Technology and Science

Whether you are a producer or a user of sensors, your business will likely be impacted by current and future developments in nanotechnology. Emerging nanotechnologies offer an unprecedented promise for sensors: smaller size and weight, lower power requirements, more sensitivity, and more specificity, to name a few.

Nanosensors and nano-enabled sensors having uses in a wide variety of industries, including transportation, communications, building and facilities, medicine, safety, defense, and national security. Proposed applications of nanoscale sensors are far reaching and include using nanowire nanosensors to detect chemicals and biologics, putting nanosensors in blood cells to detect early radiation damage in astronauts, and using nanoshells to detect and destroy tumors.Many such applications are being developed by start-up companies, which seek to build businesses that exploit particular nanoscale effects or particular applications of nanotechnology.

As the trend continues toward the use of smaller building blocks of atoms and molecules, there will also tend to be convergence of technology disciplinesfor example, the merging of nanotechnology, biotechnology, and information technology. This overlap and the resulting synergy should contribute to the growing strength of each of these major technologies.