Nano biotechnology
Written by admin on September 18, 2009
Nano technology is a relatively new technology which came into its own around the year 2000, Nano technology is a step into the future of miniaturization. In today’s world smaller is better, examples of this are seen with electronics equipment. And the best example of this? A few years ago home computers were big and bulky, so were monitors.
Today we have slim line wafer thin monitors with flat screens and much slimmer computer bases with more power than ever before, due to the smaller circuits boards inside. The word Nano technology derives from the word Nano meter which is one thousandth of a micron, which is roughly the size of a single molecule.
Nano technology is the study, manufacture and manipulation of any small structure or machine that can be made of as little as one molecule. Nano technology has only been made possible by the advancement in microscopic tools designed for looking at and allowing manipulation of single molecules.
For those studying molecular biology, Nano biotechnology is a major breakthrough, the molecular biologist joins forces with the Nano technologist to get a better understanding and gain access to the nanostructures and Nano machines which were designed by over 4 billion years of engineering, cell machinery and biological molecules.
Today Nano technologists are set to accomplish many different goals and achieve many things that wouldn’t otherwise be possible by exploiting biological molecules and cell processes.
At one time silicon scaffolding would be used as the basis for Nano structures however DNA`s ladder structure provides Nano biotechnologists with the perfect natural framework from which to assemble Nano structures, with its highly specific bonding properties it is the perfect base for bringing together atoms in a predictable pattern to create a Nano structure.
Nano technologists have also come to rely on the biological molecules self-assembling properties when it comes to the creation of Nano structures, such as the lipids which are able to form liquid crystals spontaneously.
DNA is not only being put to good use in building Nano structures but is also a very essential component when it comes to building Nano machines, DNA which is an information storage molecule could very well in the future serve as the basis for the next generation of computers.
As mentioned earlier microprocessors and microcircuits have already shrunk over the last few years allowing smaller machinery, it is quite possible they will in the future shrink to Nano processors and Nano microcircuits.
This is not as far fetched as it might sound as DNA molecules can be mounted onto microchips and may eventually come to replace the microchips with electron flow channels etched in silicon. Biochips such as theses are DNA based processors that can take advantage of and use DNA`s extraordinary capacity to store information.
Biochips are able to exploit the properties of DNA in order to solve complex computational problems, this put very simple means that they are used to do math.
Scientific studies have show us that 1,000 DNA molecules were able to solve complex computational problems that would have taken over a century for a computer to solve, in just four months.
Other biological molecules are helping in many different ways as biologists strive towards being able to store and transmit more and more information in smaller places.
A good example of this is the common CD that hold information and music, researchers are now using light absorbing molecules very similar to that found in our retinas to increase the storage capacity of a single CD by, a thousand fold.