An Elevator to Space

The idea of an elevator to space has been around since the 1960's. It comes from an idea for a satellite attached to Earth by a strong cable. Vehicles could travel to and from the satellite along the cable. Unfortunately, there are problems with this idea.

The cable could not be pulled behind a space vehicle as it took off, as it would slow it down. So it would have to be lowered from space. If a heavy cable is lowered from a satellite, the satellite's center of gravity changes. The satellite must go higher in order to adjust. A cable lowered in this fashion would have to be very long. A good design for this estimates the cable will be about 90,000 km long. This is long enough to circle the Earth. Twice.

The cable would also have to be strong. Steel wouldn't work. Not even diamond fibres. However, carbon nanotubes would work. A cable made of these would be light and thirty times stronger than steel. This cable would also be incredibly thin. The original design was for it to be 100 times thinner than a piece of paper. The entire cable could weigh 20,000 kg. The cable would likely be anchored offshore.

There are still problems. The cable could easily be damaged. And we actually don't know how to make a cable like the one required. The longest rope we've made out of nanotubes is only a few centimeters long. And the elevator can't exactly be tested. We can't only go part of the way up, then a little further. The cost of such a venture would be more than ten billion dollars. If we can work past these problems, however, we might soon be taking elevators to space.

So What Can I Expect From Nanotechnololgy?

Nothing is for certain. It is being developed for use in healthcare. Well, something called Qdots to be more precise. The full name being Quantum dot, these tiny wonders emit rays of light in a variety of colors. There is a possibility that one day they can be released inside the body to test for cancer. The dots would attach to tumors and flash their lights until the doctors found them. It would be beneficial to cancer patients to have their tumors located at the earliest possible time, when they are quite small. It would save lives. There are other treatments that nanotechnology is already used for.

Other things aside from health care are possible. Advances in computer technology. Robotics. Energy. Global Positioning systems that are faster and more accurate. DNA
fingerprinting that is quicker. There is a special type of clothing invented using silver nanoparticles. Guess what? You don't have to wash it! You just wipe the dirt off. The nanoparticles keep dirt from staining the clothing.

This is an exciting time in the new field of nanotechnology. There's a lot of things that could be improved using it. One day, people will look back and say, " Wow, their computers took, like, five seconds to load! Way too long! How did they stand waiting?!" or something like that. Our computers will be made smaller too. People in the future will ask their grandparents how they put up with having such big computers, and will think about it the way we think about people having one room for the computer like they used to. Won't that be the day?

Nanotechnology: Littler and Littler

In 1956, an American scientist named Richard Feyman suggested that it would be possible to build structures atom by atom. He decided to start things off by offering
a $1,000 prize to anyone who could build a working electric motor that fit inside a cube 1/25 of a centimeter long. He awarded the prize 2 and 1/2 months later to William McLellan, a physicist from the California Institute of Science and Technology. McLellan made the miniature motor using a microscope, toothpick and watchmaker's tools. Clever. Even smaller motors have been made since.
Many other items may one day be made by nanotechnology. There is already tennis rackets that are designed using nanotechnology. They are lighter, but stronger too.
Scientists are developing a form of carbon that will absorb water vapour, concentrate it, and turn it into usable drinking water. This could one day be used to supply water when there is no readily available source.
Nanotechnology is in its beginning stages. Scientists are still defining what is impossible- and what is possible. Richard Feyman says that is a possibility that nanotechnology could have an impact on every man-made object. Nanobots could crawl into the human body and do medical procedures. It is possible that they could change the future of mankind as no other discovery has done before.

Crazy Chemistry

Chemistry is a very interesting subject, (if you understand the way they talk at all.) Chemistry is all about chemicals, elements, gases, and chemical formulas . If you like that kind of thing, then great. If you don't, you're normal. If you don't hate but don't love, you're like me. I think I'll start this with a few basic facts.

1. Mercury fumes can make you insane. Hats used to be treated with mercury, so the hat-makers were often slightly crazy. That's where the expression 'mad as a hatter' comes from.(I can tell you where 'mad as a March hare' comes from, but I'll save that for another day.)
2. Toast is made when the carbon in the bread is burned.
3. Copper turns green when it is exposed to air pollution. That's why the Statue of Liberty is green.
4. Eighteenth century soap was made from boiling fat and soda. But the alkali in them could dissolve your skin! Fortunately, not too many people could afford soap at that time.

Okay, that's over.

Ever heard of bucky balls? That's another name for nanotubes. They are the base for nanotechnology. They are huge: one billionth of a meter wide! Nanotechnology is trying to discover how to join these atoms together naturally. They each have 60 atoms; no more, no less. They are stronger than diamonds and could be created from sewage, charcoal,etc. as they are carbon. They could be used for wiring and building. They are part of the future of chemistry.