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Looking back at science fiction of the 1950s, the predictions for science and technology are beginning to look very prophetic. There may not be hover cars yet, but the medical field is getting the closest the quickest to the vision of the future that was laid out in the past. Humans are living much longer thanks to a more intuitive understanding of health, nutrition and aging. Doctors can now assist their patients in avoiding some of the most common pitfalls that lead to premature aging. Plastic surgery has advanced to the point that a woman underwent a successful facial transplant. Fingers and toes that are accidentally amputated are reattached more often than not these days. Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords survived a close range gunshot wound to the head. Medical technology has advanced to an incredibly high degree.
One of the most interesting areas within the field of medical technology is that of nanotechnology. Laparoscopic surgery, once the most amazing new developments in medicine, is now considered a large-scale technology compared to the newest machines that are helping repair and heal the human body. Nanotechnology is technology on the atomic scale. A human blood cell is 2,500 nanometers wide. A carbon nanotube, one of the basic components of most of these products, is a mere two nanometers wide. This is technology on a microscopic scale.
One interesting example of the use of this technology within the medical field is antimicrobial bandages. They are made with nanoparticles of silver. Silver ions effectively smother the respiration of harmful cells within a wound, killing them quicker and positively affecting the healing time of the patient. Nanotechnology is being applied to drug therapy to help with better absorption and processing of pharmaceuticals. Nanobots are being used to help nerves repair themselves. By working with the body on the atomic scale at which many of the most basic processes occur, nanotechnology will help the body heal itself.