The Next Big Thing: Nanotechnology - for iPod/iPhone
by The Open University
How - and why - would you build a machine 10,000 times thinner than a human hair? This album features experts discussing the paradigm shift that is occurring in science. Scientists are learning to manipulate atoms on the scale of a billionth of a metre and control them to perform specific tasks. They can emulate biological and chemical systems to fabricate machines that will destroy cancer cells in the body, giving us nano-drugs of the future; and IBM is using nano-technology for information storage on a molecular scale. There are many other applications which will have a significant impact on the way we live. This album also provides an introduction to quantum computing and quantum mechanics. The material forms part of The Open University course S250 Science in context.
Episodes
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The Next Big Thing: Nanotechnology
A short introduction to this album.
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The Next Big Thing
Atomic scale engineering – facts and the fiction. A panel discussion chaired by Colin Blakemore.
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The Future is Bright
The panel discuss the huge range of potential applications, from nano-computers to nano-devices to clean the body's arteries.
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"Buckyballs": Triggering a Nano-Revolution
The exciting discovery in 1985 of an unknown form of carbon, the building blocks of today's nano world. Introducing the Electron and Scanning Tunnelling Microscopes in Cambridge.
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Quantum Mechanics
How we can re-position atoms one by one to build a structure, and the tools needed to do it.
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Robots in Our Bodies?
How we can begin to engineer nano-particles to fix medical problems inside the body.
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The New Machine Age
The future of nano-technology; this mechanical revolution will emulate biological systems.
About this show
How - and why - would you build a machine 10,000 times thinner than a human hair? This album features experts discussing the paradigm shift that is occurring in science. Scientists are learning to manipulate atoms on the scale of a billionth of a metre and control them to perform specific tasks. They can emulate biological and chemical systems to fabricate machines that will destroy cancer cells in the body, giving us nano-drugs of the future; and IBM is using nano-technology for information storage on a molecular scale. There are many other applications which will have a significant impact on the way we live. This album also provides an introduction to quantum computing and quantum mechanics. The material forms part of The Open University course S250 Science in context.
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The Open University
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