Nanotechnology, moving one atom at a time

According to Sharon Gaudin of the “New York Times,” IBM has figured out a way to measure the amount of force it takes to move an atom. The fact that IBM can measure the force it takes to move any atom across any surface may not seem too extraordinary, but this will lead to an even larger advancement in nanotechnology.

Figuring out how much force it takes to move an atom is the equivalent of engineers discerning how much force it takes to move a steel beam. This is essential in making even smaller pieces of nanotechnology, and exploring the limits, in IBM’s case, of smaller and smaller computer chips. Nanotechnology could even lead to little robots going into you and killing cancer cells.

Nanotech-now.com states that nanotechnology is the main method of moving forward with technology. As nanotechnology is tapped into further and further, it could lead to a world without starvation, a world without pollution, an abolishment of disease and much more. For now, the focus is on using this technology for enhancing computer chips.

IBM is one of many companies that are trying to harness nanotechnology for this very reason. They are in the process of researching how small they can make a chip while being able to do substantial processing.

The only problem stems from the fact that as computer chips become smaller, maintaining the current amount of processing power causes the chips to heat up immensely. Eventually, conventional heat sinks won’t be able to cut it and companies like Intel and AMD will have to find better ways to keep those chips from becoming as hot as rocket nozzles.

There are multiple reasons that heat in computer chips is becoming an increasing problem. The hotter a chip becomes, the shorter its life span becomes. It costs more to maintain said chip at a cool enough temperature using case fans. More power is being used by much more powerful fans to cool the chips and the costs of these fans are becoming increasingly high as they become much more complex and powerful.

Nanotechnology is being used to solve this problem and will decrease the cost of keeping these increasingly smaller computer chips alive. Nanowerk.com states that it is possible to insert carbon nano-tubes into the electronic devices to make them much cooler and solve this problem.

The costs of computers have been plummeting in terms of how much power you get for your money. The reason behind this is that as newer and faster technology comes out, the previous processors, video card, RAM, hard drives, etc. become comparatively obsolete. The ridiculously powerful computer of a year ago is below average in terms of power now, and would cost very little to piece together.

The speed in which new technology is created leads to stores selling older products at increasingly lower prices in order to get rid of them and to replace them with the newer chips.

Nanotechnology can lead to an even faster output of more powerful computing technology, leading to prices continuing that trend provided that manufacturers can normalize the process and make it efficient enough to keep the price trend going down.

Nanotechnology can lead to an idealized world that many people would not have dreamed possible, but as of now, we have yet to tap fully into that potential. With new developments in this technology every day, this potential may be realized sooner than many believe.

Shehzad Ahmed
BizTech Writer

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