EMERGING AREA: Nano-scientist B.L.V. Prasad from National Chemical Laboratory, Pune, interacting with students in Vijayawada on Tuesday. — PHOTO: CH. VIJAYA BHASKAR

VIJAYAWADA: Nano-scientists are super goldsmiths who change the size and shape of particles to change the physical and chemical properties of metals, says nano scientist B.L.V.Prasad. Interacting with post-graduate students of basic sciences at the Regional Science Centre here on Tuesday, Dr. Prasad, a scientist with the National Chemical Laboratory, CSIR, Pune, said that nano-technology was being put to many uses in industry, environmental rectification, medicine, science and even in households.

IBM's success

Nobel laureate Richard Feynman, in a lecture he delivered in 1959, asked whether it was possible to arrange atoms the way we want. He had also said that the basic laws of physics had not forbidden it.

Thirty-one years later, IBM succeeded in doing it, said Dr. Prasad. Company scientists wrote the letters, IBM, using just 35 xenon atoms on a nickel plate. With further research, the entire lecture delivered by Feynmen could be written on a pinhead, Dr. Prasad said.

He said the colour, conductivity, melting point, liquid absorption, crystal shape, magnetism and chemical reactivity of metallic compounds could be changed with nano-sizing.

Nature's examples

The multi-coloured feathers of peacocks and the water-repelling leaves of lotus were good examples of nano-technology in nature. Feathers of the peacock produce colour by refraction, reflection and other optical phenomenon and therefore their colours do not fade.

The material was the same but the physical properties (colour) were different. Drops of water do not stick to lotus leaves because of the nano-structure of the leaf surface, he said.

Maintenance-free windows, glass panes that absorb heat, early diagnosis of diseases and new therapeutics were being developed with the help of nano-technology, he said.

Making a power-point presentation on the subject "Who is a nano-scientist? Is he better than your Gold Smith," Dr. Prasad explained the basics of nano-technology and its applications to students.

Classic question

Answering the classic question, whether iron could be turned into gold, he said that it could be done, but the cost would be prohibitive and that there was no use doing it. Maintenance-free windows that automatically cleaned themselves were already available and it was possible to make stain-repellent fabrics. The cost of producing them would be prohibitive, but they would be useful in space, he said.

A.P.State Council of Science and Technology (APCOST) programme officer P.Srinivas, former KBN college physics head B.R.K.Reddy, Siddhartha College lecturer and Dept. of Science and Technology young scientist N.V.Prasad and Andhra Loyola College Physics lecturer T.Srikumar participated in the interaction programme.

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