Notes on Nanofactories

In his latest CRN Science & Technology Essay, Chris Phoenix writes:

This month's science essay is prompted by several questions about nanofactories that I've received over the past few months. I'll discuss the way in which nanofactories combine nanoscale components into large integrated products; the reason why a nanofactory will probably take about an hour to make its weight in product; and how to cool a nanofactory effectively at such high production rates.

In current nanofactory designs, sub-micron components are made at individual workstations and then combined into a product. This requires some engineering above and beyond what would be needed to build a single workstation. . .

In the years I have spent thinking about nanofactory design, I have not encountered any problem that could not be addressed with standard engineering. Of course, engineering in a new domain will present substantial challenges and require a lot of work. However, it is not safe to assume that some unexpected problem will arise to delay nanofactory design and development. As work on enabling technologies progresses, it is becoming increasingly apparent that nanofactories can be addressed as an integration problem rather than a fundamental research problem. Although their capabilities seem futuristic, their technology may be available before most people expect it.

Read the full essay here.

Comments

[Rik]

Uh, I think I may have been a bit too harsh and, uhm, too ignorant. I do not have any academic degree, but I can read. I can certainly work myself, to a degree, through Ouellette's Chemistry book. So more people, and quite a number of laymen, will start experimenting with nanofactories, once there here.

The essays have been quite informative, but there's one thing missing. I like the description Chris gives of his thinking. Well, I was reading todays stuff at BetterHumans.com and in the post 'really negative ideas' there's a link to an interesting essay. I find its pessimism totally unwarranted, but I don't you can do much about it: as if people want to go down in flames. Anyway, the author says (p. 17) that the more know / have visualized any coming crisis, the easier they find it to confront it (when it arrives). Perhaps you should limit the scenario's to four and put a lot more detail into that. I think a lot of commenters would be willing to help...

[Chris Phoenix, CRN]

It's relatively easy to come up with scenarios. I think we could describe several scenarios that make people think. It's harder to justify them: to show that they really are likely. There were a lot of negative comments on the Betterhumans essay and I don't want to be written off that way.

Chris

[Rik]

Excuse me, 'written off that way'? A lot of negative comments? Seems to me most commenters were upset by the essay, because *it* was so negative.

[Chris Phoenix, CRN]

Sorry, yes, I meant the negative comments were on the Betterhumans site, directed at the essay linked from it.

Chris