One of those buzzwords that can be hard to pin down is nanotechnology. So, exactly what is it? For instance, how is it different from conventional physics and chemistry? And specifically, what advantages does it provide for neuroscience and brain research? In fact, a lot is the response.

The Nobel Prize-winning physicist from the California Institute of Technology, Richard Feynman, gave the well-known 1959 lecture “There’s plenty of room at the bottom,” which is typically credited as the source of the original concepts and ideas of nanotechnology.The actual term “nanotechnology” was first used in 1974 by Tokyo University professor Norio Taniguchi. It has had a significant impact on how scientists study and interact with the brain over the past twenty or so years, including the development of novel treatments for neurological disorders. Technology and methods for manipulating and controlling devices and materials at the molecular scale through either physical or chemical methods, or both, are the primary focus of nanotechnology, an interdisciplinary field of science and engineering. This typically takes place between 1 and 100 nanometers (nm).

A billionth of a meter is one nanometer. That is less than a meter by nine orders of magnitude. Or 1/1,000,000,000. That amounts to less than 0.00000004 inches. In contrast, one centimeter is the opposite of two times ten, or one-hundredth of a meter, or two orders of magnitude smaller. One-thousandth of a millimeter, or three orders of magnitude, smaller than a meter. It is hard to naturally get a handle on how little of a unit of estimation a nanometer is.

An illustration that will help you understand the size difference, not at spatial but at temporal scales: A walk from New York City to San Diego usually is not attempted. It would simply take too much time. However, a change of one order of magnitude, or being able to walk ten times faster, would be the same as switching from walking to driving. Let’s say you can walk 3 miles per hour, for instance. You can reach speeds of 60 or 70 miles per hour driving. You could now travel across the nation in a few days. Going from walking to flying requires an increase in speed of two orders of magnitude. You can use it in a matter of hours to travel across the country. It is impossible to achieve three orders of magnitude technologically.It would get you quickly from New York to San Diego. And that is only a difference of three orders of magnitude, or a thousand-fold difference, equivalent to changing from meters to millimeters. If you were to increase your speed by a billionth of a second, just picture how long it would take! Now take that gut feeling and reverse it: Consider a meter, which is simply under a yard, and attempt to envision contracting somewhere near a billion times.

Technologies that employ engineered materials or devices with a functional organization on the nanometre scale — that is, one billionth of a meter — in at least one dimension, typically ranging from one to one hundred nanometers — are referred to as nanotechnologies.This suggests that physical and/or chemical means can be used to manipulate and control at least some aspect of the material or device at nanometer resolutions, resulting in functional properties that are unique to the engineered technology and not shown by its constituent parts.As a result, the functional properties that determine how nanotechnologies interact are what most define them.The engineering and functional properties of a nanomaterial or device are more important than their chemical and/or physical composition in the overall technological process.

The study of molecular, cellular, and physiological processes are among the basic neuroscience applications of nanotechnology.Nanoengineered materials and methods for supporting other technologies designed to interact with neurons in vivo (such as coating of recording or stimulating electrodes) or for promoting neuronal adhesion and growth are one example. These technologies can help us comprehend the underlying neurobiology.Nanoengineered materials and methods for directly interacting, recording, or stimulating neurons at the molecular level are another option.Imaging applications that make use of nanotechnology tools like chemically functionalized semiconductor quantum dots are a third example.

Clinical neuroscience uses nanotechnology to study ways to control and reverse neuropathological disease states.These include nanotechnology methods that help or encourage the nervous system’s functional regeneration;strategies for neuroprotection, particularly those that make use of fullerene derivatives;and strategies based on nanotechnology that make it easier to get drugs and other small molecules across the blood — brain barrier.Although there are numerous obstacles to overcome when employing nanotechnology applications in neuroscience, their impact on comprehending how the nervous system functions, how it fails in disease, and how we can intervene at the molecular level is significant.Technologies can be tailored to specific applications by making use of drugs, small molecules, neurotransmitters, and neural developmental factors.New alterations can be made, for instance, to the receptors of neural developmental factors like the cadherin, laminin, and bone morphometric protein families.By incorporating these molecules into engineered materials and devices, nanotechnology enables the use of these molecules’ functional specificity to produce highly specialized effects.

When using nanotechnology in neuroscience, the need for greater specificity, multiple induced physiological functions, and minimal side effects are the primary technical obstacles.The CNS’ inherent complexity and its anatomically restrictive nature are two additional unique challenges that must be taken into consideration in vivo.