Thread: Nanotechnology's future in the health industry

Hi, I was wondering when can people drink fluids of nano-robots to heal cancer, and when can nano-technology be used in altering the appearence of a human being ? Will this take about a decade or a century ? I'm really intrested in what Nanotechnology can do to the well-being of people around the world, if you know anything about this specific topic, please enlighten me ! :wink:

This sort of technology will not be developed in the foreseeable future. We have absolutely no idea how to even design something like that, let alone actually make it.

I didn't make this up btw, I read it in : http://science.howstuffworks.com/nanotechnology2.htm

Originally Posted by Scifor Refugee

This sort of technology will not be developed in the foreseeable future. We have absolutely no idea how to even design something like that, let alone actually make it.

Agreed. The devil is in the details. 'Nanotechnology' at times has become a catch all akin to 'hocus pocus'. There's a definite place for nano techmology but it's only in the context of understanding physical happenings such as organic processes.

Yes nanotechnology does encampus a vast area of study. Its an umbrella name for many subjects of study. I believe what you are refering to may or may not happen. I think that the future of medicine may be more organic with such things as viral therapy, which they inject a live retrovirus into you to restore certain cell functions. They have used this successfully in treating Parkinson Disease. Though the problem with viruses is that they rapidly mutate, and are unpredictable for now. You never know, maybe we will have nanites that are injected into you to help heal severe injuries or kill cancer. The wonderful thing about the future is that we don't know for certain what will happen. Anything is possible. =)

Originally Posted by AK1990

Hi, I was wondering when can people drink fluids of nano-robots to heal cancer, and when can nano-technology be used in altering the appearence of a human being ? Will this take about a decade or a century ? I'm really intrested in what Nanotechnology can do to the well-being of people around the world, if you know anything about this specific topic, please enlighten me ! :wink:

If you're really interested I would recommend you read a book by Ray Kurzweil and Terry Grossman, M.D. called "Fantastic Voyage" (named after the old movie). It's pretty much all about that kind of stuff. They believe that even some of the older generations have a good chance at a theoretical immortality. I can't really say how good it is as I have not yet read the whole thing straight through.

I can't say I know much first hand, but my boyfriend is a software developer for medical technology, so he keeps himself up to date on the medical technology news front. In his opinion it is most certainly possible, and we may even attain something akin to immortality within our lifetimes through nanotechnology. If there's one thing we do know about the development of technology, it's that it tends to be exponential. There may not be much out there now, but once the foundations are laid things will probably progress fairly quickly.