The word Nanotechnology refers to inventions and discoveries in the realm of the nanometer scale, usually 0.1 to 100 nm. NanoTech is poised to revolutionize our world. Just as the latter part of the 20th Century saw breakthroughs in electronics and computers, the first half of this century should see huge steps in nano-sciences.
With that in mind, working with Platinum nanowires 100 times thinner than a human hair - and using blood vessels as conduits to guide the wires - a team of U.S. and Japanese researchers has demonstrated a technique that may one day allow doctors to monitor individual brain cells and perhaps provide new treatments for neurological diseases such as Parkinson's:):).

Nanowires in the brain (Courtesy: PhysOrg)In the research, published in the Journal of Nanoparticle Research, the scientists explain how such thin wires can be used to directly interface with the neurons in our brain. The nanowires are even thinner than the thinnest capillaries and blood vessels, which makes it possible to thread them through our vascular system. The logic is similar to using catheters to transport nutrients, but at a much smaller scale, and with much higher focus and impact.
The team (Neuroscientist Rudolfo Llinas and his colleagues) describes a proof-of-principle experiment in which they first guided platinum nanowires into the vascular system of tissue samples, and then successfully used the wires to detect the activity of individual neurons lying adjacent to the blood vessels:):).
The technique could revolutionize medicine as we know it. The nanowires could, in principle, direct nutrients and chemicals to the areas of the body that need it. It could be used to direct chemicals to tumors, or neurotransmitters to the regions of the brain that need it.
However, the biggest challenge is to thread the nanowire to the exact place required. There are thousands of such blood vessels in the brain, and to navigate through them to the exact spot is a daunting task indeed! But the researchers have a possible solution:). It is to replace the platinum nanowires with new conducting polymer nanowires. Not only do the polymers conduct electrical impulses, conductive, they change shape in response to electric fields, which would allow the researchers to steer the nanowires through the brain's circulatory system. Polymer nanowires have the added benefit of being 20 to 30 times smaller than the platinum ones used in the reported laboratory experiments. They also will be biodegradable, and therefore suitable for short-term brain implants:):).
Who knows... perhaps this same technology can one day be adapted to interface our brains with computers. We will all be cyborgs then:D.