Is nanotechnonlogy real? Are scientists already using it? I heard that nanotechonoly gave us the capability to transform Mars into a second Earth- does anyone know anything about this?

Yes, nanotechnology is very real and they have already created small motors and such using it. However, the technology is still very much in the preliminary stages of development. A lot more needs to be done before we see large scale use of nanotech.

It could be used, oneday, to help terraform Mars. But we're along way from doing that. 50-100 years before we even really begin to plan the actual details for doing so, in reality. Though a lot of research has been done already, and many ideas have been put forward as to how we'd go about terraforming Mars.

they've only created the gears for the motors so far.

It'll be a long time before we get to see the full potential of nanotechnology but when we do, it's going to change the world in a big way...


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Just had a scary thought.....about nanotech's full potential.

What if we ended up something like the Borg, from Star Trek. That would be a disaster of monumental proportions. Especially if we ended up as amoral as the Borg are on the show. It would be a grand misuse and abuse of the knowledge we have and a great loss of our humanity.

People can be bad enough now, without being amoral, cybernetic organisms.

Have a read of Micheal Crichtons book PREY which is about nanotechnology. It may be fiction but it really delves into nanotechnology and what potential it has as well as the consequence of developing and using it.

Hey if Nano tech does allow us to be Like the borg then why not?
If I could control the nano tech so that it converted molecules around me to say regrow my arm after if got blown off then whats wrong with that?]
Hell if I had that I would change my body all the time and become a super human.

Can't die and I can change my form.
I can see nothing wrong with that, unless the G'ment uses it to screw with us, Then I'll screw with them!!!

In volume 1 of "The Ancient Secret of the Flower of Life" Drunvalo, the author, told of how a man used nanotechnology to go inside the crystalline structure of granite and he rearranged it and created a huge diamond.

I was watching an episode of extreme machines the other night on nano tech. Actually MIT has made a nano motor using about 16 atoms. it apparently spins by magnetic energy. I guess the next step is to make a nano transmission!
Seriously I did read a story once called the disassemblers. They used nano-bots to break down minerals and extrude other materials, needless to say they got away and some of the people there started to disappear, disassembled!

as far as i know, nanotech is only used for the moment to create nano-tubes with atoms, nano-gears and to remove only a certain number of atoms at certain places to "nano-write" stuff on matters... like if you blackenned some cases in a grid.

but for Mars, I think the thing is finding water to place a certain species of bacterias in so that they transform in some decades the atmosphere into a breathable one, following the same principle as photosynthesis.
it has nothing to do with nanotech, or maybe i'm wrong.

Nanotechnology has other applications besides gears and nanotubes
i found a cool article on nano paint it absorbs smog using nano-technology

The biggest fear about nanotech is that some nanomachines could break loose and rearrange atoms uncontrollably, turning the world into a pile of grey goo.

However, nanomachines could one day heal people much faster than any doctors could, so I'm all for it

A pile of grey goo, eh? That sounds delicious, don't know why, but it does. Makin' me hungry...

Nanotechnology, is an amazing for of technology, especially when technology is based at a molecular level where the average person cannot see. This technology has a great potential, and maybe i might become a "nanotechnologist"--this a word yet?

I hope that the general public never gets hold of this. Can you imagine the horrible consequences that would happen if terrorist got ahold of this? You can't defend against tiny things such as these! They could mass-produce them, and them put them into our water supply. Then they could remotely activate them, and they would kill us from the inside!
This would be catastrophic!

I was thinking something along those lines too.
Like EVERY technology ever created, it's all fine and dandy until some terrorist gets his hands on it. Nanotech in the wrong hands could be far more deadly than any Weapon of Mass Destruction. They could spray it from a plane and have the nanos 'eat' us and everything for miles, leaving nothing but a grey ash.

study nanotechnology, physics, etc etc etc for about 15-20 years in Oxford?

Do a combined BSc in computer science and electrical engineering, or do a BEng in electrical engineering and computer science. Takes about 3-4 years (depending on where you do it), then do your honours (get 1st or upper 2nd class honours) and then apply to do a PhD. You'll have it all finished in about 7-8 years.

Then you'll be just on the start of your career as a nanotech scientist. After all that, you do post doctoral research, tutor undergrad and postgrad students and hopefully get a lectureship at an uni somewhere. If you're really lucky, you'll get yourself a tenured position and be set for the rest of your academic career

You'll end up a Senior Lecturer or a Professor

Don't let your fear of other people stop you from pursuing that which we were created to pursue.

Imagine the assasination capabilities? Some device could be created where it's looks and tastes like food then when its in your stomach it turns into blades and cuts up your inside...

ALthough like all technology there are good and bad things.

We'll have to create some Police Nano robots haha

Well, there is a blind guy and this science dude made a device that is placed in the optical reading part of the brain, and he can see shadows and make out figures with a little video camera on his head.

I think this tech can bring much good but also very bad things, imagine if the government wants to control ppl.. they would do it with ease.. I'm gonna think twice if I want to have those things in my blood stream, if that's optional
And what if we're already living in some kind of nanouniverse? possible or not?

... Don't bust a gut.... just yet Nirwana