What Is Nanotechnology Essays - Nanotechnology,

What is Nanotechnology? Computers reproduce information at almost no cost. A push is well underway to invent devices that manufacture at almost no cost, by treating atoms discretely, like computers treat bits of information. This would allow automatic construction of consumer goods without traditional labor, like a Xerox machine produces unlimited copies without a human retyping the original information. Electronics is fueled by miniaturization. Working smaller has led to the tools capable of manipulating individual atoms like the proteins in a potato manipulate the atoms of soil, air and water to make copies of itself. The shotgun marriage of chemistry and engineering called Nanotechnology is ushering in the era of self replicating machinery and self assembling consumer goods made from cheap raw atoms (Drexler, Merkle paraphrased). Nanotechnology is molecular manufacturing or, more simply, building things one atom or molecule at a time with programmed nanoscopic robot arms. A nanometer is one billionth of a meter (3 - 4 atoms wide). Utilizing the well understood chemical properties of atoms and molecules (how they stick together), nanotechnology proposes the construction of novel molecular devices possessing extraordinary properties. The trick is to manipulate atoms individually and place them exactly where needed to produce the desired structure. This ability is almost in our grasp. The anticipated payoff for mastering this technology is far beyond any human accomplishment so far... Technical feasibilities include: ? Self-assembling consumer goods ? Computers billions of times faster ? Extremely novel inventions (impossible today) ? Safe and affordable space travel ? Medical Nano... virtual end to illness, aging, death ? No more pollution and automatic cleanup of already existing pollution ? Molecular food syntheses... end of famine and starvation ? Access to a superior education for every child on Earth ? Reintroduction of many extinct plants and animals ? Terraforming here and the Solar System From the introduction of the plenary of Dr. Drexler at the January '96 program of the twenty-ninth annual Hawaii International Conference on System Science, Maui. (An academic meeting of software and systems scientist.) In a world of information, digital technologies have made copying fast, cheap, and perfect, quite independent of cost or complexity of the content. What if the same were to happen in the world of matter? The production cost of a ton of terabyte RAM chips would be about the same as the production cost of steel. Design costs would matter, production costs wouldn't. Bibliography THE NEXT GENERATIONS...

Vouchers-Education essays

Vouchers-Education essays There are pros and cons to every issue. One pro of the education bill is failing school will have the incentive to get their acts together and start giving their students legitimate education. Poorly performing schools dont suffer from a lack of money, but from a misuse of the money. Increased competition works. Look at American colleges and universities. They are the best in the world and they have a much higher rate or competition than in elementary and secondary schools. Another pro of this issue is all kids will have an equal opportunity at schooling. Al Gore and his kids are raised in private institutions. Tamala Edwards of Time Magazine once asked Gore, Is there not a public school in D.C. good enough for you child? Why should the parents here have to keep their kids in public schools because they dont have the financial resources that you do? This is a very good point. Most of congress has their children enrolled in a private institution. What seems wrong with that? If their school were failing their children then they would pull them out and enroll somewhere else. What about those parents that cannot pull their children out and have no choice. Jeff Greenfield said that the Democratic party is digging themselves into a hole of special interest rather than for those parents who are in need. A third pro is that with increased competition between schools, public schools will be forced to raise salaries for teachers or they will be left with none. Another pro is this is a rather quick way or reform. A promise to fix a poor school in ten years isnt good enough for a parent of an 8 year old, for their child will be out in 10 years. The cons of this issue are simple. They all come to the conclusion that vouchers would tap much-needed funds from the cash-strapped public school system, says Adam Entous. Critics say that this would take away the better ...

The U.S. comparative advantage Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

The U.S. comparative advantage - Article Example As part of analyzing the comparative advantage of the U.S. in terms of creating new job opportunities for the Americans, this study will identify the types and major players of solar power followed by discussing the production growth in that particular industry. Upon discussing how the improvements in solar power industry could help boost the U.S. economy, the kind of education and training that needs to be extended to Americans will be tackled in details. Prior to conclusion, the socio-economic costs associated with becoming the world’s leader in the source of solar energy will be provided. The two types of solar power are the photovoltaics (PV) – a direct source of solar energy from the sun (Knier) and the concentrating solar power (CSP) – an indirect source of solar energy which allows the sun to boil water used in generating power (Martin and Goswami, p. 45). Today, the United States has three of the world’s biggest concentrating solar thermal power stations that uses parabolic trough. These three major players of solar power in the United States includes: (1) the NextEra Energy Resources which partly operates the nine units of the Solar Energy Generating Systems located in Mojave desert California (NextEra Energy Resources); (2) Florida Power & Light Company (FPL) built the Martin Next Generation Solar Energy Center in Martin County, Florida and is expected to be completed by end of 2010 (Mayfield); and (3) a project of Acciona – Pioneers in Development and Sustainability, the construction of Nevada Solar One in Las Vegas, Nevada was completed in June 2007 (Acciona). Silicon Valley’s Sunpower Corp. together with FPL Group recently built the United States’ largest photovoltaic power plant known as the DeSoto Next Generation Solar Energy Center. This project has recently been completed back in October 2009 (FPL; SunPower). Â