Ponder tennis racquets manufactured of materials that could smash a ball harder and even resist breaking when slammed against the court.
While these products sound as if they were produced through wishful thinking or props from a science fiction movie, they're actually closer than you might think to production.
Evangelos Hadjimichael, dean of Fairfield University's School of Engineering, said many previously unimagined manufactured products, drugs, and ultra powerful computers are on the market or just around the corner. The breakthrough has erupted because of nanotechnology, which allows the manufacture of products at the molecular level.
"Matter consists of bits of atoms and molecules that are one ten thousandths the width of human hair," Hadjimichael said. "Properties of matter change when you look at the nano-level. It can allow manufacturers to build products with extreme strength and little weight. There are already between two hundred and two hundred and fifty commercial products on the market now."
Nanotechnology experts have described this burgeoning field as a revolution that marries physics, biology, chemistry and engineering fields that can potentially produce better and more durable products at less cost.
While nanotechnology is just in its infancy, it is taking hold in Connecticut with approximately 25 companies statewide working in the nano-area as of a year ago. Hadjimichael estimates that the number of companies is increasing daily.
To expose college students to the growing field of nanotechnology, Fairfield University has received a grant from the Department of Higher Education and the Connecticut Center for Advance Technologies to lead a team of educators to organize a curriculum of nanotechnology studies.
The grant allows Hadjimichael to work with a consortium of state universities to establish the curricula for a minor program in nanotechnology studies. The participating universities in this nanotechnology minor are in addition to Fairfield, Yale, UConn, Central Connecticut State, The college of Technology/Community College System, Southern Connecticut State, University of Hartford, and the University of New Haven.
The field is expected to produce a many career opportunities for engineering and science students, according to Ryan Munden, visiting professor of electrical engineering at Fairfield University.
"This is a very exciting occurrence," Munden said. "We're breaking down barriers of different fields, such as chemistry, biology, physics, and engineering. Nanotechnology is an inter-disciplinary field. We're preparing students for the future of this state."
Ryan Munden points out that nanotechnology allows researchers to "grow" products from materials that already exist. In a sense, it's like placing molecular bits of products and mixing them in a test tube and pouring out what you want.
"With nanotechnology, we can grow things from the bottom up," Munden said. "We can take atom by atom and reconfigure it into what you want. You can grow anything you want rather than making it with complicated manufacturing techniques."
Today's manufacturing methods are crude to what nanotechnology is expected to lead to. Manufacturers rely on casting, grinding and milling - traditional methods - to produce goods which is like trying to assemble toy blocks wearing boxing gloves. Nanotechnology holds the promise of removing those boxing gloves.
For example, the human body is an ideal nanotechnology factory. The body takes in foods then breaks it down to the molecular level to build cells. As the technology advances, it's certainly possible to create stronger and better products. Some day, researchers predict that if you rearrange atoms in dirt, water and air, you can make potatoes. Stay tuned.
While all this speculation about the revolution of nanotechnology sounds futuristic and pie in the sky, you can find some nano-products on store shelves. You can buy pants that are made of nano-fibers that make the material extremely strong and water repellant.
The next time, you purchase new tires you might find that they're composed of nano-tubes, making them more resilient and much stronger than steel belted tires.
In 1966, Isaac Asimov, the science fiction writer, wrote the novel "Fantastic Voyage," in which five people are miniaturized along with a submarine then injected into a man's body to remove a blood clot of an important scientist. This is a futuristic novel, but you can argue that the future is now.
"Nanotechnology holds a lot of promise," Munden said. "We're developing a curriculum to expose more students to nanotechnology. I didn't hear of it until I was in graduate school. It's exciting stuff."