I’ve been reading a lot of science fiction recently, the likes of Iain M. Banks, Peter F. Hamilton, Alastair Reynolds and Neal Asher. Their vision of the future, at least in their novels, all include some form of nanotechnology. This is incredible stuff! It can keep you alive and well, resurrect you should you be clumsy enough to let yourself get killed in the first place and even morph you into something else all together. Now if that isn’t enough to catch the attention of a true technophile nothing is.

Curiosity truly aroused, I wondered what can this nanotechnology really do… other than turning me into an indestructible killing machine or something really scary? Nanotechnology has seen a lot of hype during its emergence, but this is common for all new technology. The cycle normally starts with huge exaggeration leading to over expectation, through deep disappointment to the point where actually useful stuff is produced. The funny part is that by then nobody notices anymore, but this doesn’t make the advances any less dramatic.

After some reading, it would appear that the most suitable term for this emerging science is mesotechnology. This covers a much wider range of scale from the more familiar world of millimeters (thousandths of inches if your from the US) down to atomic scales. Surprisingly some of the fiction would seem to be true. Amongst the fields of research one of the most popular is medical science. Yes, they really are trying to develop technology that can spot, prevent or repair damage caused by disease from within your body. It also turns out that nanotechnology is already in everyday use from automotive catalytic convertors to self cleaning windows. As you might expect the military are funding work to develop a batch of weapons, body armour and other goodies, but their tank shells already use highly reactive nano-particles for extra effect.

As with all new materials there are concerns regarding possible harmful effects to the environment due to exposure. This is not ’scare mongering’ as some researchers suggest, but neither is it the impending disaster of the environmental lobby. Even a confirmed technophile can see, and has experienced, that a cautious approach is usually the best with any new technology. However, this is definitely an area at which I need to take a much closer look.