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a carrier like the Amazon carrier system, shuttling drugs right to
a specifi c address or location in the body, and not to places that
you don’t want it to go to.” 17

Nanotechnology Enhances Diagnosis
Although these and other similar scientifi c teams have not yet
been completely successful in using nanoparticles to unclog
blocked arteries, new advances are occurring each year. As a
result, medical experts expect that success, which will revolu-
tionize cardiology, or heart medicine, to come sometime in the
2020s. Moreover, together the heart and ar-
teries constitute only one of many medical
teries constitute only one of many medical
areas in which nanotechnology will begin
areas in which nanotechnology will begin
to play a signifi cant role. According to El-
to play a signifi cant role. According to El- “Nanotechnology
eonore Pauwels of the Wilson Center medical developments
over the coming years
for scholarly research in Washington, will have a wide
DC, “Nanotechnology medical de- variety of uses.” 18
velopments over the coming years will
have a wide variety of uses [and] could
have a wide variety of uses [and] could — Eleonore Pauwels, Wilson
Center scholar
potentially save a great number of lives.” 18
potentially save a great number of lives.”
18
One medical ar
One medical area that has shown consid-ea that has shown consid-
erable promise for the use of nanotechnology
is diagnosis, or determining which disease or condition a person
has, based on his or her physical symptoms. As Northeastern
University scholar Thomas Webster explains, a diffi culty in tradi-
tional diagnosis is that “the symptoms of some conditions only
arise after a certain amount of time. By the time these symptoms
come to the surface, the underlying condition will have progressed
to a stage at which its treatment is much more complicated than
it would have been had the problem been discovered earlier.” 19
In contrast, using nanoparticles of various kinds can frequent-
ly speed up the diagnosis process, say a number of medical re-
searchers. One of them, R.K. Satvekar of India’s Patil University,
points out, “because of their small size, nanomaterials can readily
interact with” the molecules making up living tissue. That makes

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