ART AND MEDICINE
NANOMEDICINE ART
In 1959, exploring the limits of miniaturization,
the physicist and Nobel Laureate Richard Feyman,
suggested that nature could be manipulated at
a nanometer scale – atom by atom. That was 42
years ago and now, that prediction is at our doorstep.
We are now on the brink of a new technological
revolution called "Nanotechnology" i.e., molecular
manufacturing, or more simply building things
one atom or molecule at a time with programmed
nanoscopic robots. A nanometer (nm) is one billionth
of a meter or 39 billionths of an inch (about
1/80,000 of the diameter of a human hair).
Scientists from several fields including chemistry,
biology, physics, and electronics are collaborating
towards the precise manipulation of matter on
the atomic scale.
The ability to shrink microelectronics to the
threshold of the molecular scale is the ultimate
in miniaturization and performance. Science and
technology at the nanoscale is providing the key
to the resolution of biological questions such
as the functioning of the immune system that would
have been intractable even a few years ago.
Medical researchers are exploiting the tools of
nanotechnology to manipulate biomolecules that
regulate life and death, illness and health.
Researchers are learning how to tailor devices
and materials on the scale of a nanometer, thereby
acquiring the ability to engineer structures and
machines no bigger than biomolecules such as DNA.
Within this century, with the convergence of human
gene sequencing, advances in nanotechnological
engineering and our deepening understanding of
the function of cellular systems, nanotechnologists
believe it will be possible to design medically-active
microscopic machines to fight disease and effect
physiological repairs at the cellular level.
Diagnosis of disease will no longer rely
upon patient history and the results of laboratory
tests. The microscopic computers will be billions
of times faster than today, which will control
machines called "medical nanites" that patrol
the body searching for disease and armed with
a complete knowledge of a person's DNA.
The nanites would dispatch "cell sentinels" to
destroy any foreign invaders or release "smart
bombs" to kill cancer cells with the help of lasers
and report the kills. Nanobots could also be designed
to clean up fat-clogged arteries.
Nanotechnology could also mean the end of disease
as we know it. If you caught a cold or contracted
AIDS, you would just drink a teaspoon of liquid
that contained an army of molecule-sized nanobots
programmed to enter your body's cells and fight
viruses.
If a genetic disease ran in your family, you would
ingest nanobots that would burrow into your DNA
and repair the defective gene.
Even traditional plastic surgery would be eliminated,
as medical nanobots could change a person's eye
color, alter the shape of the nose, or even a
complete sex change without surgery.
Perhaps, through manipulation of DNA, such
microcomputers could stop or reverse the aging
process. The possibilities seem endless, but it
could also signal the extinction of doctors and
surgeons as we know them today since history,
physical examination, laboratory tests, external
interventions and macrosurgery would become irrelevant.
But patients are human beings who crave human
interaction, especially during illness. What would
be the physician's role in the era of nanomedicine?
Let us hope that physicians will evolve into sophisticated
shamans, utilizing advanced technology to treat
disease and at the same in touch with the individual
as a whole person physically, emotionally, psychologically,
and spiritually.
Rachel Hajar, MD
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