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Neal Jansons

A recent graduate from the University of California, Santa Cruz, Neal Jansons has spent the last two years penning short stories, ghostwriting and game writing for the upcoming browser based MMORPG "Ghostees!" and selling non-fiction and instructional articles to various online markets such as Demand Studios. Currently working on his first novel and an upcoming comic book project, Jansons' next project is a screenplay.

Nanotechnology is the manipulation of matter on the "micro" scale, 100 nanometers and less, to build molecular and atomic structures to serve a purpose on the normal scale. Currently limited to the creation of nano-particles and very simple moving structures, nanotechnology is applied in engineering, medicine and computing. Civil engineering applies these technologies to construction and design by attempting to improve the safety and utility of public structures.

Civil engineers deal with designing, building and maintaining the various structures that make civilization function. Roads, bridges, canals, tunnels, traffic systems, public transportation and other structures that operate on a large scale are subject to special considerations that require engineers to account for earthquakes, winds, massive public movement and even military strikes. These special requirements give multiple applications for nanotechnology, from earthquake-resistant building materials to graffiti-resistant subways.

Humans have been using nanotechnology without realizing it for a long time, with processes from metallurgy and chemistry using "nano" scale structures to accomplish their effects. In the early 1900s, Richard Zsigmondy did research on various nano-scale structures; later, physicist Richard Feynman gave a now-famous lecture called "Plenty of Room at the Bottom" that pointed out the various possibilities inherent in the manipulation of matter at the atomic scale. In the 1980s, the invention of the scanning tunneling microscope led to the true beginning of nanotechnology, soon followed by the discoveries of fullerenes and carbon nano-tubes, two nano-particles that formed the basis of the current applications. In 2000, the National Nanotechnology Initiative was founded by the United States government to direct and coordinate nanotechnology research.

Nano-particles are used to strengthen building materials and render them more flexible, thus resistant to shock and impact. Research is attempting to develop other applications.

There are two approaches to nanotechnology; they operate from opposite ends of the problem. Top-down approaches build structures at an easily reachable scale which then build smaller structures. Bottom-up techniques use processes to induce the formation of useful structures at the desired scale--which may, in turn, lead to the formation of other structures at larger scales. In theory, these approaches are scalable and repeatable, meaning they can be applied repeatedly at smaller or bigger scales. But there are limitations due to differing effects of physics at different scales.

The application of a robust nanotechnology to civil engineering is one of the long-term goals of the science. Through the manufacture of self-replicating nanotechnological robots that can in turn manipulate matter at the atomic scale, buildings could be "grown" from a pile of materials, surfaces could clean themselves by recycling dirt, and smog could be converted to oxygen. Bridges and other large structures subject to resonance effects due to winds or earthquakes could alter their own structure intelligently to adapt to shock. Potholes could "heal" themselves.

Using nanotechnology in civil engineering exposes the population at large and the entire environment to nano-particles and, if future development goes as hoped, nano-machines. Worries about the effects of silver nano-particles killing off bacteria necessary to the ecosystem have been put forth to justify regulation.

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About Nanotechnology in Civil Engineering | eHow