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Nanotechnology is everywhere and is purported to be the next breakthrough for science when fully harnessed. One of the more interesting uses for nanotechnology has been found its combination with diamonds. A relatively new technique allows nanodiamonds to bond with the DNA or protein in a human cell. Of course, these diamonds are incredibly tiny, only around 35 nm; they are so tiny in fact that over 22 billion of them could fit in the period at the end of this sentence. Regardless of their size, when these nanodiamonds are introduced into a cell, they can be made to give off light. This light allows the nanodiamonds, and thus the attached DNA or protein, to be visually tracked anywhere they move within the cell. Even more exciting is the prospect that not only can scientists watch molecules move within a cell, but also how they interact. Moreover, since nanodiamonds are incredibly stable and non-toxic, they can easily be used for long-term experiments. The ability to insert nanodiamonds into a living organism without disrupting it could lead to many uses, such as location specific drug delivery, tumor targeting, nanorobots and biomaterials which would have both the strength and non-reactivity of the most durable substance on the planet.

However, nanodiamonds aren't the only game in town. Scientists have also published on the use of iron oxide nanoparticles to mimic platelets and target tumors. Platelets allow blood to clot; more specifically, they cause the blood in tumors to clot. Using this idea, scientists cleverly coated their nanoparticles with a small DNA gene product which would allow them to mimic platelets by seeking out tumors and forming clots. In this way, the nanoparticle could be carried past any healthy tissue and directly to its target, in this case, breast cancer tumors in mice. According to the paper, as an increasing number of nanoparticles built up within the blood vessels of the tumor, they began to choke off the blood supply. Although this didn't slow the tumor's growth much, the increased clotting did help doctors locate and better visualize it. Hopefully, this system can eventually be used to deliver anticancer drugs solely to the tumor while simultaneously squeezing off the blood supply which feeds it. If one could deliver drugs directly to a tumor rather than flooding the entire body, as in chemotherapy, the increased efficacy of treatment could be truly revolutionary.

Of course, there are other inconceivably small creations that science is hoping will have a profound effect on how we prevent, diagnose and treat disease in the future. One of the more interesting of these is the nanoscale device. At only 50 nm, these extraordinary devices are so small they can easily slip inside most human cells. Smaller devices, those less than 20 nm, can even move through the walls of blood vessels themselves. It has been shown that when certain devices, called nanosensors, are used, they can actually detect when a cancer cell dies due to an anticancer drug. This would be a major breakthrough since rather than waiting months to see if a drug is working, it could be determined by the nanosensor with very little lag time. Researchers are striving to develop nanosensors which can assess when a cell turns cancerous, deliver anticancer drugs if necessary and monitor the results. The ability to actually "see" what is occurring inside a cell as it begins to become cancerous is such an enormous breakthrough that it could literally re-fashion our medical reality and how we function within it.

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