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NAGPUR: “Ratan Tata may have christened his small car ‘Nano’, but there is nothing ‘nano’ about it. However, you never know. In the future, a small car could be made from nano materials.

Till then, the latest developments in the field of nano technology and some already existing can continue to change things around us,” said Prof Sulbha Kulkarni, a UGC professor at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), on Monday.

She was delivering a lecture titled ‘Nanotechnology – present and future’ at the Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology in memory of Prof V G Bhide (former vice chancellor of Pune University), a well known scientist, educationist and visionary from Nagpur.

The fourth in the series of late Bhide memorial lectures was more than an academic delight. Prof Kulkarni’s style kept everyone spell bound.

Beginning from listing contributions of Bhide in education and science in general to her own growth, Kulkarni took the audience on a journey back into the past. Speaking on the subject, Kulkarni said that nano technology was nothing new and existed as early as the 500 BC (in the form of tinted glass), Damascus steel (in the form of Damascus knives and swords 110-1700 AD). She traced the history of nano technology to the future prospects. In nature, it always existed, she said.

Talking about the future, she spoke of meta-materials, electron microscope lithography which can write nano letters, tetra hertz spectroscopy, satellite photography, next generation solar cells and nano robots which could walk into blood vessels. Kulkarni said that like any other technology even nanotechnology could have negative ramifications if not used cautiously and judiciously. It can also manufacture weapons for future biological and chemical warfare.

Neeri director S R Wate warned about the negative results of nanotechnology. He also spoke on the possibilities of making environmental impact assessments based on the effect of the nano materials on the environment.

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This post was submitted by Rishi.