Nanochemistry Applications and Technology - Term Paper Example

Nanochemistry Applications And Technology This essay succinctly describes some of the lately introduced applications and technologies in the field of Nanochemistry. Basically, Nanochemistry deals with the strategies and technologies which revolve around various features related to assemblies of atoms or molecules in an innovative manner. Achieving desired shapes, sizes and structures of nanoscale building blocks with an overall intention to establish control over assembling features of these blocks is the main intention of this field, which is relatively new compared to other disciplines of science. The point influencing the whole phenomenon of Nanochemistry is to focus that point of the structure of the materials that is generally named nanoscopic scale. The importance of this point can be judged from the fact that most of the fluctuations observed and brought in the structures can be made possible at this stage. That is the reason these structures are named nanoscopic blocks accordingly, at this stage. The nanochemical control identifies above was introduced many years ago but recently new technologies have been introduced to enhance that control. According to Diaz and Bohn (2010), scanning tunneling microscope (STM), atomic force microscope (AFM), high resolution scanning, transmission electron microscopies, ion and electron beam probes are just a few strategies necessary for comprehending the ins and outs of this field. STM and AFM allow research scientists to deeply scrutinize the surfaces with atomic or molecular resolution. Reportedly, these technologies have been increasingly pursued in Nanochemistry, owing to the greater facility they provide to analyze things. Biomedical applications and technology: A general definition of Biomedical science can be presented like this scientific field focuses on the practical application of the defined principles of complex and diverse investigatory tools in medicine for the benefit of mankind. This discipline of medical science enjoys a hugely prominent position in modern medical health care. According to Creare (2001), over the past few years, many technologies have been introduced for a broad range of biomedical applications, all based on credible development efforts. Some of the examples include two-dimensional ultrasound transducer arrays, miniature and high-frequency ultrasound transducers, non-invasive acoustic bubble sizing instrument, diagnostic sensors, robotic control software and innovative software for cardiac electrophysiology are some of the most popular technologies practically used in various biomedical applications. Biomedical applications in the context of nanotechnology are also worth mentioning, especially when talking about the usage of biomedical applications inside the body. Immense research is currently going on for the development of nanoproducts worldwide, which serve a major role when it comes to the development of anticancer drugs. Diagnostic sensors, like already identified, for analyzing blood and other test samples are in huge vogue in biomedicine today, which can also be identifies as early screening tools for a disease. Biomedicine offers devices that are particularly meant for the removal of fast spreading of a disease. Biomarkers are essentially important in this context, because they are very popular for early discovery of cancer and increasing the sensitivity of cancerous cells towards anti-cancer drugs. Fitness and nutrients effects on prolonged human ages: Physical fitness owing to physical exercise and balanced diet owing to healthy nutrients are identified two of the most important factors ultimately contributing to prolonged human ages, worldwide. The most important system of the body, that is to say immune system, actively imbibes energy from physical exercise. The kind of improvement and perfection the immune system receives from physical fitness goes hardly unnoticeable. This is a worldwide acknowledgement that physical sluggishness is one of the main causes of diseases of affluence like diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. When the immune system is armed with the stamina and power provided by a healthy life style, the threshold for probability chances of different horrendous diseases naturally gets low. Unequivocally, proper nutrition is also equally important as physical fitness. Exercise alone can prove to be hazardous sometimes owing to the fact that a balanced diet with ample amounts of micronutrients and macronutrients is essentially recommended after a strenuous phase of exercise to compensate for the loss of energy. The way healthy exercise and nutritious diet work together to prolong human life is extremely riveting and vital. What mainly important to achieve the target of a long and healthy life is calorie restriction while taking care to avoid malnutrition. This is globally recommended to improve age-related health and slow down the aging process. Antioxidants are very important when it comes to nutritious diet because reliable results have been produced in many cases owing to them. According to Lai-Heskin (2010), along with carbohydrates and fats, vitamins and minerals are essential for the normal growth and development, leading to prolonged human life. The most killing cancer found today: According to Shahin (2010), the most dangerous cancer found today is Mesothelioma, which is rather rare but potentially harmful. This is the type of cancer that specifically targets some parts of the body and gradually produces malignant tumors in those parts, worsening thecondition all the while. The parts of the body most susceptible to this cancer are generally divided into three parts, with the pleura bagging the top most position. Pleura are the membranous coverings for the lungs which naturally exist for protective mechanisms like maintenance of fluidity for smooth movement of lungs. The development of mesothelioma actually counters effect this protective action replacing it by fluid effusion and shortness of breath leading to conditions similar to asthma. The second most susceptible part is the peritoneum, hence named peritoneal mesothelioma. Last but not the least is the pericardial mesothelioma which affects pericardium of the heart. The catch-22 is that this cancer cannot be completely avoided because it affects those people who work in mines, factories or other construction areas, particularly those people who get heavily exposed to asbestos. Such people have got to work in such situations despite this dangerous exposure, because avoiding this would definitely lead to unemployment issues. Apart from this paradox, even friends and relatives are at risk of getting affected by this cancer since such workers have asbestos fibers embedded in their clothes and hair. Reportedly, the worst point about this cancer is that even after diagnosis at an early stage, life expectancy period for such a patient is not so long. Importance of travelling through the universe: Travelling has always been regarded as one of the most interesting proposals in the world for mental relaxation, but this is also undeniably true that this is rather an expensive option. Anyhow, here the focus lies on the main important reasons that may be considered by anyone when travelling. No one can deny the treat of spending a few days far from the hectic routine of daily life sometimes. This is because the healing solution in the form of travelling has got such capability of soothing mental pressures that almost miraculous changes result sometimes. This also offers one time to better analyze oneself so it of course provides an excellent opportunity for catharsis. Travelling also provides the chance to experience different things and emotions one cannot imagine otherwise. No doubt, they can be called the precious experiences of life which give the chance to imbibe new, mesmeric and also grave lessons, sometimes. Travelling does not always necessarily mean literally roaming round the whole wide world. Travelling means going anywhere, far or near, it all depends largely on how much time and money one can spare. The most important thing offered by tourism is that cultures can be shaped through this because shaping of any culture depends on knowledge, which can only be shared through mixing with varying types of people from different backgrounds. According to Duffy (cited in Mance, 2008), “Travel opens your eyes, your mind and your heart to the people and places which fill this world.” Why is learning science important? In this age of excessive competitiveness, denying the importance of learning at least the basics of science is empty foolery. All the miraculous and positive changes that can be seen happening today in the fields of medicine, technology, engineering etc are only because of the theoretical and practical usage of the principles of science. Science has made a man learn the way to the moon and explore the space, which was literally impossible to imagine many years back. Slowing down of the aging process resulting in healthy and prolonged human life is all because of the beneficial scientific technologies introduced. Science has taught us how to smooth out the rough creases in our lives through the usage of facilitating technologies and inventions. Hands-on learning has been emphasized, especially in the field of science by Piaget (cited in Haury and Rillero, 1994). According to him, actual practical involvement in the learning processes related to science is the key for building up long lasting knowledge. Learning by doing always pays off well but when it comes to the knowledge of science, this becomes excessively mandatory. Rekindling of the spirit of invention in a person is necessary for introduction of new technologies. That is only possible through practical application of scientific knowledge. This should also be stressed by teachers when training students to check if they have actually learnt something. Science is one those subjects that can never be learned only through books, because hands-on learning is an essential part of this subject. Worrisome issues about the climate: There are a number of reasons identified today by the researchers that can make one think about the various problematic issues related to climate change. Lately, there has been circulating a mixture of facts and myths around the world related to catastrophic climate changing. Global warming is undeniably an acclaimed fact but not everybody really knows how that can or cannot affect one’s life and this is more harmful than global cooling. Some are totally oblivious to the whole issue about climate change while others display extremely sensitive approach towards this matter. Global warming as a result of climate change can generally result into more rain and more aggressive storms and hurricanes. According to Dyson (2010), climate has always been changing since it never really stayed the same for any length of time. It certainly is an important issue but it definitely cannot be considered a real catastrophe. What really needs to be emphasized is way to deal with this issue. One of the simple things that can be done to avoid the bad climatic changes id building dikes around cities, which are more likely to be exposed by hurricanes or tsunamis, as identified by Dyson (2010). Global disasters like tsunamis earthquakes are the common result of abnormal climatic changes. Haiti earthquake is an important example worth mentioning here. On the other hand, increases in temperature as a result of global warming have led to a loss of many trees, only worsening the condition further. This has really affected the overall environment and this is a thing that is particularly capable of affecting people. Global Warming between the myth and reality: Global warming can be loosely defined as an increase in the average temperature of the earth and oceans, identified by widespread melting of glaciers and snow. Lately, many myths have been circulating about this issue. Glover (2007) has clearly identified a few main myths and then also described facts in response to each of the myths notified in his essay. According to him, it is generally rumored that global warming is increasing at an unprecedented rate. The rate at which it is increasing with every passing year is quite exceptional and rapid. Now the actual fact is that accurate satellite and other observations carefully made over the last many years have not shown any significant change in the long term rate. In short, despite the many rumors circling round the uncontrollable rate of global warming, the fact is that there has not yet been observed or recorded any catastrophic increase. Another popular myth identified by Glover (2007) is that the ratio of poisonous gases like excessive carbon dioxide has been mounting for the last 100 years and this is also happening very steadily. No doubt, due to increased industrialization, a little more than minimal increase in that ratio is quite possible but to exaggerate it by saying that this is happening at an unparallel pace is a little bit of an overstatement. Till yet, there has been no authentic proof presented showing that carbon dioxide is the main driver of global warming also worsening the Greenhouse affect. Carbon dioxide can simply not be called the sole cause of an increase observed in global warming every year. How to reduce the global water crisis? Global water crisis is one of the top listed disasters currently experienced by many people around the world. Billion of people are badly getting affected by this. Now this crisis is actually increasing at an unprecedented rate since water resources management is not in a very good condition. According to USAID (2007), by 2025, one-third of all humans will face severe and chronic water shortages with profound implications for global food security. And this can be expected in reality as well. What with the increasing urbanization, industrialization and aggressive competition for a better lifestyle, already fragile water supply is getting depleted, transferring from gradual to a rapid rate. According to USAID (2007), there are some regions in the world which are particularly getting affected and need immediate actions to be taken against the water crisis. Worldwide demand for water tripled during the past century and is presently reportedly, doubling every 21 years. When talking about ways to reduce this horrendously negative issue, the actual condition is so bad and out of control that many billions of dollars and large-scale planning in infrastructure are required immediately to relatively resolve the issue. Some claim that privatization of water services is the best way and perhaps, the only solution to this problem, while others still think, despite this proposal, that this will not be able to supply water to the poorest people. Presently, many appreciable efforts are being made to ensure the improvement and sanitation of water supply and focus on these efforts rather than wasting time in thinking about achieving endless water supply. Why can global hunger not be eradicated? According to Hornby (2010), this is good news amidst much darkness, the massive disaster of global hunger is expected to decline in 2010 for the first time in many years. According to the latest report, on one side the global hunger is expected to decline soon, perhaps for the first time in 15 years, but on the other hand, volatile and extremely fluctuating food prices can mar the effect produced by that little decline expected. The continuously changing and unstable food prices make up for one of the most important reasons that answer why global hunger cannot be totally eradicated. “Larger price volatility, combined with the recent increase in food prices, if it persists, will create additional obstacles to reduce hunger.” (Diouf, cited in Hornby 2010). Another reason why wild efforts made to hamper the long-term perilous effects produced by global hunger is the recent massive flooding that happened in Pakistan, and which is still in continuation in some areas. That is also strongly expected to ignite a really strong food crisis, which can be powerful enough to affect the people both at national and international level. Poverty in Pakistan leading to the worst critical situation of food hunger was already one of the most problematic issues in the world and this is now further aggravated by the recent flooding. In addition to that, this has also badly affected the food export business, thus impacting the international community as well. Some of the other developing countries are also facing economic imbalances and ever-increasing food prices, leading to the crisis of global hunger. Replacing eye and finger prints by genetic prints: Various technologies have always been cropping up for identification and verification purposes and have always been around in one form or another. These technologies continuously change in form and manner, always striving to better adapt to the demand of the situations. Signatures, which once were considered the most useful tool for protecting privacy, are largely denied as the authentic verification tool globally, since they can be easily forged. Eye and finger prints are two of the main biometric technologies that have still largely maintained to stay in vogue, owing to the increased probability of reliability they offer. According to the report of Australian Academy of Science (2001), biometric technologies apply statistical methods to biological observations and phenomena. These technologies do not only incorporate finger prints and eye prints technologies but many new technological advances are also being made and introduced like genetic prints to serve the purpose of individual confidentiality. These generally include hand geometry and typing patterns according to the report. These are both likely and unlikely to replace finger and eye prints technologies for myriad reasons. For one thing, hand geometry varies person to person and exact shape of fingers and hands can seldom be matched. The benefit is that this is largely recognized as a useful biometric tool because hand scanning is less invasive compared to fingerprinting or eye scanning. On the downside, this technology has less chance of taking over investigatory tools like finger printing because hand shapes are not so unique when for example, compared to the unique patterns of iris and retina. The possibility for humans to fly with the speed of light: Even with the most miraculous shifts introduced and under process in the field of science and technology, the probable chance for humans to be capable of flying with the speed of light is too low. This goes without saying that time itself slows down when the speed of light is approached and mass accordingly becomes heavier and denser. To say otherwise would be clearly defying scientific facts that are authentic and also defying Einstein’s scientific approaches. Still many disagree from the current scientific knowledge regarding whether a person can fly with the speed of light or not, basing their doubts on the foundation that even today the true nature of matter and light is not understood properly so there may exist undiscovered chances for humans to fly with the speed of light. The strong evidence suggested by the theory of relativity speaks out too loud against the probability that there any match can ever exist between humans and the speed of light. Humans can never travel with the speed of light because that is itself identified as an absolute physical boundary by Einstein’s theory of relativity, which is highly authentic. For objects travelling near the speed of light, let alone exactly with the speed of light, motion speed of the objects naturally slows down when compared to the speed of the objects on earth. (Allaboutscience.org, 2010). All the authentic research studies go against the chance of speed of humans and light to ever match, since that appears a hugely unnatural phenomenon. New developments in computer science and engineering: Lately, many new and promising technologies are emerging and bagging huge popularity in the field of computer science and engineering, owing to the huge investment brainpower and money. Multicore chips make up one of such new developments in the context of computer science and technology. (Saied, cited in infoniac.com, 2007). There popularity is increasing at such a high rate that soon enough, it would be literally impossible to find a computer without multicore chips, because they virtually make a computer run faster. Efficiency and performance of the computers has been hugely improved through this technology. New levels of energy development have been introduced which were completely undefined before, armed with advanced parallel technology. Reportedly, parallel technology is still under development and that is necessarily needed to fully benefit from multicore computing, which is also termed as high-performance computing. Parallel programmes are so designed as to make each core capable of receiving its own set of instructions. According to Saied (2007), huge changes will be brought in different disciplines of science and technology like biomedicine, biometrics, forensic science, computer science and manufacturing of military weapons, if the performance of computers continues to rise at a regular pace as a result of which they will become multicore. Turbo boost technology is another huge advancement made that is worth mentioning here. This technology primarily focuses on achieving the highest performance processor state. Obviously this technology is designed to make operating system of a computer run faster if the performance is too low to match the user’s demands. Works cited: Allaboutscience.org. “Theory of Relativity-A Brief History.” 2010. Web. 26 Sep. 2010. < http://www.allaboutscience.org/theory-of-relativity.htm> Australian Academy of Science. “Putting a finger on it – the loops and whorls of biometrics.” Oct. 2001. Web. 26 Sep. 2010. < http://www.science.org.au/nova/064/064print.htm> Creare Incorporated. “Biomedical Applications.” 05 Jun. 2001. Web. 25 Sep. 2010. Diaz, Diego J. and Bohn, Paul W. “Nanochemistry.” 2010. Web. 25 Sep. 2010. Dyson, Freeman. “Climate Change Predictions Are Absurd.” 29 Mar. 2010. Web. 25 Sep. 2010. < http://bigthink.com/ideas/19298> Glover, Peter C. “The Myths of Global Warming.” 2007. Web. 26 Sep. 2010. Haury, David L. and Rillero, Peter. “Perspectives of Hands-on Science Teaching.” 1994. Web. 25 Sep. 2010. Hornby, Catherine. “U.N. sees global hunger easing in 2010.” 14 Sep. 2010. Web. 26 Sep. 2010. Infoniac.com. “Software programmers cannot reach super computers.” 25 May. 2007. Web. 26 Sep. 2010. < http://www.infoniac.com/hi-tech/software-programmers-cannot-reach-supercomputers.html> Lai-Heskin, Haiyan. “Why We Need Nutrients? Healthy Living-Part 1.” 27 Mar. 2010. Web. 25 Sep. 2010. < http://fitness-equipment-solutions.com/why-we-need-nutrients-healthy-living-part-1> Mance, Kim. “Does Travel Really Matter Anyway?” 10 Nov. 2008. Web. 25 Sep. 2010. Shahin, Shane. “Mesothelioma-The most dangerous cancer.” 2010. Web. 25 Sep. 2010. USAID.gov. “The Global Water Crisis.” 22 Jan. 2007. Web. 26 Sep. 2010. Read More