NanotechnologyFact or Myth?

Fact or Myth?

1. There are currently biological nano-machines that naturally exist in your body.

FACT

Viruses are nano-sized biological machines that currently exist inside the body. Viruses can self-replicate within a cell, which means that virus parts spontaneously come together to create new viruses. Influenza virus particle

Fact or Myth?

2. Tiny nanotweezers can be used to pick up nanometer-sized molecules and move them around to build different structures.

FACT

True, but a major challenge is the stickiness of materials at the nanoscale. Many materials adhere to the tweezers and refuse to be released. Picking up is easy, but putting down is difficult.

Fact or Myth?

3. Gold nano-sized balls can be injected into the body to kill cancer cells.

FACT

Tiny gold capsules, a few nanometers in diameter, are coated with antibodies. The capsules adhere to a tumor. As the capsules are irradiated with a laser, the gold heats up, destroying the tumor while leaving the surrounding healthy tissue unharmed.

Fact or Myth?

4. Engineers have created a nano-sized car that has four doors, tires, and tiny seats and can move around freely.

MYTH

Engineers have made a car with wheels made of buckyballs and a chassis and axle made of organic molecules that can move. The car is 4 nanometers across. It does not have doors, tires, or seats. Buckyball image

Fact or Myth?

5. There are clothes that do not stain due to nanotechnology. You can spill juice on your nanopants and the juice just rolls off.

FACT

Textile chemical engineers can treat fabric with a special process to alter the fabric’s properties at the nanoscale. The fabric resists stains and repels spills.

Future of Fabric

Fact or Myth?

6. Through nanotechnology, ice cream is being made that is lower in fat and healthier for you.

FACT

Using nanotechnology in ice cream has created a tighter matrix in the ice cream that results in smaller ice crystals. This makes a smoother and creamier ice cream that is lower in fat.

Fact or Myth?7. NASA plans to build a space elevator that would

use carbon nanotubes to move materials from Earth to outer space.

MYTH

Liftport, a space-infrastructure company, supports construction of a space elevator. The concept includes long thin cables made of carbon nanotubes anchored to a platform at sea that, with the help of robots, would move materials to outer space.

Fact or Myth?8. Wilson Double Core Tennis Balls last longer

because a thin layer of nanocoating is applied to the rubber lining.

FACT

Nanolok™ is applied via a roll, dip, or spray coating process onto a rubber substrate. Once dry, a thin coating (10-30 microns) of Nanolok™ forms on the substrate. A thin layer of Nanolok™ on the inner rubber lining of these balls increases air retention compared to the uncoated rubber.

Fact or Myth?

9. Self-cleaning toilets are now available. These toilets are made with nanotechnology that keeps the porcelain clean.

FACT

CeFIONtect, Ceramic Fine Ion Technology, is a ceramic glaze that prevents waste particles, bacteria, or mold from attaching to a surface. This permanent stain-resistant surface lasts as long as the product is in use.

Fact or Myth?

10. Through nanotechnology, steaks can be made atom-by-atom such that cows are no longer needed to produce the meat.

MYTH

Currently there is no way to make complex proteins like those found in steak. Food chemists are looking at new food additives and ways to keep food from spoiling through nanotechnology.

Image Resources

Microsoft, Inc. (2009). Clip Art. Retrieved January 30, 2009, from http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/clipart/default.aspx