In this episode, nanotechnology is promoted as an enabling technology. Nano devices can provide a way to automate routine laboratory tests. They can deliver active treatment directly to affected cells and that means fewer side effects and increased efficiency. Dr. Chad Mirkin is the Director of the International Institute for Nanotechnology at Northwestern University and he shows how the new diagnostic devices allow doctors to do multiple tests with a single sample.At the Dana Farber Cancer Institute at Harvard, we learn how nano-devices can be used to destroy specific cancer cells. Through nanotechnology the practice of medicine is evolving from treating disease and illness to a practice that is predictive, personalized and preemptive. There is a medical future where permanent nano-devices can roam the body to monitor for, provide early diagnosis of, and take action against diseases.Nanotechnology is a powerful tool for advancing tissue engineering and stem cell therapy. Significant results have been obtained in creating artificial functioning interfaces between nerve fibers and electronic contact electrodes. This open the way to control prosthetics and all kinds of implants.
The Earth’s environment faces some great challenges, and it doesn’t take much to realize there’s no time to waste. In our third episode, we meet scientists who believe that nanotechnology may be the key to overcoming the biosphere’s environmental problems. Dr. Vicki Colvin from Rice University field tests a simple low-cost technique that could help the developing world clean arsenic out of contaminated groundwater.The University of Toronto’s Professor Ted Sargent outlines his research into nano solar cells that would make solar power cheaper and more efficient by capturing the sun’s infrared rays. Professor Peter Dobson from Oxford University describes how adding cerium oxide in nano form to diesel fuel can make it both more efficient and clean up emissions. At the University of Western Ontario Dr. Dennis O’Carroll demonstrates nano remediation of contaminated soil.But are we creating pollutants that are more dangerous than the ones we already have? What happens when nano-structured materials decay? The episode also visit Duke University in North Carolina, where Professor Mark Wiesner’s team is investigating the possible environmental impact of silver nanoparticles already being used in anti-bacterial consumer products. So, will nanotechnology save the Earth’s environment? Or will it provide another way in which humans can harm nature?
The invisible revolution of nanotechnology is already at work in our lives. In this first episode, Professor Jim Gimzewski from UCLA introduces us to the world of nanomaterials: to photocatalytic coatings that coat walls and windows so they automatically clean themselves, and to a man-made nano fiber that is stronger yet lighter than steel.The episode then explores nano’s potential role as invisible intelligence in security devices and the impact of ultimate miniaturization, and networking in computers. In Korea, we meet scientists who are working on nano-electronic tags that will revolutionize the tracking of consumer goods. Japanese physicist Dr. Masakazu Aono is one of the world’s leading nanomaterials scientists and he is now collaborating with Professor Jim Gimzewski in an extraordinarily ambitious project (that seems closer to science fiction than contemporary science) — the building of artificial neural systems.