Much has been said about nanotechnology, and how this new field of industry can help bring about a revolution in how the world operates. Nanotechnology is brought about by years and years of a slow, patient melding among atomic physics, biology, and industry. In the past, scientists were elated when cells were positioned in different ways in order to engineer organs or organ systems. Nanotechnology takes this control a step further by giving scientists the chance to manipulate atoms: that is, by placing atoms in a certain position at a certain angle, or of a certain size, or in a certain configuration, scientists are better able to control what can later be a drug or small machine.

For instance, scientists can put together a certain configuration of atoms that can later make a more potent drug: this drug can be better absorbed by the body when it is ingested through the diet, or it can better latch onto the appropriate cells and be absorbed only by certain body cells, doing away with the dangerous side effects of some drugs. Nanotechnology is also poised to change the face of aerospace engineering: by creating materials that are lightweight and are able to facilitate better wind flow, we can have better airplanes that move faster.

It is noticeable that nanotechnology involves the manipulation of atoms or molecules, and placing them in specific places in order to make them useful. The tools that are required for such a purpose include microscopes that are scaled down to cater to the needs of scientists working at the nanoscale. Other tools that these scientists might need include lithography systems, software to view the final configuration of the atoms, and probes and prods to move atoms and molecules from place to place.

The Industrial Microscope in Nanotechnology

In the past, the industrial microscope was considered a simple tool for aiding research and development in industry. For instance, semiconductor manufacturers required industrial microscopes to not only assemble semiconductors, but to inspect the integrity of each semiconductor and thus ensure its high quality. Food microbiologists needed compound microscopes to do bacterial counts in food samples. Building engineers and textile manufacturers needed stereoscopic microscopes in order to inspect their materials.

However, as the demands of the market grew, so did the need for industry to develop much faster. It was late in the 20th century that the scanning tunneling microscope and atomic force microscope were developed, and both microscopes allowed both the academe and industry to work better at the atomic level. Scientists were able to look at individual atoms; with the help of prods and probes, they were able to move these atoms and manipulate them. This new kind of industrial microscope allowed for engineering at the atomic level, and it was potentially powerful.

At first, engineers experimented with atoms, making Chinese characters out of individual balls of atoms, and gradually moving on to making simple materials that had the promise of industrial importance. Because of this promise, the microscope that these scientists used needed to be developed, improved, and adapted to a wider range of users. Industry would need such microscopes in order to make better materials, and what better industrial microscope could there be than something that not only allowed researchers to see the finest details of their work – but manipulate these finest details and come up with near perfect materials as well? Not only did the microscopes have to be improved, so did the equipment that they needed: scientists needed better probes, better software, better imaging equipment, and users who were well-trained in nanotechnology.

Today, nanotechnology is growing to be a profitable enterprise, and it is gaining even more and more attention from a technology savvy market. Pharmaceutical industries are doing research on new drugs that have an exact configuration that cannot be derived by mere distillation, manipulation, and other procedures in the laboratories of old. Materials science engineers are seeking to make better semiconductors and produce better materials without worrying about how the individual atoms are behaving under stress – and simply because they directly engineered these atoms to behave in a certain way, and be configured in a certain assembly.

The Promise of Nanotechnology

Nanotechnology is still poised to keep on growing and growing. There are carbon nanotubes that can be designed to behave in certain ways and strengthen certain materials. There is promise for nanotechnology to make microscopic robots that can make repairs in all places, from the hard-to-reach regions of the human body, to the hard-to-repair parts of a space shuttle.

In the meantime, more research is going into the development of nanotechnology and the betterment of industrial microscopes in making nanotechnology possible. For more information, do more research on nanotechnology, and be updated with the latest in this exciting field. Read more