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What is Nanoscience?

Nanoscience refers to the study of the materials and structures that occur on a scale of 1-100 nanometers. What is a nanometer? A nanometer is a billionth of a meter. To put this number into perspective, a single piece of paper is about 75,000 nanometers thick. When certain particles and structures are downsized to the nanoscale, they begin to take on many different and useful properties. 

 

In general, as the size of particles decrease, their surface area to volume ratio will increase. At a nanoscale, this ratio is very large compared to normal sized particles. How much larger is this ratio? One cube that has side length of 1 cm will have a surface area of 6 cm^2 while having cubes with side lengths of 1 nm occupying the same volume will have a surface area of 60,000,000 cm^2. One use of this concept is in chemistry. A larger surface area means there is more area for a reaction to occur. This means that nano-structured materials will have a much higher reactivity than normal sized materials and will act as more efficient catalysts.  

In addition, our biology is most efficient on the nanoscale. Our biology has been developed to work on the nanoscale. This is most evident by the interactions and structures within our cells, for example DNA being 2 nanometers in diameter or hemoglobin being 5.5 nanometers in diameter.

In recent years, more resistant strains of bacteria, viruses, pathogenic fungi, and protozoa are being discovered. This means that modern antibiotics are becoming less effective. This leads to prolonged treatment, higher health expenditure, higher mortality risk, and lower life expectancies. However, using nanoparticles can potentially solve this problem. 

 

How can we use nanoparticles to accomplish tasks that modern technology can't?

Inroduction to Nanoparticles

Applications of Nanoparticle Antibiotics

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