Category:	Science and Technology
Domain:	Nanotechnology, Materials
Keywords:	Nanotechnology - nanoshells, sensors, miniaturisation
Outlook:	Smaller, cheaper, more accurate sensors engineered on the nanoscale promise to provide unprecedented access to information about the physical world.
Summary Analysis:	The current generation of sensors are still relatively large, bulky, and expensive. Nanoscale engineering is being applied to the miniaturisation of these sensors and the creation of entirely new classes of sensors. The ability to manufacture a sensor's components - including power supply, sensing receptor, and transmitter - at a fraction of traditional sizes, will allow sensors to be much smaller and thus much more easily incorporated into the environment for a broadening range of sensing applications. Nanoscale engineering could also improve the sensing element itself, particularly important as shrinking the sensor size would also decrease the area of the sensor available for detection. Carbon nanotubes, which have large surface areas relative to their size, and nanoshells - cores of nonconducting material such as glass or silicon covered by a metal (often gold) shell – could enable improvement of existing sensors and the creation of new sensing applications. Nanosensors then, could be able to sense properties at the nanoscale, be nanoscale in dimensions, or encompass nanoengineered structures such as carbon nanotubes. Nanoscale sensors could also provide unprecedented access to information about the physical world. This information could be used, for example, to increase occupant comfort in buildings, to reduce energy consumption, to reduce machine downtime in factories, and to allow companies to monitor and control processes and systems for increased efficiency and enhanced profitability. Tiny and cheap sensors could continually monitor the quality of drinking water, detect structural damage in buildings and vehicles, and sense levels of pollutants in the environment. Consumer products could be monitored for the current state of their components and materials, enabling them to report when repair or replacement is necessary. And through nanotechnology developments, a vast network of security sensors could be deployed to continually monitor critical infrastructures like buildings and bridges and pipelines, as well as the air for chemical and biological agents resulting from terrorist attacks.

	Implications:	Smaller, cheaper, more accurate sensors More widespread use of sensors in innovative applications Privacy issues
	Early Indicators:	Current plans by Palo Alto-based Sensametrics, Inc., to soon bring to market wireless sensor systems for buildings and civil infrastructure Cornell's recent development of a carbon nanotube oscillator, which can be tuned to a wide range of radio frequencies and which could be a building block of much smaller nanosensing devices Founding in 2002 of Dust Networks by a team including Kris Pister, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and the originator of the Smart Dust concept, and development since then of a wireless mesh networking system for sensing and control applications
	What to Watch:	The global nanosensors market grows from $185 million or so in 2005 to $2.7 billion in 2008 and reaches $17.2 billion by 2012. Nanosensors represent 10% of the total sensors market in 2010. Carbon nanotubes are manufactured in large quantities and with precision. Nanoscale sensors receive even more military funding and show up first in defense and homeland security applications, particularly biochemical and radiological sensing.
	Parallels/Precedents:
	Enablers/drivers:	Continuing basic research in nanoscale engineering Work on nanoshells and carbon nanotubes Increased funding for counter-terrorism measures
	Leaders:	Institutions: Laboratory of Nanophotonics, Rice University Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies, MIT Nanomix University of Massachusetts, Amherst NASA Ames Research Center, Stanford University (work on carbon nanotube sensors for gas detection) US Naval Research Laboratory (work on carbon nanotube chemical sensors) McEuen Group, Cornell University (Professor Paul McEuen's work on nanotube electronics) Dust Networks (developing wireless sensor network products for industrial and commercial markets) [link] University of Nottingham [link] University of Oviedo, Spain [link] Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, Germany [link] Risoe University, Denmark [link] University of Michigan [link] University of Glasgow [link] Nanoco (University of Manchester spinout) [link]
	Figures:
	Sources:	Jones, Richard. "The Future of Nanotechnology." Physics World August 2004. "Nanoscience and nanotechnologies: opportunities and uncertainties," London: The Royal Society & The Royal Academy of Engineering, 2004. Kvamme, E. Floyd. Presentation: "Federal Nanotechnolgy R&D Program," Naotional Nanotechnology Advisory Panel Report. 22 March 2005. "Using a carbon nanotube, Cornell researchers make an oscillator so small it might weigh a single atom." Cornell News 15 Sept. 2004. [link] "Thoughts on the Economics of Nanosensors." NanoMarkets LC 15 Dec. 2005. [link] "Nanosensor Market to Rise to $ 591M by 2009." Nanoparticle News. Lexis Nexis. 30 Nov. 2004. Richard Freitas, Nanosensor Technology, in Nanomedicine: Volume 1, Basic Capabilities [link] Fibre-Optic Nanosensor monitors single cells, National Cancer Institute 2005 [link] Nanosensor Blog [link]

	At A Glance:	When:	11–20 years
		Where:	Global
		How Fast:	Years
		Likelihood:	Medium-Low
		Impact:	Medium-Low
		Controversy:	Medium

Related Outlooks:

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