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Medicine is considered to be one of the most promising applications of nanotechnology. What opportunities can be opened to humanity in the future?
Robert Freitas, author of the fundamental work "Nanomedicine", wrote that nanotechnology is already producing biorobots and that around 2020 will arise hybrid robots on the basis of advanced DNA, synthetic proteins and other non-biological materials. He predicted that at the beginning of 2030 or earlier scientists will build a completely artificial devices: nanorobots, managed by computer software and able to protect every cell in the body from disease and injury.
Developing this idea it is possible to give a definition of nanomedicine, as activities aimed at the use of nanotechnology in the treatment and biological rejuvenation of the human body, including the attainment of physical immortality. The basic instruments for solving these problems, of course, will be the systems consisting of the DNA-processors – nano- and micro-sensors that literally fills our living space. With their help it will be possible to carry out at specified intervals the complex medical tests unbeknownst to us. Nanotechnology already allow to create a chip with integrated DNA fragments, which are able to communicate with the desired gene sequences when placed in biomass with subsequent laser scanning and recognition of corresponding genes. This will help to identify biomarkers of disease at its earliest stages. Thus, gene therapy will soon become a routine method of treatment of diseases caused by damage to a single gene. The next step is the improvement of existing genes...
However, the most interesting is the question of the potential physical possibility of achieving human immortality. In other words, is it possible on the basis of physical laws to justify such a possibility? As pointed out by Richard Feynman, in biology has not found nothing that would indicate the inevitability of death.
According to modern concepts, aging is a process of accumulation of errors at the genetic and cellular level. Errors can accumulate inside and outside of cells in the form of molecular fragments that occur in various ways in the process of life. This phenomenon is a direct consequence of the second law of thermodynamics, according to which the total entropy of the system, and in other words – the chaos, always increases. That's why everything on earth is subject to destruction (rust, decay, death). It would seem, the impossibility of achievement of immortality follows from firmness of this law, but in the second law of thermodynamics says about the total entropy of the system. You can reduce the entropy in the system associated with aging (gene therapy), but at the same time increase proportionally another component of entropy. In other words, the immortality of human has a physical basis, and the development and application of nanotechnology in medicine will allow to realize this potential in practice in the very near future.
Developing this idea it is possible to give a definition of nanomedicine, as activities aimed at the use of nanotechnology in the treatment and biological rejuvenation of the human body, including the attainment of physical immortality. The basic instruments for solving these problems, of course, will be the systems consisting of the DNA-processors – nano- and micro-sensors that literally fills our living space. With their help it will be possible to carry out at specified intervals the complex medical tests unbeknownst to us. Nanotechnology already allow to create a chip with integrated DNA fragments, which are able to communicate with the desired gene sequences when placed in biomass with subsequent laser scanning and recognition of corresponding genes. This will help to identify biomarkers of disease at its earliest stages. Thus, gene therapy will soon become a routine method of treatment of diseases caused by damage to a single gene. The next step is the improvement of existing genes...
However, the most interesting is the question of the potential physical possibility of achieving human immortality. In other words, is it possible on the basis of physical laws to justify such a possibility? As pointed out by Richard Feynman, in biology has not found nothing that would indicate the inevitability of death.
According to modern concepts, aging is a process of accumulation of errors at the genetic and cellular level. Errors can accumulate inside and outside of cells in the form of molecular fragments that occur in various ways in the process of life. This phenomenon is a direct consequence of the second law of thermodynamics, according to which the total entropy of the system, and in other words – the chaos, always increases. That's why everything on earth is subject to destruction (rust, decay, death). It would seem, the impossibility of achievement of immortality follows from firmness of this law, but in the second law of thermodynamics says about the total entropy of the system. You can reduce the entropy in the system associated with aging (gene therapy), but at the same time increase proportionally another component of entropy. In other words, the immortality of human has a physical basis, and the development and application of nanotechnology in medicine will allow to realize this potential in practice in the very near future.
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