Nanotechnology.
Introduction:

What is it?

What are the risks?

What are the uses?
Nanotechnology.
What nanotechnology is

Nano = billionth of something.

Creating and changing.

Pushing the limits.
Nanotechnology.
Risks of nanotechnology

Can cause serious damage.

3 reasons:
More reactive
 Can accumulate
 Lack of knowledge


Company policy.

Lack of leadership and organisation.
Nanotechnology.
Uses of nanotechnology
Health:
- Detecting & curing cancer

Computers:
- nano-sizing microchips for data storage

Electricity:
- cheap solar panels

Construction:
- ultra light and ultra strong materials

Nanotechnology.
- Nanotechnology in health
Nano-sized protein detectors:
detect protein imbalances that point to cancer

Gold ‘nanoshells’ to treat tumours:
harmless nanoparticles which kill tissue
around them when heating up under IR light

Nanotechnology.
- Nanotechnology in computers:
IBM’s Millipede memory device:
microscopic data storage chip

Nanotechnology.
- Nanotechnology in electricity
Solar panels:
- simply painting nanocrystals on metal foil
- nanocrystals can be grown very cheaply
- very flexible solar panels

Nanotechnology.
- Nanotechnology in construction

Incredibly strong and light materials
Carbon nanotubes:
- can carry more than a million times their own weight
- very light: 100 g of it can cover about 1/2 hectare
Nanotechnology.
Discussion questions



Do you think the usefulness of nanotechnology
outweigh the risks, or vice versa?
Do you think that products that already use
nanotechnology are safe? Would you use
them?
Do you know any products that already use
nano-sized particles?
Nanotechnology.
Gap exercises
paradoxically (seemingly contradictory) add to
1. Research can ____________
the problem.
potential (possibilities) for
2. Nanomaterials also offer huge ________
making better batteries, generating green energy and producing
clean water.
despite (even though there have been) hundreds of
3. Moreover, _______
years of experience in chemistry, it is not easy to predict how a
substance will behave when it is made extremely small.
engineered (designed and
4. These particles can also be __________
constructed) into shapes that provide some functional property,
rigidity (stiffness).
like _______
Nanotechnology.
Gap exercises
antimicrobial (germ-killing)
5. At such small sizes, silver can have ____________
properties.
6. The European Commission concluded that each new material
assessed (evaluated) on a “case by case basis”.
should be _________
7. Some ________
airborne
sampling (taking small quantities for tests) of ________
(floating in the air) particles is done, but it is still not clear what should
monitored (kept under surveillance).
be _________
Nanotechnology.
Translation exercises
1. Many products are now embedded with silver nanoparticles.
2. At the moment, firms with product-liability insurance are implicitly
insured for their nanoparticles.
3. There was a pressing need for a strategic programme of
spending.
4. Nanoparticulate versions of a material can act in novel ways.
5. Titanium dioxide is commonly used as the white pigment in
sunscreen.