Exploring Converging Technologies

Hello, dear visitor!

My previous two posts were about

Potential impact of NBIC technologies on improving human capabilities

Definition and an Overview of Some Different Viewpoints

By reading these you may get an idea of what exactly converging technologies is and what could be its potential uses and its impact on human beings; you, me and  everyone around the globe.

If you haven't read those posts yet please read them. In this post we are going to explore converging technologies, by  which  i mean it's component technologies.

NBIC = NANO+BIO+INFO+COGNO

Nanotechnology

Nanotechnology, shortened to "nanotech", is the study of the controlling of matter on an atomic and molecular scale. Generally nanotechnology deals with structures sized between 1 to 100 nanometer in at least one dimension, and involves developing materials or devices within that size.

Nanotechnology is very diverse, ranging from extensions of conventional device physics to completely new approaches based upon molecular self-assembly, from developing new materials with dimensions on the nanoscale to investigating whether we can directly control matter on the atomic scale.

Following quotation by Richard Feynman may explain and excite you about nanotechnology

I want to build a billion tiny factories, models of each other, which are manufacturing simultaneously. . . The principles of physics, as far as I can see, do not speak against the possibility of maneuvering things atom by atom. It is not an attempt to violate any laws; it is something, in principle, that can be done; but in practice, it has not been done because we are too big. — Richard Feynman, Nobel Prize winner in physics

Biotechnology and Bioinformatics 

Biotechnology is a field of applied biology that involves the use of living things in engineering, technology, medicine, and other useful applications. Modern use similar term includes genetic engineering as well as cell- and tissue culture technologies.The United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity defines biotechnology as:

Any technological application that uses biological systems, living organisms, or derivatives thereof, to make or modify products or processes for specific use.

The term bioinformatics was coined by Paulien Hogeweg in 1979 for the study of informatic processes in biotic systems. Its primary use since at least the late 1980s has been in genomics and genetics, particularly in those areas of genomics involving large-scale DNA sequencing.


The primary goal of bioinformatics is to increase the understanding of biological processes. What sets it apart from other approaches, however, is its focus on developing and applying computationally intensive techniques (e.g., pattern recognition, data mining, machine learning algorithms, and visualization) to achieve this goal. Major research efforts in the field include sequence alignment, gene finding, genome assembly, drug design, drug discovery, protein structure alignment, protein structure prediction, prediction of gene expression and protein-protein interactions, genome-wide association studies and the modeling of evolution.


I'll give a description of other two exciting technologies(Information and communication technologies & congnitive and neuroscience ) in my next post.


I hope you enjoyed reading this post.I'll appreciate your feedback so please  write comments.


Bye for now, take care.