Nanoscale materials have been used for over a millennium such as in Medival Europe where nanoscale gold was used in stained glass and in Damacus where nanotubes were found in blades of swords (National Nanotechnology Initiative, n.d). However, Richard Feynman (Figure 1) of the California Institute of Technology gave what is considered to be the very first lecture, “There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom" on technology and engineering at the atomic scale, at an American Physical Society meeting at Caltech (n.d). Feyman stated in his speech that “When we get to the very, very small world – say circuits of seven atoms – we have a lot of new things that would happen that represent completely new opportunities for design” (Grandall and Lewis, 1992). Later in 1974, the term “nanotechnology” was given to describe precision machining of materials to within atomic-scale dimensions by Professor Norio Taniguchi from Tokyo Science University (National Nanotechnology Initiative, n.d). Moreover, the idea of a medical use for Feynman's theoretical micromachines was suggested to him by one of his doctoral students, Albert Hibbs. Hibbs suggested that certain repair machines might one day be reduced in size to the point that it would be theoretically possible to "swallow the doctor"(Discovery, n.d.) Since the 1980’s, medicine has experienced an exciting transfer towards the use of minimally invasive procedures because of the numerous advantages of nanobot technology. The idea of nanorobotics has been explored in Nanomedicine by Robert Freitas (Figure 2) where topics such as sensing, power communication, navigation, maninpulation, locomotion and onboard computation are discussed thoroughly (Freitas, 2003) PURPOSE OF NANOBOTS IN SURGICAL PROCEDURES T... ... middle of paper ... ...uming Nie, and May D. Wang. "Nanotechnology Applications in Surgical Oncology." National Center for Biotechnology Information. U.S. National Library of Medicine, 18 Oct. 2010. Web. 09 Apr. 2014. . XIV. Strickland, Jonathan. "What Is the Gray Goo Nightmare?" HowStuffWorks. N.p., 06 Apr. 2010. Web. 04 Apr. 2014. . XV. Weidner, Krista. "Nanomotors Are Controlled, for the First Time, inside Living Cells." Penn State News. N.p., 10 Feb. 2014. Web. 06 Apr. 2014. . XVI. Yarin AL. (2010) Nanofibers, nanofluidics, nanoparticlesand nanobots for drug and protein delivery systems.Scientia Pharmaceutica Central European Symposiumon Pharmaceutical Technology. 78 (3): 542.
One of the rational to this problem is the size of the surgical tools that are million times bigger compared to a single cell. In 1959, Richard Feynman, an engineer, proposed a solution for this problem by suggesting the idea of nanoscale surgical tools for more accurate diagnosis and assessment. Today, Feynman’s initiative is being achieved and many microscopic tools have already been developed for greater precision and faster healing; nanoscale tweezers, microscopic scalpels and nanoparticles.
"10 Medical Breakthroughs Expected in the Next 10 Years." n. pag. Web. 31 Jul 201
Lovgren, Stefan. Can Art Make Nanotechnology Easier t Understand? 23 December 2003. Web. 3 May 2014. .
In the article “Pinpointing Cancer Fight,” Liz Szabo states the uses of nanotechnology and how researchers are attempting to use this advancement to fight cancer. She defines that nanotechnology is a type of technology that creates devices on an atomic level; this equipment can allow people such as researchers to use its ability to detect cancerous cells as well as treat them. Szabo remains a neutral tone as she states that while some are against the idea of using nanotechnology since there are many risks, others are optimistic that it may lead to transformational results. She presents a list of some products developed through nanotechnology and explains its usage in addition to mentioning the failure of those nanotech products. Szabo provides
Altman, Lawrence K. ìShark Substance Found to Limit Tumor Growth.î New York Times 1 May 1996: A15.
In this case study, our concern goes for the chitosan nanoparticles; firstly nanoparticles are able to adsorb and/or encapsulate a drug, thus protecting it against chemical and enzymatic degradation. Furthermore the encapsulated drug may be prevented from crystallization, thus forming a solid solution. Depending on drug solubility in the carrier, a drug load varying from only a few percent up to 50%] Secondly, chitosan is ...
It is clear that nanotechnology has the potential to revolutionize health care and even transport
Cancer.gov. (2014). Comprehensive Cancer Information - National Cancer Institute. [online] Retrieved from: http://www.cancer.gov/ [Accessed: 7 Apr 2014].
It concerns all specialties of medecine, from pathology and oncology to cosmetic and reconstructive surgery.Currently, nanomedicine applications have been approved and are currently used for diagnostic procedures, body and organ imaging, surgical tools, drug delivery systems and gene therapies. [5,6]
Nanotechnology is the manipulation of structures at nano levels. It uses incredibly small materials, devices, and systems to manipulate matter. These structures are measured in nanometers, or one billionth of a meter, and can be used by themselves or as part of larg...
The purpose of this document is to learn about the new and exciting developments in the biotech industry. Besides lives being effected, the companies and the markets in which they reside will be as well. It’s vitally important to learn about the new technologies since there is a very good chance that million’s of others, and mostly likely yours truly will ingest a new drug, or have a new procedure preformed.
The field of medical robotics is a relatively new area. The first known documented utilization of robotics in the medical field occurred in the year 1985. A robot aided in placing a needle in the correct position for a biopsy of a patient's brain. Although there is still much to explore and discover in the area of medical robotics, the advances steadily increase at a fast pace. Historically, robots have often been first introduced to automate or ameliorate discrete processes, such as painting a car or placing test probes on electronic circuits, but their greatest economic influence has often come indirectly as essential enablers of computer-integration of entire production or accommodation processes.
Nanotechnology is science, technology and engineering that is conducted at the nanoscale. The nanoscale is about 1 to 100 nanometres.
Nanotechnology includes nanorobots which are so small that they can be injected into the human bloodstream after which the nanorobots can do investigations or repair at cellular level. Nanorobots could optimize the delivery of pharmaceutical products, these means that medicines which are targeted on a specific type of cells can be delivered to only those cells by the nanorobots. The robots can attach to the cells after which they can inject the drug into the target cells. This could be a great breakthrough for cancer treatments such as chemotherapy because there is a minimal chance of injecting healthy cells with the drug and therefor negative side effects can be avoided.
Carson, F. L. (2012). Histotechnology: a self-assessment workbook (3rd.). Chicago, Ill.: American Society for Clinical Pathology Press.