| Université des Fréres Mentouri, Constantine, Algeria | Faculty of Sciences & Physics Department |
|
World
Year of Physics 2005
Constantine, Algeria |
 |
Abstract of the talk by
Prof. N. Tabet
Surface Science Laboratory , Physics Department
King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, Saudi Arabia
In 1959, R. Feyman's gave a talk at the APS annual meeting entitled
" There is plenty of room at the bottom". He explained why physics
laws are not against the possibility of visualizing and manipulating atoms
in the great future. In the early eighties, the Scanning Tunneling Microscope
(STM) and the Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) were built in the laboratories
of IBM. These inventions marked the birth of Nanotechnology as it became possible
to visualize directly the atoms paving the way to building nanobjects of desired
properties by manipulating the very atoms one by one. Although, until now,
this is more a dream than a reality even the research laboratories, these
techniques have been extensively used in various fields including the study
of the mechanical behavior of the DNA and the structural characterization
of nanomaterials leading to a better understanding of their specific properties.
We will describe in this talk few practical examples that illustrate to a
large public some of the spectacular achievements of Nanotechnology in various
fields such as Medecine and Materials Sciences.
 |