of
nanotechnological development, the same problems arise for any type of technological
innovation.