them The fabric then went through a nanotechnology treatment that changed the molecular structure of the surface of the material The process resulted in fabric that absorbed only 2 percent of its weight in water compared with the 50 percent absorbed by the previous competitive swimsuit fabric The governing board for international swimming competition Fédération Internationale de Natation FINA banned the LZR Racer and similar suits in 2010 This ban addressed accusations that competitors with expensive state of the art swimsuits had an unfair technological advantage FINA dictated that suits had to be thicker than one millimeter made of material with limited buoyancy and expose the neck shoulders and ankles of the athlete Despite FINA s modified swimsuit requirements companies still use technology to improve their products Many use nanotechnology based finishes Nano Sports that add to or modify less than 100 nanometers of the Many sports have already embraced nanotechnology Carbon nanotubes fabric s surface to repel water These finishes typically are added to bike frames tennis trap air bubbles on the surface preventing water from rackets baseball bats hockey sticks and golf clubs to strengthen them reaching the material's fibers As nanotechnology while keeping them light Tennis balls ith clay nanoparticles retain their increasingly plays a role in sports equipment the air keeping them bouncier longe debate continues as to how much technology in sports Ice skating blades stay super sharp thanks to ceramic nanoparticles is too much Nanocoatings on exercise clothin help it block the sun s ultraviolet rays stay drier and resist odors The Science of Small I Nanotechnology is a confusing discipline Is it science Is it engineering Is it natural or man made The 6
answer to all these questions is yes The National Nanotechnology Initiative describes nanotechnology as science engineering and I technology conducted at the nanoscale which is about 1 to 100 nanometers A meter is a little taller than the height of an average countertop That meter is made up of a billion nanometers As a comparison imagine Earth represents a meter A nanometer would then be the equivalent of a marble A man made transistor found in an integrated circuit inside a computer or cell phone measures less than 30 nanometers in size A virus cell varies from 60 to 200 nanometers Nanotechnology deals with transistors viruses and more It covers a broad spectrum of disciplines including chemistry biology materials science physics and engineering Dr K Eric Drexler one of the pioneers of nanotechnology once lamented I know of no other field defined by a criterion as generic as size Historical Nanoparticles Humans have been using nanoparticles in man made objects for thousands of years Long ago artisans did not realize they were working with nanotechnology their remarkable works were the result of trial and error An ancient Roman artisan created an extraordinary piece of work now known as the Lycurgus Cup The images surrounding the cup are splendid but what is really special about this cup is its color Initially the cup appears opaque green Shine a light through it however and the cup glows translucent red Scientists now know nanosized gold and silver particles suspended in the glass create this magical effect Similar techniques were used to create the rich colors for medieval stained glass
The Lycurgus Cup appears to change In the 1600s sword maker Assad Ullah produced exceptionally flexible strong and color depending on how it is lit sharp weapons known as Damascus sabers Ullah s exact technique is unknown but modern science has proved it featured carbon nanotubes and other nanostructures incorporated into the steel The nanostructures are what gave Damascus sabers their incredible powers Atomically speaking In 1959 IBM was producing state of the art computers that took up the space of a small room So it was rather surprising when physicist Richard P Feynman decided to think small In December of that year Feynman gave a speech to the American Physical Society titled Plenty of Room at the Bottom In the speech Feynman challenged scientists to think about manipulating and controlling things on a small scale Feynman was not thinking miniature he was thinking on the scale of atoms and nanometers Feynman spoke of storing all 24 volumes of the Encyclopaedia Britannica approximately 24 000 pages on the head of a pin He predicted a future in which computers with millions of transistors could perform complex functions such as recognizing people's faces He mused What would the properties of materials be if we could really arrange the atoms the way we want them Although he did not use the term nanotechnology the advances Feynman dreamed of all fall under the field as it is now known It took decades for Feynman's ideas to catch on In the meantime the scientific world focused on conquering space Computers were integral to the space program and were used increasingly in business Both areas demanded smaller faster and more complex computers spurring the march toward the
