Nanoscience is changing the present scale, and nanotechnology will radically affect people's everyday lives. With the completion of the Nanoscience Center Jyväskylä will be an even stronger centre of research and business activity.
Windows, which you don't need to wash yourself. Hospital equipment, that takes care of cleaning itself. Bullet-proof vests, that provide better protection than any vest previously developed. And to crown everything, serious diseases that people no longer need to suffer from.
The major achievements of nanotechnology are much talked about and even more is expected from them in future. The expectations are not unreasonable, however, since research and development work are constantly driving know-how in the direction of the above-mentioned innovations.
For example, knowledge of nano-particles is already made use of in glass for windows. Window panes are coated with titanium dioxide which reacts to sunlight and breaks up dirt chemically with the help of rainwater. It is believed that nanoscience and nanotechnology will have a radical impact on medicine, electronics and materials production in particular. The scale of things needs to change completely from the present one. According to visionaries the development of the integrated circuit is small beer compared to the opportunities presented by nanotechnology.
Nanoscience has emerged as a scientific discipline over the last twenty years or so. It developed as part of chemistry, physics and biology before it broke away as a branch of its own. It continues to make widespread use of the natural sciences.
The basis of nanoscience is very close to us all. Behind the development of this science lies the realization that the biological systems which surround us are full of nano-scale systems and products. Nano-motors, for instance, have been found in cells.
"Nature has itself chosen the nano-scale, for instance in parts of cells and in DNA. By learning from nature's systems and scale we can achieve much that is totally new", says Päivi Törmä, Professor of Physics at the University of Jyväskylä.
"Perhaps a hundred years from now man will be able to do artificially everything that nature already does at present. That could mean that diseases have been beaten", adds Jorma Virtanen, who holds Finland's first professorship in nanoscience at the University of Jyväskylä.
Although the important commercial achievements still lie ahead, big things in the world of nanoscience are happening here and now. Research projects will become even more concrete at the point when the new Nanoscience Center opens its doors in Jyväskylä at the end of 2004. It will provide a high-quality and versatile research environment complete with clean rooms and research facilities for approximately a hundred researchers and nanotechnology firms. Also on a world scale it is unique to assemble physicists, chemists and biologists in the same building and even in the same room.
"At the Nanoscience Center work will be conducted across traditional scientific boundaries", confirms Markku Kulomaa, Professor of Molecular Biology at the University of Jyväskylä. Jyväskylä's unfolding future as one of the world's top centres of nanoscience presupposes discovery of its own strengths and concentration on them as well as the correct targeting of resources. Valuable assistance in exploiting opportunities is provided by strong national and international partner networks.
The rise of nanoscience in the Jyväskylä Region is also supported by the International Master's Programme in Nanoscience begun in the spring of 2003. Nine students from six different countries are currently taking the programme, the first of its kind in Finland.
In addition to research progress there is considerable effort in Jyväskylä to ensure researchers and firms meet. New and different interfaces have to be generated and indeed are already in existence.
At one Jyväskylä-based nanotechnology enterprise, Nanoway, primary thermometers based on nano-sensors have been developed and commercially viable markets found for them. As research progresses the branch is expected to spawn more new spin-off enterprises.
The centre for enterprise services that will operate as part of the Nanoscience Center offers firms the chance of even closer contact with the world of research and of involvement in existing collaboration projects. Through the centre it will also be possible to hire research facilities for periods of time, obtain guidance in their use, and rent premises. Another opportunity for enterprises is to take advantage of local expertise and locate parts of their own operations in Jyväskylä. This is what mobile phone giant Nokia has done, for example.
"Nano constitutes an opportunity for Finnish companies that cannot be left unexploited. It will also permit many kinds of things which we cannot even dream about at present", says Dr. Esko Peltonen, Director of Business Development of Jyväskylä Science Park.
Not all business activity in nanotechnology needs to be directly connected to nanoscience, since new applications can be transferred into everyday use without rediscovering the wheel. Just as in the case of window glass, achievements in nanotechnology will be exploited in products that already exist. These can be made smaller, for example, or engineered to consume less energy. "The majority of people will never be able to distinguish the subtleties of nanotechnology, because they're hidden inside the equipment", Virtanen comments.
"Nanotechnology is so-called generic technology, which can be applied to almost any branch or product. The costs involved determine where and when the applications come onto the market", Peltonen continues.
The experts seek to keep a lid on enthusiasm and issue a reminder that development work is still at an early stage. Indeed, nanoscience as a scientific discipline is still very young. "We are now perhaps in adolescence. The pimples are disappearing and we're gradually acquiring a bit of a beard", as Kulomaa colourfully puts it.
------------------ NANOMETER: A nanometer is a unit of spatial measurement that is 10-9 meter, or one billionth of a meter. It is commonly used in nanotechnology, the building of extremely small machines. A nanometre is taken up when ten atoms of hydrogen are placed side by side.
An electron microscope image of electrodes used to capture DNA. (Photo2 below: Nanoscience Center, University of Jyväskylä)
Atomic force microscope images of capturing DNA with electrical fields. (Photo3 below: Nanoscience Center, University of Jyväskylä)
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By Tommi Salo Photos by Petteri Kivimäki