While nanotechnology is seen as the way of the future and is a technology that a lot of people think will bring a lot of benefit for all who will be using it, nothing is ever perfect and there will always be pros and cons to everything. The advantages and disadvantages of nanotechnology can be easily enumerated, and here are some of them:
Advantages of Nanotechnology
To enumerate the advantages and disadvantages of nanotechnology, let us first run through the good things this technology brings:
- Nanotechnology can actually revolutionize a lot of electronic products, procedures, and applications. The areas that benefit from the continued development of nanotechnology when it comes to electronic products include nano transistors, nano diodes, OLED, plasma displays, quantum computers, and many more.
- Nanotechnology can also benefit the energy sector. The development of more effective energy-producing, energy-absorbing, and energy-storage products in smaller and more efficient devices is possible with this technology. Such items like batteries, fuel cells, and solar cells can be built smaller but can be made to be more effective with this technology.
- Another industry that can benefit from nanotechnology is the manufacturing sector which will need materials like nanotubes, aerogels, nanoparticles, and other similar items to produce their products with. These materials are often stronger, more durable, and lighter than those that are not produced with the help of nanotechnology.
- In the medical world, nanotechnology is also seen as a boon since it can help with creating what is called smart drugs. These help cure people faster and without the side effects that other traditional drugs have. You will also find that the research of nanotechnology in medicine is now focusing on areas like tissue regeneration, bone repair, immunity and even cures for such ailments like cancer, diabetes, and other life-threatening diseases.
Disadvantages of Nanotechnology
When tackling the advantages and disadvantages of nanotechnology, you will also need to point out what can be seen as the negative side of this technology:
- Included in the list of disadvantages of this science and its development is the possible loss of jobs in the traditional farming and manufacturing industry.
- You will also find that the development of nanotechnology can also bring about the crash of certain markets due to the lowering of the value of oil and diamonds due to the possibility of developing alternative sources of energy that are more efficient and won’t require the use of fossil fuels. This can also mean that since people can now develop products at the molecular level, diamonds will also lose their value since they can now be mass-produced.
- Atomic weapons can now be more accessible and made to be more powerful and destructive. These can also become more accessible with nanotechnology.
- Since these particles are microscopic, problems can arise from inhaling these minute particles, much like the problems a person gets from inhaling minute asbestos particles.
- Presently, nanotechnology is very expensive and developing it can cost you a lot of money. It is also pretty difficult to manufacture, which is probably why products made with nanotechnology are more expensive.
Conclusion
The nanotechnology pros and cons show a lot of exciting potentials, but that potential comes at a certain risk. Are all humans essentially good? Or is the risk of weaponizing nanotech something that could hold this technology back? We must weigh these pros and cons carefully to determine our next steps in this exciting STEM field of research.
Please read more about Ande’s thought leadership on Future Businesses and the top 10 technologies that would prevail in our future times.
