Next10 and nanotechnology

The Next 10 Years: Nanotechnology

What is this technology?

Nanotechnology is an umbrella term that seeks to describe the science of manipulating elements at a molecular or atomic level.

The ability to alter the fundamental properties of a material presents opportunities of mind-blogging levels.

What will happen?

What would you like to happen is more likely the questions.  The answer will lie with the synergy of science and innovation through design.

We are already seeing the benefits of nanotechnology in new materials that improve dramatically on existing hard and soft textiles.

Medical nanobot

Your portable device no longer needs to be made from a rigid, shatter-prone material.   Instead it will be able to twist, roll, fold or bounce.  Fragile objects like laptops, smartphones, glass screens will re re-engineered to be virtually indestructible.

The ability to manipulate molecular structures to change the fundamental properties of the material will have massive benefits in medical science.  The current barriers for neuroscience and gene therapy will crumble.  Diseased organs, congenital defects and genetic malformations will be fixable using nano processes.

How will this impact society?

The ability to cure or prevent the bulk of the diseases that currently prove fatal will ensure that future citizens can enjoy longer, pain free lives.  More premature babies will be saved and it will be practical to repair bodies that are severely damaged by accident or abuse.

Nanotechnology - atomic manipulation

More people will live for much longer, placing considerably more financial and logistical pressure on infrastructure.  People will be capable of working for long and will certainly be generally healthy enough to enjoy more recreational activities for longer than they do currently.

Depending on whether or not we see a global upsurge in larger families (better childhood survival rates) we may find that the average age of the population continues to increase.

New materials made possible by nanotechnology will touch every aspect of society from the most advanced technology devices to the humble building blocks that we use to constructs our homes and put clothes on our backs.

How will this impact industry?

Access to use these new wonder materials, to fight disease, to deliver drugs and to repair organs through nano processes will not be open to just anyone.  There is currently unprecedented activity in the intellectual property space to protect all manner of technology so the development of new surgical processes will inevitably require the licensing of IP that belongs to other companies, individuals, universities.

There will no doubt be accusations of patent infringements with in and out of court settlements to follow.  In some areas advances in producing the next generation process or product will be swamped by legal obstacles.

Nanotechnology is allowing huge leaps in the design of batteries - an essential element in any device that requires power.  Nanowires much thinner than a human hair are creating electrodes capable of many times more power delivery than the current generation.

Nanotechnology is a field where the crossover into all other future trends in being felt most keenly - it is the ultimate crossover trend.  The radical new wonder materials and the advances in drug delivery to infected cells could not progress without the game-changing advances of nanotechnology.

What supports this prediction?

Hydrophillic, hydrophobic materials

Superconductive technology

Top 10 nanotech products (Forbes.com)

Hepatitis killing nanobots

Nano capacitors