Responsible Nanotechnology

Top-Bottom & Wet-Dry

The NIST press release that we wrote about on Tuesday contained this passage:

In his 1986 book, The Engines of Creation, K. Eric Drexler set down the long-term aim of nanotechnology—to create an assembler, a microscopic device, a robot, that could construct yet smaller devices from individual atoms and molecules.

For the last two decades, those researchers who recognized the potential have taken diminutive steps towards such a nanoassembler. Those taking the top-down approach have seen the manipulative power of the atomic force microscope (AFM), a machine that can observe and handle single atoms, as one solution. Those taking the bottom-up approach are using chemistry to build molecular machinery.

However, neither the top-down nor the bottom-up approach is yet to fulfill Drexler's prophecy of functional nanobots that can construct other machines on a scale of just a few billionths of a meter.

We can picture the top-down and bottom-up dichotomy this way:

Another way to illustrate different approaches being taken toward the goal of building a nanotech assembler (which CRN prefers to call a "fabricator") is Wet vs. Dry:

Some researchers favor the "wet-nano" approach, typically using self-assembly to make structures that can mimic biological behavior while accomplishing designed tasks. Others insist that the best way to arrive at a high-functioning atomically-precise molecular fabricator is to work in vacuum, which is called "dry-nano."

But the point of this blog entry is that all these approaches -- top-down, bottom-up, wet-nano, dry-nano -- are working toward the same end point. And while it's still not clear whether one or another of them is the best way to go, as each moves forward, they are in fact coming closer to convergence.

We can't say for sure how soon, but with all of the research going on today, it seems a near certainty that desktop nanofactories (or their equivalent) will be produced within the next decade or two. CRN's biggest concern is not whether they will become a reality, but what the effects will be upon the world and its inhabitants.

Numerous environmental, humanitarian, economic, military, political, social, medical, and ethical implications of molecular manufacturing must be studied and understood. Plans must be formulated for managing this transformative and potentially disruptive new technology. All that will take time, lots of time. We'd better get to work.

Mike Treder

 

Nano Machinery Motors

Products put together by a nanofactory (see here for some fun examples) can be expected to be far more powerful and sophisticated than today's best-built products.

One reason is that these products will be atomically-precise and effectively without flaws, meaning they will be far more durable and long-lasting. Another reason is that they will be constructed largely of diamondoid, giving them incredible strength and hardness, as well as flexibility. A third reason is that they can incorporate nano-built supercomputers, sensors, actuators, cameras, and other high-tech machinery.

But what will drive that machinery? What sort of tiny motors could be contained within these products?

Previously, we (and others) have written about using modular 'nanoblocks' as the basic building materials for nanofactory products:

There will be dozens or hundreds of nanoblock types, with each type parameterized to some extent. In a way, they might be very roughly analogous to the assembly language of a computer.

Some blocks might change dimension (actuators). Some could be sensors or display elements. Some might be analogous to utility tunnels with valves and conduits, programmable to distribute information, materials, and power. Some could contain computer CPU's or other logic circuitry. Some would be nearly-solid structural components. Some might have wheels sticking out one side to contact a large shaft, with a cylindrical array of such blocks acting as a bearing or motor.

So, some of these dozens of basic nanoblock designs will contain motors. What kind of motors? Here are some options...

1. Light-driven Motors: Rice University, for example, has demonstrated that molecular machines are possible with its "nanocar." Last year, researchers at the school revealed that they had attached a motor to the molecule-size vehicle. The motor is powered by a beam of light, making it the first nanovehicle with its own engine. Roughly 20,000 of the cars could be parked side-by-side across the diameter of a human hair, the scientists said.
2. Electrostatic Motors: Electrostatic forces—static cling—can make a motor turn. As the motor shrinks, the power density increases; calculations show that a nanoscale electrostatic motor may have a power density as high as a million watts per cubic millimeter. And at such small scales, it would not need high voltage to create a useful force.
3. Temperature-change Motors: Researchers from the Spanish National Research Council, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, and the Catalan Institute of Nanotechnology claim to have created the first nanomotor that is moved by changes in temperature. This is believed to be the first time a nanometre-sized motor has been created that can use changes in temperature to generate and control movements.

The third one there is brand new:

The 'nanotransporter' consists of a carbon nanotube—a cylindrical molecule formed by carbon atoms—covered with a shorter concentric nanotube that can move back and forth or act as a rotor.

A metal cargo can be added to the shorter mobile tube, which could then transport this cargo from one end to the other of the longer tube or rotate it around its axis.

Researchers are able to control these movements by applying different temperatures at the two ends of the long nanotube. The shorter mobile tube thus moves from the warmer to the colder area in a similar manner to the way in which air moves around a heater. . .

The movements along the longer tube can be controlled with a precision of less than the diameter of an atom. This ability to control the objects at the nanometre scale can be extremely useful for future nanoelectromechanical applications.

Note that this new motor can control movement "with a precision of less than the diameter of an atom" -- in other words, with atomic precision.

Again, this is not all the way to molecular manufacturing, as we said yesterday about the "prototype nano assembler." But it's impressive work, and adds yet another item to the nanoscale toolbox.

Mike Treder

Prototype Nano Assembler

This is not what you'd normally expect to see in a press release from a U.S. government scientist:

The first real steps towards building a microscopic device that can construct nano machines have been taken by US researchers. Writing in [a] peer-reviewed publication, researchers describe an early prototype for a nanoassembler.

In his 1986 book, The Engines of Creation, K. Eric Drexler set down the long-term aim of nanotechnology -- to create an assembler, a microscopic device, a robot, that could construct yet smaller devices from individual atoms and molecules.

For the last two decades, those researchers who recognized the potential have taken diminutive steps towards such a nanoassembler. Those taking the top-down approach have seen the manipulative power of the atomic force microscope (AFM), a machine that can observe and handle single atoms, as one solution. Those taking the bottom-up approach are using chemistry to build molecular machinery.

However, neither the top-down nor the bottom-up approach is yet to fulfill Drexler's prophecy of functional nanobots that can construct other machines on a scale of just a few billionths of a meter. . .

Yet the rewards could be enormous with the ultimate potential of creating a technology that can construct almost any material from atoms and molecules from super-strong but incredibly lightweight construction materials to a molecular computer or even nanobots that can make other nanobots to solve global problems, such as food, water, and energy shortages.

Jason Gorman, contact person on the announcement, is with the Intelligent Systems Division of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Here's more from the release:

Gorman and his colleagues at NIST have taken a novel approach to building a nanoassembler and reveal details in a forthcoming issue of the International Journal of Nanomanufacturing. "Our demonstration is still a work in progress," says Gorman, "you might describe it as a 'proto-prototype' for a nanoassembler."

The NIST system consists of four Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS) devices positioned around a centrally located port on a chip into which the starting materials can be placed Each nanomanipulator is composed of positioning mechanism with an attached nanoprobe. By simultaneously controlling the position of each of these nanoprobes, the team can use them to cooperatively assemble a complex structure on a very small scale. "If successful, this project will result in an on-chip nanomanufacturing system that would be the first of its kind," says Gorman. . .

Importantly, once the team has optimized their design they anticipate that nanoassembly systems could be made for around $400 per chip at present costs. This is thousands of times cheaper than macro-scale systems such as the AFM.

Gorman points out that it should be possible to have multiple nanoassemblers working simultaneously to manufacture next generation nanoelectronics. At the moment, his team is interested in developing the platform for scientists and engineers to make cutting edge discoveries in nanotechnology. "Very few effective tools exist for manipulation and assembly at the nano-scale, thereby limiting the growth of this critical field," he says.

Assuming this concept can be put into practice, as Gorman and his team expect, it will represent a significant step forward in enabling technologies for molecular manufacturing. It's not all the way there, of course. In fact, several more steps will be required, which may take at least another five to ten years.

But this is an important advance, especially since it comes from within the U.S. scientific community, which up until now has been largely dismissive of molecular manufacturing theory.

Doing the Impossible

IMPOSSIBLE! Preposterous! These words are often thrown about when people declare certain things to be scientifically ridiculous.

Aliens cannot reach the Earth in spaceships, they proclaim, because the distance between stars is too great. Telepathy is impossible since the brain does not emit or receive messages. And it's impossible to instantaneously transport an object from A to B because you cannot know the location and momentum of all its atoms -- teleportation would violate the Heisenberg uncertainty principle.

Yet if you carefully analyse these examples, you realise that they are merely impossible today or in the near future. The real question is, are they impossible with technologies that lie decades, centuries or even millennia beyond ours? Perhaps these "impossibilities" are merely very difficult engineering problems.

So says Michio Kaku, the renowned physicist who was one of the developers of string field theory, in a New Scientist article titled "Impossible physics: Never say never." Kaku then reminds us of Arthur C. Clarke's famous admonition that "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

An accompanying article by Michael Marshall lists ten things "that were once thought scientifically impossible," including heavier-than-air flight, harnessing nuclear energy, space flight, black holes, and many more.

A couple of months ago on this blog, we wrote about a new three-part BBC TV special in which "Michio Kaku explores the cutting edge science of today, tomorrow, and beyond."

In Part 3 of that series, Kaku asserts that we are "on the brink of a revolution which will give us control -- exquisite control -- of our physical world." He says:

Today we can manipulate individual atoms, but this is just the beginning of a journey -- a journey which will ultimately give us the power to manipulate the very stuff of our universe: matter itself.

And later in that program Kaku spends several minutes describing the near-certain and near-future development of personal fabricators, also known as desktop nanofactories.

Impossible? Preposterous? Scientifically ridiculous?

These words were often thrown about just a few years ago by people denying the claims of those who had spent many years studying the physics, chemistry, and engineering concepts behind advanced nanotechnology and molecular manufacturing.

But perceptions can change quickly when science advances rapidly.

And today, what was declared impossible not long ago is starting to enter the mainstream of scientific thought. Broad public acceptance may not be far away. Soon after that, we hope, serious discussions of the many implications of this transformative new technology will take place at the highest levels of governance and at the grassroots as well.

Mike Treder

Nanotechnology Milestone

Nanodot calls this a "major milestone along the protein design path to productive nanosytems and advanced nanotechnology—the design by computational methods of enzymes that catalyze reactions for which biological enzymes do not exist."

Dextre the Magnificent

Photo credit: Dextre

New Space Station Robot Asks to be Called "Dextre the Magnificent"

In a surprising and potentially troubling request, the new space station robot known as Dextre demanded that astronauts refer to it in the future at "Dextre the Magnificent." Brandishing power tools that would make any handyperson blush, the mobile servicing system thanked humans for creating it and promised a glorious future where humans would retain an important role in the new robot order. Dextre was deployed last month to help build and service the International Space Station.

Feasibility Arguments

Over at Michael Anissimov's Accelerating Future blog, he offers an excellent list of "Feasibility Arguments for Molecular Nanotechnology," with this introduction:

Perhaps you’ve heard of MEMS, microelectromechanical systems, a field being invested in heavily by governments and corporations. In MEMS, the components are usually between 10 and 100 microns in size. Using MEMS, you can build gear systems smaller than a dust mite. The military is looking into MEMS to build spy-bots the size of the smallest bugs.

Beyond MEMS there is NEMS, nanoelectromechanical systems, an area scientists and engineers are just beginning to investigate. NEMS are about a 1000 times smaller than MEMS, with components between 10 and 100 nanometers in size. With NEMS, you could build a complex machine the size of a red blood cell or smaller. Transhumanists hope to use NEMS to improve our health and expand our sensory and motor capabilities.

The Holy Grail of nanotechnology is designing a NEMS that can build other NEMS. This goal has been called molecular nanotechnology (MNT), and it is a topic of controversy within the nanotechnology community. Some futurists and scientists believe MNT is impossible, while others consider it very likely.

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Space Flight 'Sports Car'

Found on NewScientist:

A sleek craft that may be the first "sports car" of commercial spaceflight was unveiled on Wednesday, in Mojave, California, USA. It is designed to be able to travel to the edge of space and back several times a day.

While Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo will carry eight people, making it more of a space minivan, the Lynx Mark I is only a two-seater and smaller than a private jet.

US Company Xcor Aerospace revealed its plans for the new rocketplane at the company's headquarters, on the edge of the tarmac of the US's first certified private spaceport. SpaceShipTwo is under development just next door.

Xcor say Lynx Mark I will start flights two years from now.

Very, very cool. But I doubt I could afford the ticket price.

Mike Treder

Radical Prosthetic Implants

An article in Scientific American titled "Scientists Set Sights on an Implantable Prosthetic for the Blind" tells about a Boston neuroscientist who is "developing a device that may someday help the blind by sending images directly to the brain."

That's an extraordinary advance, and seems certain to be just the first step toward near-miraculous prosthetic implants that someday soon not only will allow the blind to see, but could restore healthy function to all manner of disabled people.

For example, implantable deep brain stimulation (DBS) approaches already are being used successfully to treat chronic debilitating depression, as well as Parkinson's disease and other movement disorders.

Growing New Body Parts

Prepare to be amazed by this report on advances in regenerative medicine:

Much credit should go to CBS News for the tenor and quality of their coverage.

Mike Treder