NANOTECHNOLOGY

Nanotechnology, the manipulation and manufacture of materials and devices on

the scale of atoms or small groups of atoms. The “nanoscale” is typically measured in
nanometres, or billionths of a metre (nanos, the Greek word for “dwarf,” being the
source of the prefix), and materials built at this scale often exhibit distinctive physical
and chemical properties due to quantum mechanical effects. Although usable devices
this small may be decades away (see microelectromechanical system), techniques for
working at the nanoscale have become essential to electronic engineering, and
nanoengineered materials have begun to appear in consumer products. For example,
billions of microscopic “nanowhiskers,” each about 10 nanometres in length, have been
molecularly hooked onto natural and synthetic fibres to impart stain resistance to
clothing and other fabrics; zinc oxide nanocrystals have been used to create invisible
sunscreens that block ultraviolet light; and silver nanocrystals have been embeddedd in
bandages to kill bacteria and prevent infection.

Possibilities for the future are numerous. Nanotechnology may make it possible
to manufacture lighter, stronger, and programmable materials that require less energy
to produce than conventional materials, that produce less waste than with conventional
manufacturing, and that promise greater fuel efficiency in land transportation, ships,
aircraft, and space vehicles. Nanocoatings for both opaque and translucent surfaces
may render them resistant to corrosion, scratches, and radiation. Nanoscale electronic,
magnetic, and mechanical devices and systems with unprecedented levels of
information processing may be fabricated, as may chemical, photochemical, and
biological sensors for protection, health care, manufacturing, and the environment; new
photoelectric materials that will enable the manufacture of cost-efficient solar-energy
panels; and molecular-semiconductor hybrid devices that may become engines for the
next revolution in the information age. The potential for improvements in health, safety,
quality of life, and conservation of the environment are vast.

At the same time, significant challenges must be overcome for the benefits of
nanotechnology to be realized. Scientists must learn how to manipulate and
characterize individual atoms and small groups of atoms reliably. New and improved
tools are needed to control the properties and structure of materials at the nanoscale;
significant improvements in computer simulations of atomic and molecular structures
are essential to the understanding of this realm. Next, new tools and approaches are
needed for assembling atoms and molecules into nanoscale systems and for the further
assembly of small systems into more-complex objects. Furthermore, nanotechnology
products must provide not only improved performance but also lower cost. Finally,
without integration of nanoscale objects with systems at the micro- and macroscale (that
is, from millionths of a metre up to the millimetre scale), it will be very difficult to exploit
many of the unique properties found at the nanoscale.

Nanotechnology is highly interdisciplinary, involving physics, chemistry, biology,

materials science, and the full range of the engineering disciplines. The word
nanotechnology is widely used as shorthand to refer to both the science and the
technology of this emerging field. Narrowly defined, nanoscience concerns a basic
understanding of physical, chemical, and biological properties on atomic and near-
atomic scales. Nanotechnology, narrowly defined, employs controlled manipulation of
these properties to create materials and functional systems with unique capabilities.

In contrast to recent engineering efforts, nature developed “nanotechnologies”

over billions of years, employing enzymes and catalysts to organize with exquisite
precision different kinds of atoms and molecules into complex microscopic structures
that make life possible. These natural products are built with great efficiency and have
impressive capabilities, such as the power to harvest solar energy, to convert minerals
and water into living cells, to store and process massive amounts of data using large
arrays of nerve cells, and to replicate perfectly billions of bits of information stored in
molecules of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA).

There are two principal reasons for qualitative differences in material behaviour
at the nanoscale (traditionally defined as less than 100 nanometres). First, quantum
mechanical effects come into play at very small dimensions and lead to new physics
and chemistry. Second, a defining feature at the nanoscale is the very large surface-to-
volume ratio of these structures. This means that no atom is very far from a surface or
interface, and the behaviour of atoms at these higher-energy sites have a significant
influence on the properties of the material. For example, the reactivity of a metal
catalyst particle generally increases appreciably as its size is reduced—macroscopic
gold is chemically inert, whereas at nanoscales gold becomes extremely reactive and
catalytic and even melts at a lower temperature. Thus, at nanoscale dimensions
material properties depend on and change with size, as well as composition and
structure.

Using the processes of nanotechnology, basic industrial production may veer

dramatically from the course followed by steel plants and chemical factories of the past.
Raw materials will come from the atoms of abundant elements—carbon, hydrogen, and
silicon—and these will be manipulated into precise configurations to create
nanostructured materials that exhibit exactly the right properties for each particular
application. For example, carbon atoms can be bonded together in a number of different
geometries to create variously a fibre, a tube, a molecular coating, or a wire, all with the
superior strength-to-weight ratio of another carbon material—diamond. Additionally,
such material processing need not require smokestacks, power-hungry industrial
machinery, or intensive human labour. Instead, it may be accomplished either by
“growing” new structures through some combination of chemical catalysts and synthetic
enzymes or by building them through new techniques based on patterning and self-
assembly of nanoscale materials into useful predetermined designs. Nanotechnology
ultimately may allow people to fabricate almost any type of material or product allowable
under the laws of physics and chemistry. While such possibilities seem remote, even
approaching nature’s virtuosity in energy-efficient fabrication would be revolutionary.

Even more revolutionary would be the fabrication of nanoscale machines and

devices for incorporation into micro- and macroscale systems. Once again, nature has
led the way with the fabrication of both linear and rotary molecular motors. These
biological machines carry out such tasks as muscle contraction (in organisms ranging
from clams to humans) and shuttling little packets of material around within cells while
being powered by the recyclable, energy-efficient fuel adenosine triphosphate.
Scientists are only beginning to develop the tools to fabricate functioning systems at
such small scales, with most advances based on electronic or magnetic information
processing and storage systems. The energy-efficient, reconfigurable, and self-repairing
aspects of biological systems are just becoming understood.

The potential impact of nanotechnology processes, machines, and products is

expected to be far-reaching, affecting nearly every conceivable information technology,
energy source, agricultural product, medical device, pharmaceutical, and material used
in manufacturing. Meanwhile, the dimensions of electronic circuits on semiconductors
continue to shrink, with minimum feature sizes now reaching the nanorealm, under 100
nanometres. Likewise, magnetic memory materials, which form the basis of hard disk
drives, have achieved dramatically greater memory density as a result of nanoscale
structuring to exploit new magnetic effects at nanodimensions. These latter two areas
represent another major trend, the evolution of critical elements of microtechnology into
the realm of nanotechnology to enhance performance. They are immense markets
driven by the rapid advance of information technology.
 In a lecture in 1959 to the American Physical Society, “There’s Plenty of Room at
the Bottom,” American Nobelist Richard P. Feynman presented his audience with a
vision of what could be done with extreme miniaturization. He began his lecture by
noting that the Lord’s Prayer had been written on the head of a pin and asked,

Feynman was intrigued by biology and pointed out that

Cells are very tiny, but they are very active; they manufacture various
substances; they walk around; they wiggle; and they do all kinds of marvelous things—
all on a very small scale. Also, they store information. Consider the possibility that we
too can make a thing very small which does what we want—that we can manufacture
an object that maneuvers at that level!

He also considered using big tools to make smaller tools that could make yet
smaller tools, eventually obtaining nanoscale tools for directly manipulating atoms and
molecules. In considering what all this might mean, Feynman declared,

I can hardly doubt that when we have some control of the arrangement of things
on a small scale we will get an enormously greater range of possible properties that
substances can have, and of different things that we can do.

Perhaps the biggest barrier to following these prophetic thoughts was simply the
immediate lack of tools to manipulate and visualize matter at such a small scale. The
availability of tools has always been an enabling aspect of the advance of all science
and technology, and some of the key tools for nanotechnology are discussed in the next
section, Pioneers.

Starting with a 1981 paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of

Sciences and following with two popular books, Engines of Creation (1986) and
Nanosystems (1992), American scientist K. Eric Drexler became one of the foremost
advocates of nanotechnology. In fact, Drexler was the first person anywhere to receive
a Ph.D. in molecular nanotechnology (from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology).
In his written works he takes a molecular view of the world and envisions molecular
machines doing much of the work of the future. For example, he refers to “assemblers,”
which will manipulate individual atoms to manufacture structures, and “replicators,”
which will be able to make multiple copies of themselves in order to save time dealing
with the billions of atoms needed to make objects of useful size. In an article for
Encyclopædia Britannica’s 1990 Yearbook of Science and the Future, Drexler wrote:

Cells and tissues in the human body are built and maintained by molecular
machinery, but sometimes that machinery proves inadequate: viruses multiply, cancer
cells spread, or systems age and deteriorate. As one might expect, new molecular
machines and computers of subcellular size could support the body’s own mechanisms.
Devices containing nanocomputers interfaced to molecular sensors and effectors could
serve as an augmented immune system, searching out and destroying viruses and
cancer cells. Similar devices programmed as repair machines could enter living cells to
edit out viral DNA sequences and repair molecular damage. Such machines would bring
surgical control to the molecular level, opening broad new horizons in medicine.

Drexler’s futurist visions have stimulated much thought, but the assembler
approach has failed to account for the strong influence of atomic and molecular forces
(i.e., the chemistry) at such dimensions. The controversy surrounding these
popularizations, and the potential dangers of entities such as intelligent replicators
(however remote), have stimulated debate over the ethical and societal implications of
nanotechnology.

Pioneers

A number of key technological milestones have been achieved by working

pioneers. Molecular beam epitaxy, invented by Alfred Cho and John Arthur at Bell Labs
in 1968 and developed in the 1970s, enabled the controlled deposition of single atomic
layers. This tool provided for nanostructuring in one dimension as atomic layers were
grown one upon the next. It subsequently became important in the area of compound
semiconductor device fabrication. For example, sandwiching one-nanometre-thick
layers of nonmagnetic-sensor materials between magnetic layers in computer disk
drives resulted in large increases in storage capacity, and a similar use of
nanostructuring resulted in more energy-efficient semiconductor lasers for use in
compact disc players.
 In 1981 Gerd Binnig and Heinrich Rohrer developed the scanning tunneling
microscope at IBM’s laboratories in Switzerland. This tool provided a revolutionary
advance by enabling scientists to image the position of individual atoms on surfaces. It
earned Binnig and Rohrer a Nobel Prize in 1986 and spawned a wide variety of
scanning probe tools for nanoscale observations.

The observation of new carbon structures marked another important milestone in

the advance of nanotechnology, with Nobel Prizes for the discoverers. In 1985 Robert
F. Curl, Jr., Harold W. Kroto, and Richard E. Smalley discovered the first fullerene, the
third known form of pure carbon (after diamond and graphite). They named their
discovery buckminsterfullerene (“buckyball”) for its resemblance to the geodesic domes
promoted by the American architect R. Buckminster Fuller. Technically called C60 for
the 60 carbon atoms that form their hollow spherical structure, buckyballs resemble a
football one nanometre in diameter (see figure). In 1991 Sumio Iijima of NEC
Corporation in Japan discovered carbon nanotubes, in which the carbon ringlike
structures are extended from spheres into long tubes of varying diameter. Taken
together, these new structures surprised and excited the imaginations of scientists
about the possibilities of forming well-defined nanostructures with unexpected new
properties.

STEMCELL

What is a stem cell?

A stem cell is a cell with the unique ability to develop into specialised cell types in the
body. In the future they may be used to replace cells and tissues that have been
damaged or lost due to disease.

What is a stem cell?

 Our body is made up of many different types of cell?.

 Most cells are specialised to perform particular functions, such as red blood
cells? that carry oxygen around our bodies in the blood, but they are unable to divide.
 Stem cells provide new cells for the body as it grows, and replace specialised
cells that are damaged or lost. They have two unique properties that enable them to do
this:
o They can divide over and over again to produce new cells.
o As they divide, they can change into the other types of cell that make up
the body.

Different types of stem cell

 There are three main types of stem cell:

o embryonic stem cells
o adult stem cells
o induced pluripotent stem cells

Embryonic stem cells

 Embryonic stem cells supply new cells for an embryo? as it grows and develops
into a baby.
 These stem cells are said to be pluripotent, which means they can change into
any cell in the body.

Adult stem cells

 Adult stem cells supply new cells as an organism grows and to replace cells that
get damaged.
 Adult stem cells are said to be multipotent, which means they can only change
into some cells in the body, not any cell, for example:
o Blood (or 'haematopoietic') stem cells can only replace the various types
of cells in the blood.
o Skin (or 'epithelial') stem cells provide the different types of cells that make
up our skin and hair.

Induced pluripotent stem cells

 Induced pluripotent stem cells, or ‘iPS cells’, are stem cells that scientists make
in the laboratory.
 ‘Induced’ means that they are made in the lab by taking normal adult cells, like
skin or blood cells, and reprogramming them to become stem cells.
 Just like embryonic stem cells, they are pluripotent so they can develop into any
cell type.

Why are stem cells useful?

 Stem cells have several uses including:

o research – to help us understand the basic biology of how living things
work and what happens in different types of cell during disease.
o therapy – to replace lost or damaged cells that our bodies can’t replace
naturally.

Stem cell research

 Research is looking to better understand the properties of stem cells so that we

can:
o understand how our bodies grow and develop
o find ways of using stem cells to replace cells or tissues? that have been
damaged or lost.
 We can use stem cells to study how cells become specialised for specific
functions in the body, and what happens when this process goes wrong in disease.
 If we understand stem cell development, we may be able to replicate this process
to create new cells, tissues and organs?.
 We can grow tissue and organ structures from stem cells, which can then be
studied to find out how they function and how they are affected by different drugs?.

Stem cell therapy

 Cells, tissues and organs can sometimes be permanently damaged or lost by

disease, injury and genetic conditions?.
 Stem cells may be one way of generating new cells that can then be transplanted
into the body to replace those that are damaged or lost.
 Adult stem cells are currently used to treat some conditions, for example:
o Blood stem cells are used to provide a source of healthy blood cells for
people with some blood conditions, such as thalassaemia, and cancer patients who
have lost their own blood stem cells during treatment.
o Skin stem cells can be used to generate new skin for people with severe
burns.
 Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is an example of a disease where stem
cells could be used as a new form of treatment in the future:
o Some people with age-related macular degeneration lose their sight
because cells in the retina? of the eye called retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) cells stop
working.
o Scientists are using induced pluripotent stem cells to produce new RPE
cells in the lab that can then be put into a patient’s eye to replace the damaged cells

 Stem cells could be used to generate new organs for use in transplants:
o Currently, damaged organs can be replaced by obtaining healthy organs
from a donor, however donated organs may be 'rejected' by the body as the immune
system sees it as something that is foreign.
o Induced pluripotent stem cells generated from the patient themselves
could be used to grow new organs that would have a lower risk of being rejected.
o
How do you generate induced pluripotent stem cells?

 Signals in the body tell a cell what type of specialised cell it should be by
switching some genes? on and some genes off.
 To generate induced pluripotent stem cells, scientists re-introduce the signals
that normally tell stem cells to stay as stem cells in the early embryo. These switch off
any genes that tell the cell to be specialised, and switch on genes that tell the cell to be
a stem cell.

Stem cells are cells with the potential to develop into many different types of cells in the
body. They serve as a repair system for the body. There are two main types of stem
cells: embryonic stem cells and adult stem cells.

Stem cells are different from other cells in the body in three ways:

1. They can divide and renew themselves over a long time

2. They are unspecialized, so they cannot do specific functions in the body
3. They have the potential to become specialized cells, such as muscle cells, blood
cells, and brain cells

Doctors and scientists are excited about stem cells because they could help in many
different areas of health and medical research. Studying stem cells may help explain
how serious conditions such as birth defects and cancer come about. Stem cells may
one day be used to make cells and tissues for therapy of many diseases. Examples
include Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, spinal cord injury, heart disease,
diabetes, and arthritis.

CLIMATE CHANGE

This graph, based on the comparison of atmospheric samples contained in ice cores
and more recent direct measurements, provides evidence that atmospheric CO 2 has
increased since the Industrial Revolution. (Credit: Luthi, D., et al.. 2008; Etheridge,
D.M., et al. 2010; Vostok ice core data/J.R. Petit et al.; NOAA Mauna Loa CO2 record.)

The Earth's climate has changed throughout history. Just in the last 650,000
years there have been seven cycles of glacial advance and retreat, with the abrupt end
of the last ice age about 7,000 years ago marking the beginning of the modern climate
era — and of human civilization. Most of these climate changes are attributed to very
small variations in Earth’s orbit that change the amount of solar energy our planet
receives.

The current warming trend is of particular significance because most of it is

extremely likely (greater than 95 percent probability) to be the result of human activity
since the mid-20th century and proceeding at a rate that is unprecedented over
decades to millennia.

Earth-orbiting satellites and other technological advances have enabled

scientists to see the big picture, collecting many different types of information about our
planet and its climate on a global scale. This body of data, collected over many years,
reveals the signals of a changing climate.

The heat-trapping nature of carbon dioxide and other gases was demonstrated in
the mid-19th century. Their ability to affect the transfer of infrared energy through the
atmosphere is the scientific basis of many instruments flown by NASA. There is no
question that increased levels of greenhouse gases must cause the Earth to warm in
response.

Ice cores drawn from Greenland, Antarctica, and tropical mountain glaciers show
that the Earth’s climate responds to changes in greenhouse gas levels. Ancient
evidence can also be found in tree rings, ocean sediments, coral reefs, and layers of
sedimentary rocks. This ancient, or paleoclimate, evidence reveals that current warming
is occurring roughly ten times faster than the average rate of ice-age-recovery warming.

The evidence for rapid climate change is compelling:

 Global Temperature Rise

The planet's average surface temperature has risen about 1.62 degrees
Fahrenheit (0.9 degrees Celsius) since the late 19th century, a change driven largely by
increased carbon dioxide and other human-made emissions into the atmosphere.4 Most
of the warming occurred in the past 35 years, with the five warmest years on record
taking place since 2010. Not only was 2016 the warmest year on record, but eight of the
12 months that make up the year — from January through September, with the
exception of June — were the warmest on record for those respective months.

 Warming Oceans

The oceans have absorbed much of this increased heat, with the top 700 meters
(about 2,300 feet) of ocean showing warming of more than 0.4 degrees Fahrenheit since
1969.

 Shrinking Ice Sheets

The Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets have decreased in mass. Data from
NASA's Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment show Greenland lost an average of
286 billion tons of ice per year between 1993 and 2016, while Antarctica lost about 127
billion tons of ice per year during the same time period. The rate of Antarctica ice mass
loss has tripled in the last decade.

 Glacial Retreat

Glaciers are retreating almost everywhere around the world — including in the
Alps, Himalayas, Andes, Rockies, Alaska and Africa

 Decreased Snow Cover

Satellite observations reveal that the amount of spring snow cover in the Northern
Hemisphere has decreased over the past five decades and that the snow is melting
earlier.
  Sea Level Rise

Global sea level rose about 8 inches in the last century. The rate in the last two
decades, however, is nearly double that of the last century and is accelerating slightly
every year.

 Declining Arctic Sea Ice

Both the extent and thickness of Arctic sea ice has declined rapidly over the last
several decades.

 Extreme Events

The number of record high temperature events in the United States has been
increasing, while the number of record low temperature events has been decreasing,
since 1950. The U.S. has also witnessed increasing numbers of intense rainfall events.

 Ocean Acidification

Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, the acidity of surface ocean
waters has increased by about 30 percent.13,14 This increase is the result of humans
emitting more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and hence more being absorbed into
the oceans. The amount of carbon dioxide absorbed by the upper layer of the oceans is
increasing by about 2 billion tons per year.

RENEWABLE ENERGY

What is renewable energy?

Renewable energy is energy from sources that are naturally replenishing but flow-
limited; renewable resources are virtually inexhaustible in duration but limited in the
amount of energy that is available per unit of time.
The major types of renewable energy sources are:

Biomass

Wood and wood waste

Municipal solid waste

Landfill gas and biogas

Ethanol

Biodiesel

Hydropower

Geothermal

Wind

Solar

Renewable power is booming, as innovation brings down costs and starts to

deliver on the promise of a clean energy future. American solar and wind generation are
breaking records and being integrat into the national electricity grid without
compromising reliability.

This means that renewables are increasingly displacing “dirty” fossil fuels in the
power sector, offering the benefit of lower emissions of carbon and other types of
pollution. But not all sources of energy marketed as “renewable” are beneficial to the
environment. Biomass and large hydroelectric dams create difficult tradeoffs when
considering the impact on wildlife, climate change, and other issues. Here’s what you
should know about the different types of renewable energy sources—and how you can
use these emerging technologies at your own home.
What Is Renewable Energy?

Renewable energy, often referred to as clean energy, comes from natural

sources or processes that are constantly replenished. For example, sunlight or wind
keep shining and blowing, even if their availability depends on time and weather.

While renewable energy is often thought of as a new technology, harnessing

nature’s power has long been used for heating, transportation, lighting, and more. Wind
has powered boats to sail the seas and windmills to grind grain. The sun has provided
warmth during the day and helped kindle fires to last into the evening. But over the past
500 years or so, humans increasingly turned to cheaper, dirtier energy sources such as
coal and fracked gas.

Now that we have increasingly innovative and less-expensive ways to capture

and retain wind and solar energy, renewables are becoming a more important power
source, accounting for more than one-eighth of U.S. generation. The expansion in
renewables is also happening at scales large and small, from rooftop solar panels on
homes that can sell power back to the grid to giant offshore wind farms. Even some
entire rural communities rely on renewable energy for heating and lighting.

As renewable use continues to grow, a key goal will be to modernize America’s

electricity grid, making it smarter, more secure, and better integrated across regions.

Dirty energy

Nonrenewable, or “dirty,” energy includes fossil fuels such as oil, gas, and
coal. Nonrenewable sources of energy are only available in limited amounts and take a
long time to replenish. When we pump gas at the station, we’re using a finite resource
refined from crude oil that’s been around since prehistoric times.
 Nonrenewable energy sources are also typically found in specific parts of the
world, making them more plentiful in some nations than others. By contrast, every
country has access to sunshine and wind. Prioritizing nonrenewable energy can
also improve national security by reducing a country’s reliance on exports from fossil
fuel–rich nations.

Many nonrenewable energy sources can endanger the environment or human

health. For example, oil drilling might require strip-mining Canada’s boreal forest, the
technology associated with fracking can cause earthquakes and water pollution,
and coal power plants foul the air. To top it off, all these activities contribute to global
warming.

Types of Renewable Energy Sources

 Solar Energy

Humans have been harnessing solar energy for thousands of years—to grow
crops, stay warm, and dry foods. According to the National Renewable Energy
Laboratory, “more energy from the sun falls on the earth in one hour than is used by
everyone in the world in one year.” Today, we use the sun’s rays in many ways—to heat
homes and businesses, to warm water, or power devices.

Solar, or photovoltaic (PV), cells are made from silicon or other materials that
transform sunlight directly into electricity. Distributed solar systems generate electricity
locally for homes and businesses, either through rooftop panels or community projects
that power entire neighborhoods. Solar farms can generate power for thousands of
homes, using mirrors to concentrate sunlight across acres of solar cells. Floating solar
farms—or “floatovoltaics”—can be an effective use of wastewater facilities and bodies of
water that aren’t ecologically sensitive.

Solar supplies a little more than 1 percent of U.S. electricity generation. But nearly a
third of all new generating capacity came from solar in 2017, second only to natural gas.

Solar energy systems don’t produce air pollutants or greenhouse gases, and as long as
they are responsibly sited, most solar panels have few environmental impacts
beyond the manufacturing process.

 Wind Energy

We’ve come a long way from old-fashioned wind mills. Today, turbines as tall as
skyscrapers—with turbines nearly as wide in diameter—stand at attention around the
world. Wind energy turns a turbine’s blades, which feeds an electric generator and
produces electricity.

Wind, which accounts for a little more than 6 percent of U.S. generation, has become
the cheapest energy source in many parts of the country. Top wind power states include
California, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Iowa, though turbines can be placed
anywhere with high wind speeds—such as hilltops and open plains—or even offshore in
open water.

Other Alternative Energy Sources

 Hydroelectric Power
 Hydropower is the largest renewable energy source for electricity in the United
States, though wind energy is soon expected to take over the lead. Hydropower relies
on water—typically fast-moving water in a large river or rapidly descending water from a
high point—and converts the force of that water into electricity by spinning a generator’s
turbine blades.

Nationally and internationally, large hydroelectric plants—or mega-dams—are

often considered to be nonrenewable energy. Mega-dams divert and reduce natural
flows, restricting access for animal and human populations that rely on rivers. Small
hydroelectric plants (an installed capacity below about 40 megawatts), carefully
managed, do not tend to cause as much environmental damage, as they divert only a
fraction of flow.

NANOTECHNOLOGY
 Nanotechnology, the manipulation and manufacture of materials and devices on
the scale of atoms or small groups of atoms. The “nanoscale” is typically measured in
nanometres, or billionths of a metre (nanos, the Greek word for “dwarf,” being the
source of the prefix), and materials built at this scale often exhibit distinctive physical
and chemical properties due to quantum mechanical effects. Although usable devices
this small may be decades away (see microelectromechanical system), techniques for
working at the nanoscale have become essential to electronic engineering, and
nanoengineered materials have begun to appear in consumer products. For example,
billions of microscopic “nanowhiskers,” each about 10 nanometres in length, have been
molecularly hooked onto natural and synthetic fibres to impart stain resistance to
clothing and other fabrics; zinc oxide nanocrystals have been used to create invisible
sunscreens that block ultraviolet light; and silver nanocrystals have been embeddedd in
bandages to kill bacteria and prevent infection.

Possibilities for the future are numerous. Nanotechnology may make it possible
to manufacture lighter, stronger, and programmable materials that require less energy
to produce than conventional materials, that produce less waste than with conventional
manufacturing, and that promise greater fuel efficiency in land transportation, ships,
aircraft, and space vehicles. Nanocoatings for both opaque and translucent surfaces
may render them resistant to corrosion, scratches, and radiation. Nanoscale electronic,
magnetic, and mechanical devices and systems with unprecedented levels of
information processing may be fabricated, as may chemical, photochemical, and
biological sensors for protection, health care, manufacturing, and the environment; new
photoelectric materials that will enable the manufacture of cost-efficient solar-energy
panels; and molecular-semiconductor hybrid devices that may become engines for the
next revolution in the information age. The potential for improvements in health, safety,
quality of life, and conservation of the environment are vast.

At the same time, significant challenges must be overcome for the benefits of
nanotechnology to be realized. Scientists must learn how to manipulate and
characterize individual atoms and small groups of atoms reliably. New and improved
tools are needed to control the properties and structure of materials at the nanoscale;
significant improvements in computer simulations of atomic and molecular structures
are essential to the understanding of this realm. Next, new tools and approaches are
needed for assembling atoms and molecules into nanoscale systems and for the further
assembly of small systems into more-complex objects. Furthermore, nanotechnology
products must provide not only improved performance but also lower cost. Finally,
without integration of nanoscale objects with systems at the micro- and macroscale (that
is, from millionths of a metre up to the millimetre scale), it will be very difficult to exploit
many of the unique properties found at the nanoscale.

Nanotechnology is highly interdisciplinary, involving physics, chemistry, biology,

materials science, and the full range of the engineering disciplines. The word
nanotechnology is widely used as shorthand to refer to both the science and the
technology of this emerging field. Narrowly defined, nanoscience concerns a basic
understanding of physical, chemical, and biological properties on atomic and near-
atomic scales. Nanotechnology, narrowly defined, employs controlled manipulation of
these properties to create materials and functional systems with unique capabilities.

In contrast to recent engineering efforts, nature developed “nanotechnologies”

over billions of years, employing enzymes and catalysts to organize with exquisite
precision different kinds of atoms and molecules into complex microscopic structures
that make life possible. These natural products are built with great efficiency and have
impressive capabilities, such as the power to harvest solar energy, to convert minerals
and water into living cells, to store and process massive amounts of data using large
arrays of nerve cells, and to replicate perfectly billions of bits of information stored in
molecules of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA).

There are two principal reasons for qualitative differences in material behaviour
at the nanoscale (traditionally defined as less than 100 nanometres). First, quantum
mechanical effects come into play at very small dimensions and lead to new physics
and chemistry. Second, a defining feature at the nanoscale is the very large surface-to-
volume ratio of these structures. This means that no atom is very far from a surface or
interface, and the behaviour of atoms at these higher-energy sites have a significant
influence on the properties of the material. For example, the reactivity of a metal
catalyst particle generally increases appreciably as its size is reduced—macroscopic
gold is chemically inert, whereas at nanoscales gold becomes extremely reactive and
catalytic and even melts at a lower temperature. Thus, at nanoscale dimensions
material properties depend on and change with size, as well as composition and
structure.

Using the processes of nanotechnology, basic industrial production may veer

dramatically from the course followed by steel plants and chemical factories of the past.
Raw materials will come from the atoms of abundant elements—carbon, hydrogen, and
silicon—and these will be manipulated into precise configurations to create
nanostructured materials that exhibit exactly the right properties for each particular
application. For example, carbon atoms can be bonded together in a number of different
geometries to create variously a fibre, a tube, a molecular coating, or a wire, all with the
superior strength-to-weight ratio of another carbon material—diamond. Additionally,
such material processing need not require smokestacks, power-hungry industrial
machinery, or intensive human labour. Instead, it may be accomplished either by
“growing” new structures through some combination of chemical catalysts and synthetic
enzymes or by building them through new techniques based on patterning and self-
assembly of nanoscale materials into useful predetermined designs. Nanotechnology
ultimately may allow people to fabricate almost any type of material or product allowable
under the laws of physics and chemistry. While such possibilities seem remote, even
approaching nature’s virtuosity in energy-efficient fabrication would be revolutionary.

Even more revolutionary would be the fabrication of nanoscale machines and

devices for incorporation into micro- and macroscale systems. Once again, nature has
led the way with the fabrication of both linear and rotary molecular motors. These
biological machines carry out such tasks as muscle contraction (in organisms ranging
from clams to humans) and shuttling little packets of material around within cells while
being powered by the recyclable, energy-efficient fuel adenosine triphosphate.
Scientists are only beginning to develop the tools to fabricate functioning systems at
such small scales, with most advances based on electronic or magnetic information
processing and storage systems. The energy-efficient, reconfigurable, and self-repairing
aspects of biological systems are just becoming understood.

The potential impact of nanotechnology processes, machines, and products is

expected to be far-reaching, affecting nearly every conceivable information technology,
energy source, agricultural product, medical device, pharmaceutical, and material used
in manufacturing. Meanwhile, the dimensions of electronic circuits on semiconductors
continue to shrink, with minimum feature sizes now reaching the nanorealm, under 100
nanometres. Likewise, magnetic memory materials, which form the basis of hard disk
drives, have achieved dramatically greater memory density as a result of nanoscale
structuring to exploit new magnetic effects at nanodimensions. These latter two areas
represent another major trend, the evolution of critical elements of microtechnology into
the realm of nanotechnology to enhance performance. They are immense markets
driven by the rapid advance of information technology.
 In a lecture in 1959 to the American Physical Society, “There’s Plenty of Room at
the Bottom,” American Nobelist Richard P. Feynman presented his audience with a
vision of what could be done with extreme miniaturization. He began his lecture by
noting that the Lord’s Prayer had been written on the head of a pin and asked,

Feynman was intrigued by biology and pointed out that

Cells are very tiny, but they are very active; they manufacture various
substances; they walk around; they wiggle; and they do all kinds of marvelous things—
all on a very small scale. Also, they store information. Consider the possibility that we
too can make a thing very small which does what we want—that we can manufacture
an object that maneuvers at that level!

He also considered using big tools to make smaller tools that could make yet
smaller tools, eventually obtaining nanoscale tools for directly manipulating atoms and
molecules. In considering what all this might mean, Feynman declared,

I can hardly doubt that when we have some control of the arrangement of things
on a small scale we will get an enormously greater range of possible properties that
substances can have, and of different things that we can do.

Perhaps the biggest barrier to following these prophetic thoughts was simply the
immediate lack of tools to manipulate and visualize matter at such a small scale. The
availability of tools has always been an enabling aspect of the advance of all science
and technology, and some of the key tools for nanotechnology are discussed in the next
section, Pioneers.

Starting with a 1981 paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of

Sciences and following with two popular books, Engines of Creation (1986) and
Nanosystems (1992), American scientist K. Eric Drexler became one of the foremost
advocates of nanotechnology. In fact, Drexler was the first person anywhere to receive
a Ph.D. in molecular nanotechnology (from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology).
In his written works he takes a molecular view of the world and envisions molecular
machines doing much of the work of the future. For example, he refers to “assemblers,”
which will manipulate individual atoms to manufacture structures, and “replicators,”
which will be able to make multiple copies of themselves in order to save time dealing
with the billions of atoms needed to make objects of useful size. In an article for
Encyclopædia Britannica’s 1990 Yearbook of Science and the Future, Drexler wrote:

Cells and tissues in the human body are built and maintained by molecular
machinery, but sometimes that machinery proves inadequate: viruses multiply, cancer
cells spread, or systems age and deteriorate. As one might expect, new molecular
machines and computers of subcellular size could support the body’s own mechanisms.
Devices containing nanocomputers interfaced to molecular sensors and effectors could
serve as an augmented immune system, searching out and destroying viruses and
cancer cells. Similar devices programmed as repair machines could enter living cells to
edit out viral DNA sequences and repair molecular damage. Such machines would bring
surgical control to the molecular level, opening broad new horizons in medicine.

Drexler’s futurist visions have stimulated much thought, but the assembler
approach has failed to account for the strong influence of atomic and molecular forces
(i.e., the chemistry) at such dimensions. The controversy surrounding these
popularizations, and the potential dangers of entities such as intelligent replicators
(however remote), have stimulated debate over the ethical and societal implications of
nanotechnology.

Pioneers

A number of key technological milestones have been achieved by working

pioneers. Molecular beam epitaxy, invented by Alfred Cho and John Arthur at Bell Labs
in 1968 and developed in the 1970s, enabled the controlled deposition of single atomic
layers. This tool provided for nanostructuring in one dimension as atomic layers were
grown one upon the next. It subsequently became important in the area of compound
semiconductor device fabrication. For example, sandwiching one-nanometre-thick
layers of nonmagnetic-sensor materials between magnetic layers in computer disk
drives resulted in large increases in storage capacity, and a similar use of
nanostructuring resulted in more energy-efficient semiconductor lasers for use in
compact disc players.
 In 1981 Gerd Binnig and Heinrich Rohrer developed the scanning tunneling
microscope at IBM’s laboratories in Switzerland. This tool provided a revolutionary
advance by enabling scientists to image the position of individual atoms on surfaces. It
earned Binnig and Rohrer a Nobel Prize in 1986 and spawned a wide variety of
scanning probe tools for nanoscale observations.

The observation of new carbon structures marked another important milestone in

the advance of nanotechnology, with Nobel Prizes for the discoverers. In 1985 Robert
F. Curl, Jr., Harold W. Kroto, and Richard E. Smalley discovered the first fullerene, the
third known form of pure carbon (after diamond and graphite). They named their
discovery buckminsterfullerene (“buckyball”) for its resemblance to the geodesic domes
promoted by the American architect R. Buckminster Fuller. Technically called C60 for
the 60 carbon atoms that form their hollow spherical structure, buckyballs resemble a
football one nanometre in diameter (see figure). In 1991 Sumio Iijima of NEC
Corporation in Japan discovered carbon nanotubes, in which the carbon ringlike
structures are extended from spheres into long tubes of varying diameter. Taken
together, these new structures surprised and excited the imaginations of scientists
about the possibilities of forming well-defined nanostructures with unexpected new
properties.

STEMCELL

What is a stem cell?

A stem cell is a cell with the unique ability to develop into specialised cell types in the
body. In the future they may be used to replace cells and tissues that have been
damaged or lost due to disease.

What is a stem cell?

 Our body is made up of many different types of cell?.

 Most cells are specialised to perform particular functions, such as red blood
cells? that carry oxygen around our bodies in the blood, but they are unable to divide.
 Stem cells provide new cells for the body as it grows, and replace specialised
cells that are damaged or lost. They have two unique properties that enable them to do
this:
o They can divide over and over again to produce new cells.
o As they divide, they can change into the other types of cell that make up
the body.

Different types of stem cell

 There are three main types of stem cell:

o embryonic stem cells
o adult stem cells
o induced pluripotent stem cells

Embryonic stem cells

 Embryonic stem cells supply new cells for an embryo? as it grows and develops
into a baby.
 These stem cells are said to be pluripotent, which means they can change into
any cell in the body.

Adult stem cells

 Adult stem cells supply new cells as an organism grows and to replace cells that
get damaged.
 Adult stem cells are said to be multipotent, which means they can only change
into some cells in the body, not any cell, for example:
o Blood (or 'haematopoietic') stem cells can only replace the various types
of cells in the blood.
o Skin (or 'epithelial') stem cells provide the different types of cells that make
up our skin and hair.

Induced pluripotent stem cells

 Induced pluripotent stem cells, or ‘iPS cells’, are stem cells that scientists make
in the laboratory.
 ‘Induced’ means that they are made in the lab by taking normal adult cells, like
skin or blood cells, and reprogramming them to become stem cells.
 Just like embryonic stem cells, they are pluripotent so they can develop into any
cell type.

Why are stem cells useful?

 Stem cells have several uses including:

o research – to help us understand the basic biology of how living things
work and what happens in different types of cell during disease.
o therapy – to replace lost or damaged cells that our bodies can’t replace
naturally.

Stem cell research

 Research is looking to better understand the properties of stem cells so that we

can:
o understand how our bodies grow and develop
o find ways of using stem cells to replace cells or tissues? that have been
damaged or lost.
 We can use stem cells to study how cells become specialised for specific
functions in the body, and what happens when this process goes wrong in disease.
 If we understand stem cell development, we may be able to replicate this process
to create new cells, tissues and organs?.
 We can grow tissue and organ structures from stem cells, which can then be
studied to find out how they function and how they are affected by different drugs?.

Stem cell therapy

 Cells, tissues and organs can sometimes be permanently damaged or lost by

disease, injury and genetic conditions?.
 Stem cells may be one way of generating new cells that can then be transplanted
into the body to replace those that are damaged or lost.
 Adult stem cells are currently used to treat some conditions, for example:
o Blood stem cells are used to provide a source of healthy blood cells for
people with some blood conditions, such as thalassaemia, and cancer patients who
have lost their own blood stem cells during treatment.
o Skin stem cells can be used to generate new skin for people with severe
burns.
 Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is an example of a disease where stem
cells could be used as a new form of treatment in the future:
o Some people with age-related macular degeneration lose their sight
because cells in the retina? of the eye called retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) cells stop
working.
o Scientists are using induced pluripotent stem cells to produce new RPE
cells in the lab that can then be put into a patient’s eye to replace the damaged cells

 Stem cells could be used to generate new organs for use in transplants:
o Currently, damaged organs can be replaced by obtaining healthy organs
from a donor, however donated organs may be 'rejected' by the body as the immune
system sees it as something that is foreign.
o Induced pluripotent stem cells generated from the patient themselves
could be used to grow new organs that would have a lower risk of being rejected.
o
How do you generate induced pluripotent stem cells?

 Signals in the body tell a cell what type of specialised cell it should be by
switching some genes? on and some genes off.
 To generate induced pluripotent stem cells, scientists re-introduce the signals
that normally tell stem cells to stay as stem cells in the early embryo. These switch off
any genes that tell the cell to be specialised, and switch on genes that tell the cell to be
a stem cell.

Stem cells are cells with the potential to develop into many different types of cells in the
body. They serve as a repair system for the body. There are two main types of stem
cells: embryonic stem cells and adult stem cells.

Stem cells are different from other cells in the body in three ways:

4. They can divide and renew themselves over a long time

5. They are unspecialized, so they cannot do specific functions in the body
6. They have the potential to become specialized cells, such as muscle cells, blood
cells, and brain cells

Doctors and scientists are excited about stem cells because they could help in many
different areas of health and medical research. Studying stem cells may help explain
how serious conditions such as birth defects and cancer come about. Stem cells may
one day be used to make cells and tissues for therapy of many diseases. Examples
include Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, spinal cord injury, heart disease,
diabetes, and arthritis.

CLIMATE CHANGE
This graph, based on the comparison of atmospheric samples contained in ice cores
and more recent direct measurements, provides evidence that atmospheric CO 2 has
increased since the Industrial Revolution. (Credit: Luthi, D., et al.. 2008; Etheridge,
D.M., et al. 2010; Vostok ice core data/J.R. Petit et al.; NOAA Mauna Loa CO 2 record.)

The Earth's climate has changed throughout history. Just in the last 650,000
years there have been seven cycles of glacial advance and retreat, with the abrupt end
of the last ice age about 7,000 years ago marking the beginning of the modern climate
era — and of human civilization. Most of these climate changes are attributed to very
small variations in Earth’s orbit that change the amount of solar energy our planet
receives.

The current warming trend is of particular significance because most of it is

extremely likely (greater than 95 percent probability) to be the result of human activity
since the mid-20th century and proceeding at a rate that is unprecedented over
decades to millennia.

Earth-orbiting satellites and other technological advances have enabled

scientists to see the big picture, collecting many different types of information about our
planet and its climate on a global scale. This body of data, collected over many years,
reveals the signals of a changing climate.

The heat-trapping nature of carbon dioxide and other gases was demonstrated in
the mid-19th century. Their ability to affect the transfer of infrared energy through the
atmosphere is the scientific basis of many instruments flown by NASA. There is no
question that increased levels of greenhouse gases must cause the Earth to warm in
response.

Ice cores drawn from Greenland, Antarctica, and tropical mountain glaciers show
that the Earth’s climate responds to changes in greenhouse gas levels. Ancient
evidence can also be found in tree rings, ocean sediments, coral reefs, and layers of
sedimentary rocks. This ancient, or paleoclimate, evidence reveals that current warming
is occurring roughly ten times faster than the average rate of ice-age-recovery warming.

The evidence for rapid climate change is compelling:

 Global Temperature Rise

The planet's average surface temperature has risen about 1.62 degrees
Fahrenheit (0.9 degrees Celsius) since the late 19th century, a change driven largely by
increased carbon dioxide and other human-made emissions into the atmosphere.4 Most
of the warming occurred in the past 35 years, with the five warmest years on record
taking place since 2010. Not only was 2016 the warmest year on record, but eight of the
12 months that make up the year — from January through September, with the
exception of June — were the warmest on record for those respective months.

 Warming Oceans

The oceans have absorbed much of this increased heat, with the top 700 meters
(about 2,300 feet) of ocean showing warming of more than 0.4 degrees Fahrenheit since
1969.

 Shrinking Ice Sheets

The Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets have decreased in mass. Data from
NASA's Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment show Greenland lost an average of
286 billion tons of ice per year between 1993 and 2016, while Antarctica lost about 127
billion tons of ice per year during the same time period. The rate of Antarctica ice mass
loss has tripled in the last decade.

 Glacial Retreat

Glaciers are retreating almost everywhere around the world — including in the
Alps, Himalayas, Andes, Rockies, Alaska and Africa

 Decreased Snow Cover

 Satellite observations reveal that the amount of spring snow cover in the Northern
Hemisphere has decreased over the past five decades and that the snow is melting
earlier.

 Sea Level Rise

Global sea level rose about 8 inches in the last century. The rate in the last two
decades, however, is nearly double that of the last century and is accelerating slightly
every year.

 Declining Arctic Sea Ice

Both the extent and thickness of Arctic sea ice has declined rapidly over the last
several decades.

 Extreme Events

The number of record high temperature events in the United States has been
increasing, while the number of record low temperature events has been decreasing,
since 1950. The U.S. has also witnessed increasing numbers of intense rainfall events.

 Ocean Acidification

Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, the acidity of surface ocean
waters has increased by about 30 percent.13,14 This increase is the result of humans
emitting more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and hence more being absorbed into
the oceans. The amount of carbon dioxide absorbed by the upper layer of the oceans is
increasing by about 2 billion tons per year.

RENEWABLE ENERGY

What is renewable energy?

 Renewable energy is energy from sources that are naturally replenishing but flow-
limited; renewable resources are virtually inexhaustible in duration but limited in the
amount of energy that is available per unit of time.

The major types of renewable energy sources are:

Biomass

Wood and wood waste

Municipal solid waste

Landfill gas and biogas

Ethanol

Biodiesel

Hydropower

Geothermal

Wind

Solar

Renewable power is booming, as innovation brings down costs and starts to

deliver on the promise of a clean energy future. American solar and wind generation are
breaking records and being integrat into the national electricity grid without
compromising reliability.

This means that renewables are increasingly displacing “dirty” fossil fuels in the
power sector, offering the benefit of lower emissions of carbon and other types of
pollution. But not all sources of energy marketed as “renewable” are beneficial to the
environment. Biomass and large hydroelectric dams create difficult tradeoffs when
considering the impact on wildlife, climate change, and other issues. Here’s what you
should know about the different types of renewable energy sources—and how you can
use these emerging technologies at your own home.

What Is Renewable Energy?

Renewable energy, often referred to as clean energy, comes from natural

sources or processes that are constantly replenished. For example, sunlight or wind
keep shining and blowing, even if their availability depends on time and weather.

While renewable energy is often thought of as a new technology, harnessing

nature’s power has long been used for heating, transportation, lighting, and more. Wind
has powered boats to sail the seas and windmills to grind grain. The sun has provided
warmth during the day and helped kindle fires to last into the evening. But over the past
500 years or so, humans increasingly turned to cheaper, dirtier energy sources such as
coal and fracked gas.

Now that we have increasingly innovative and less-expensive ways to capture

and retain wind and solar energy, renewables are becoming a more important power
source, accounting for more than one-eighth of U.S. generation. The expansion in
renewables is also happening at scales large and small, from rooftop solar panels on
homes that can sell power back to the grid to giant offshore wind farms. Even some
entire rural communities rely on renewable energy for heating and lighting.

As renewable use continues to grow, a key goal will be to modernize America’s

electricity grid, making it smarter, more secure, and better integrated across regions.

Dirty energy
 Nonrenewable, or “dirty,” energy includes fossil fuels such as oil, gas, and
coal. Nonrenewable sources of energy are only available in limited amounts and take a
long time to replenish. When we pump gas at the station, we’re using a finite resource
refined from crude oil that’s been around since prehistoric times.

Nonrenewable energy sources are also typically found in specific parts of the
world, making them more plentiful in some nations than others. By contrast, every
country has access to sunshine and wind. Prioritizing nonrenewable energy can
also improve national security by reducing a country’s reliance on exports from fossil
fuel–rich nations.

Many nonrenewable energy sources can endanger the environment or human

health. For example, oil drilling might require strip-mining Canada’s boreal forest, the
technology associated with fracking can cause earthquakes and water pollution,
and coal power plants foul the air. To top it off, all these activities contribute to global
warming.

Types of Renewable Energy Sources

 Solar Energy

Humans have been harnessing solar energy for thousands of years—to grow
crops, stay warm, and dry foods. According to the National Renewable Energy
Laboratory, “more energy from the sun falls on the earth in one hour than is used by
everyone in the world in one year.” Today, we use the sun’s rays in many ways—to heat
homes and businesses, to warm water, or power devices.
 Solar, or photovoltaic (PV), cells are made from silicon or other materials that
transform sunlight directly into electricity. Distributed solar systems generate electricity
locally for homes and businesses, either through rooftop panels or community projects
that power entire neighborhoods. Solar farms can generate power for thousands of
homes, using mirrors to concentrate sunlight across acres of solar cells. Floating solar
farms—or “floatovoltaics”—can be an effective use of wastewater facilities and bodies of
water that aren’t ecologically sensitive.

Solar supplies a little more than 1 percent of U.S. electricity generation. But nearly a
third of all new generating capacity came from solar in 2017, second only to natural gas.

Solar energy systems don’t produce air pollutants or greenhouse gases, and as long as
they are responsibly sited, most solar panels have few environmental impacts
beyond the manufacturing process.

 Wind Energy

We’ve come a long way from old-fashioned wind mills. Today, turbines as tall as
skyscrapers—with turbines nearly as wide in diameter—stand at attention around the
world. Wind energy turns a turbine’s blades, which feeds an electric generator and
produces electricity.

Wind, which accounts for a little more than 6 percent of U.S. generation, has become
the cheapest energy source in many parts of the country. Top wind power states include
California, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Iowa, though turbines can be placed
anywhere with high wind speeds—such as hilltops and open plains—or even offshore in
open water.

Other Alternative Energy Sources

 Hydroelectric Power

Hydropower is the largest renewable energy source for electricity in the United
States, though wind energy is soon expected to take over the lead. Hydropower relies
on water—typically fast-moving water in a large river or rapidly descending water from a
high point—and converts the force of that water into electricity by spinning a generator’s
turbine blades.

Nationally and internationally, large hydroelectric plants—or mega-dams—are

often considered to be nonrenewable energy. Mega-dams divert and reduce natural
flows, restricting access for animal and human populations that rely on rivers. Small
hydroelectric plants (an installed capacity below about 40 megawatts), carefully
managed, do not tend to cause as much environmental damage, as they divert only a
fraction of flow.