Nanotechnology Ralph C Merkle Ph D Principal Fellow

Nanotechnology Ralph C. Merkle, Ph. D. Principal Fellow, Zyvex 2

Overview Eighth Foresight Conference on Molecular Nanotechnology • November 3 -5, 2000 • Bethesda, Maryland (near Washington D. C. ) • http: //www. foresight. org/Conferences/ 3

Overview Three historical trends in manufacturing • More diverse • More precise • Less expensive 4

Overview Where these trends are going: nanotechnology • Fabricate most products consistent with physical law • Get essentially every atom in the right place • Reduce manufacturing costs to $1/kilogram or less http: //www. zyvex. com/nano 5

Overview Molecular arrangement matters • Coal • Sand • Dirt, water & air • Diamonds • Computer chips • Wood 6

Overview There’s plenty of room at the bottom “. . . our ability to see what we are doing, and to do things on an atomic level, is. . . a development which I think cannot be avoided. ” Nobel Laureate (physics) Richard Feynman, 1959 http: //www. zyvex. com/nanotech/feynman. html 7

Overview The 1980’s and 1990’s • Invention of Scanning Probe Microscopes (SPMs) • Publication of Nanosystems by Eric Drexler • Conferences, journals, newsletters, net news discussion groups, media coverage http: //www. zyvex. com/nano 8

Overview National Nanotechnology Initiative • Announced by Clinton at Caltech, January 2000 • Interagency (AFOSR, ARO, BMDO, DARPA, DOC, DOE, NASA, NIH, NIST, NSF, ONR, and NRL) • Proposed for FY 2001: $497 million http: //www. whitehouse. gov/WH/New/html/20000121_4. html 9

Overview President Clinton on the NNI “Imagine the possibilities: materials with ten times the strength of steel and only a small fraction of the weight -- shrinking all the information housed at the Library of Congress into a device the size of a sugar cube -- detecting cancerous tumors when they are only a few cells in size. ” 10

Overview • “Nanotechnology” has been applied to almost any research where some dimension is less than a micron (1, 000 nanometers) in size • “Molecular nanotechnology” is focused specifically on inexpensively making most arrangements of atoms permitted by physical law 11

Overview Possible arrangements of atoms What we can make today (not to scale) 12

Overview Possible arrangements of atoms The goal: a healthy bite. 13

Approach Developmental pathways Today Products Products Products Products Core nanotechnology Product capabilities Products 14

Approach Two important ideas • Positional assembly (so parts go where we want them to go) • Self replication (for low cost) • Both concepts are applicable at many different sizes 15

Approach Positional assembly • Positional assembly of millimeter and larger parts is central to today’s manufacturing • Positional assembly of micrometer sized parts has been demonstrated, but is still rare • Positional assembly of molecular parts has been demonstrated only in rudimentary form 16

Approach Scanning Probe Microscopes (Gimzewski et al. ) http: //www. zurich. ibm. com/News/Molecule/ 17

Approach Manipulation and bond formation by STM H. J. Lee and W. Ho, SCIENCE 286, p. 1719, NOVEMBER 1999 18

Approach Complexity of self replicating systems (bits) • Mycoplasma genitalia • Drexler’s assembler • Human 1, 160, 140 100, 000 6, 400, 000 http: //www. zyvex. com/nanotech/self. Rep. html 19

Approach Self replicating does not imply living • Life is a “proof of concept” • Birds fly, airplanes fly; they aren’t the same • Broadcast architecture http: //www. zyvex. com/nanotech/self. Rep. html 20

The Vision Proposal for a molecular planetary gear http: //www. zyvex. com/nanotech/gear. And. Casing. html 21

The Vision Proposal for a molecular robotic arm 22

The Vision Drexler’s proposal for an assembler http: //www. foresight. org/UTF/Unbound_LBW/chapt_6. html 23

The Vision Assembler Mitochondrion ~1 -2 by 0. 1 -0. 5 microns 24

The Vision Mitochondrion Assembler “Typical” cell: ~20 microns 25

The Vision The impact of nanotechnology • Nanotechnology is a manufacturing technology • The impact depends on the product being manufactured 26

The Vision Powerful Computers • We’ll have more computing power in the volume of a sugar cube than the sum total of all the computer power that exists in the world today • More than 1021 bits in the same volume • Almost a billion Pentiums in parallel 27

The Vision Lighter, stronger, smarter, less expensive • New, inexpensive materials with a strengthto-weight ratio over 50 times that of steel • Critical for aerospace: airplanes, rockets, satellites… • Useful in cars, trucks, ships, . . . 28

The Vision “Military applications of molecular manufacturing have even greater potential than nuclear weapons to radically change the balance of power. ” Admiral David E. Jeremiah, USN (Ret) Former Vice Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff November 9, 1995 http: //nano. xerox. com/nanotech/nano 4/jeremiah. Paper. html 29

The Vision Gray goo, gray dust, … • New technologies, new weapons • At least one decade and possibly a few decades away • Public debate (Joy, etc. ) has begun • Research into defensive systems is essential 30

The Vision Nanomedicine • Disease and ill health are caused largely by damage at the molecular and cellular level • Today’s surgical tools are huge and imprecise in comparison http: //www. foresight. org/Nanomedicine 31

The Vision Molecular medical tools could • Eliminate cancer cells, bacteria • Remove circulatory obstructions • Provide oxygen, remove CO 2 (artificial red blood cells) http: //www. foresight. org/Nanomedicine 32

The Vision Artificial red blood cells hold your breath for hours http: //www. foresight. org/Nanomedicine/Respirocytes. html 33

The Vision Restoring the environment with nanotechnology • Low cost solar power • Low cost greenhouse agriculture • Pollution free manufacturing 34

Summary “Nanotechnology offers. . . possibilities for health, wealth, and capabilities beyond most past imaginings. ” K. Eric Drexler 35