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Professor John Polanyi, a 1986 Nobel Laureate in reaction dynamics, is a nanotechnologist' that works on creating self assembly of nanoparticles. With the visual aid of the SEM he can see molecular reactions of halogenated compoundson silicon surfaces. Don Eigler was also another nanophysicist' who used scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) in 1989 to spell out the letters IBM with xenon atoms. The ability to move atoms has important implications for data storage; it is how data is stored.

Nano Ethics, Nanomedicine and Nanobiology

Nanotechnology is based on new materials not much is known about the safety of these materials in the human body. One professor in the field of nano ethics is George Khushf of the University of South Carolina. In a presentation at the International Institute for Nanotechnology (IIN) in 2007 he addressed the idea of anticipating of safety issues vs. dealing with safety at a later point. Given the recent controversy of iPods and iPhones safety should always be considered when human use is involved. One question that arises is, "Do scientists carefully choose the chemicals they work with in anticipation of health concerns?" In particular, Professor Paula Hammond of MIT works on layer by layer nanomaterials that can be used in the joints of hip replacement devices. Given the knowledge that these devices will be used in vivo how does this impact the research she is undertaking? Many researchers in nanomedicine and nanobiology are looking ahead to address the safety of materials such as buckytubes and other nanoscale devices in humans at the Center for Biological and Environmental Nanotechnology.

What can Nanotechnology be used for?

One famous nanomolecule is the buckyball. Buckyballs or buckminsterfullerines were discovered by Richard Smalley of Rice University in 1996. They are created in the gas phase using carbon and are the third form of carbon, after diamond and graphite. They look like a molecular soccer ball and are named after the American architect, Buckminster Fuller. Smalley passed away in 2005, but his work continues on at the Smalley Institute. Many variations on buckyballs are being researched for biomedical and nanotechnology applications and the ethical issues continue to crop up, as toxins might bind to buckeyballs and in some cases carbon nanotubes and punctured the lungs of rats.

But nanotechnology has the capacity of doing good. Nanotechnology is being used to remove arsenic from water. Vicki Colvin of Rice University uses

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