Outstanding topic!
Here’s an article from a few years ago in “The Futurist” on Nanotechnology:
Why Nanotechnology will arrive sooner than expected.
The Futurist; 3/1/2002; Uldrich, Jack
The tools we need for realizing the goals of nanotechnology are improving at accelerating rates. Add new sources of funding from venture capitalists and adventurous governments, mix in some potent competitive juices, and you have the formula for a big revolution from a very small technology.
In late 1959, future Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman gave a legendary lecture arguing that the laws of physics do not limit man’s ability to manipulate individual atoms and molecules. He described a vision for constructing materials using a bottom-up, rather than a top-down, approach. Instead of whittling down wood, fusing metal, molding plastic, or making the latest computer chip by etching an ever-finer circuit out of silicon, we would be able to put atoms precisely where we wanted–just as a potato somehow knows how to arrange atoms from the surrounding dirt, water, and air to create itself. That vision is now on the verge of realization.
A Brief History of Nanotechnology
From Feynman’s lecture in 1959, it took 15 years for a term to describe his vision to make it into popular culture: nanotechnology, coined by Japanese scientist Norio Taniguchi to describe machining in the range of 0.1 to 100 nanometers. For comparison purposes, a human hair is 10,000 nanometers thick.
The term languished in relative obscurity until 1986, when Eric Drexier, a bright, young, MIT-trained scientist, published Engines of Creation, in which he broadly outlined the long-term potential for nanotechnology and its possible impacts on humanity. His book sparked great interest among a small, dedicated cadre of scientists, but it wasn’t until 1989 when the term and the science behind it reached a broader–albeit still limited–audience.
In 1989, researchers at IBM stunned the world by arranging 35 xenon atoms on a nickel surface to spell out a nanoscale IBM logo. For the first time, man had deliberately moved atoms to create something.
It has now been more than a dozen years since the IBM demonstration, 16 years since Drexler’s book, and 42 years since Feynman’s famous speech. A cynic might wonder where the miraculous applications of nanotech are. The short answer is that we are still trying to see where we’re going. As Feynman pointed out in 1959, “The problems of chemistry and biology can be greatly helped if our ability to see what we are doing, and to do things at the atomic level, is ultimately developed.”
And that, in short, is exactly what is happening today. Scientists have now developed tools sensitive enough “to see what we are doing and do things at the atomic level.” Quite literally, scientists now have the eyes, arms, hands, and fingers to play with nature’s own building blocks. With this newfound knowledge, scientists are beginning to understand how different molecules stick to one another and how cells operate. It is this understanding that will allow tomorrow’s entrepreneurs to build new materials and enable doctors and health-care professionals to fight disease at the molecular level.
Thus, though the fantastic images of nanorobots building our consumer goods, cleaning our arteries, and performing other useful tasks tantalize us with futures that may yet be far off, we still have good reasons to believe the Age of Nanotechnology will arrive sooner than many skeptics think.
Number-One Reason: The Tools
The first microscope was a thousandfold improvement over the human eye. Newer microscopes are a thousandfold more powerful than the first–or a million times more powerful than the human eye. These new microscopes are allowing a very broad community of scientists, students, researchers, and businesses to observe matter at the smallest levels. For example, the ability to see at this level allows researchers to learn why the human body fails to detect viruses in some cells while eradicating others. This knowledge will help find a cure for a number of viruses, including HIV.
More sophisticated tools, such as the scanning probe microscope (SPM), invented in 1981 by IBM, now provide the means for microscopic materials to be moved with greater ease and accuracy. The SPM enables technicians to move atoms by applying voltage through a super-sharp tip.
The atomic force microscope, also developed by IBM, probes surfaces and can produce topographical images of individual atoms. Scientists are thus gaining new knowledge about how matter operates and interacts at the atomic and molecular level. This means that they can now begin connecting different molecules to one another–molecules that nature might never have been able to put together. The result will be the creation of entirely new materials, such as a material 100 times stronger than steel but weighing only one-sixth as much.
Similarly, researchers are using optical tweezers to study the motion of single molecules and “nanotweezers” to grab and pull molecules. For the first time, biological structures are being modified at the level of the human cell. The implications for human health and the health-care industry are astounding: If researchers can understand how the herpes virus inserts itself into a healthy cell, a solution to the troublesome virus suddenly becomes possible.
The nanomanipulator, developed by scientists at the University of North Carolina and now produced and marketed by a company called 3rdTech, is allowing researcher not only to see atoms and molecules in 3-D, but also–through the use f the computer–to move, push, prod, and probe atoms and molecules. This evolution is leading to increase information about the strength of new materials, how plastics melt, how DNA works, as well as how the blood cells differ in a hemophiliac and a healthy person.
This is just the tip of the iceberg. Armed with this knowledge, scientists may one day be able to build a 747-size jet at one-fiftieth of its present weight, or design fabrics that cool you when you are hot and warm you when you are cold, or develop drugs that detect and kill cancer cells before they have the chance to do harm.
Physical vapor synthesis (PVS)–and the required reactors and chamber-- is an another tool helping to advance nanotechnology. PVS is a process that heats materials at temperatures so high that they vaporize. The particles are then cooled at different temperatures and pressures with various gases to create unique nanoparticles.
An easier way to think of this technique is to envision the steam rising from a boiling pot in a cold kitchen. As the steam collects on the cold window, tiny ice crystals form. Scrape off enough of these crystals and you can make a new product–a snowball. Similarly, PVS allows manufacturers to produce mass quantities of unique nanocrystals and nanoparticles and use them in a variety of products.
Nanoparticles could make household paints that repel dirt yet never fade. Other nanoparticles will be used in the vents of hospital ceilings to detect disease in incoming patients and visitors. And still other nanoparticles will attach themselves only to cholesterol cells in hardened arteries.
Molecular beam epitaxy and organometallic vapor epitaxy are yet two other advancements that could lead to new and vastly higher-functioning products. These processes refer to the layering of materials evenly and accurately across the surface of another material with atomic precision. Depending on the atomic structure of the material being layered, products have enhanced thermal, structural, or optical properties. Frictionless bearings, scratch-proof eyeglasses and car paint, better drug delivery, and more powerful fiber-optic cables are just a few of the developments aided by these advancements.
Supramolecular chemistry is also enabling startling advances in our understanding of how molecules self-assemble. Chemists are now learning how to design molecules that bind to one another in a specific fashion to build a larger system or product.
To envision this process, think of a tree. Somehow, it knows exactly where to put every single atom and molecule to make itself into a machine that utilizes only what it needs and creates only byproducts that are useful–from the carbon monoxide that it consumes to the oxygen that it produces.
Logically, then, if nature has figured out how to arrange the atoms in coal to make a diamond, then we should be able to do the same. And we should be able to do it not just for diamonds, but for bones, spinal cords, and even the human heart. This is the potential of supramolecular chemistry.
While the coal-to-diamond scenario is still a way off (at least 25 years, according to some experts), advancements are occurring almost daily, bringing this development closer to reality. In many ways, scientists are like children who have just comprehended what building blocks are, while simultaneously gaining the manual dexterity to put those blocks together.
The 10 Other Factors Pushing Nanotechnology
Like an infant, scientists in the field of nanotechnology are growing up very fast. This is because 10 other influences are fueling the rapid advancement of nanotechnology:
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Scalable production.
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Public money.
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Research.
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A cross-fertilization of sciences.
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A burgeoning entrepreneurial spirit.
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An increased interest from the venture capital community.
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Competition.
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More powerful computers.
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More sophisticated software.
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A much better understanding among business, government, and academic leaders about what nanotechnology is and, more important, what it can do.
Push from Scalable Production
In the recent past, only a limited number of chemists and companies have been able to produce nanoscale materials–and then only in a limited, haphazard, or costly fashion. For example, in the mid-1990s it cost Nanophase Corporation $1,000 to produce a single gram of nanoparticles. Today, the same product literally costs pennies on the dollar and is being used in everything from odor-eating foot powders to automobiles to navy ships.
Richard Smalley, Nobel Prize winner for chemistry in 1996 and founder of Carbon Nanotechnologies of Houston, once produced only a limited quantity of carbon nanotubes, and only for highly specialized academic or government research. Today, thanks in part to $15 million in venture capital, the company is on the verge of mass-producing and mass-marketing carbon nanotubes (also known as buckytubes).
For both Nanophase and Carbon Nanotechnologies, product costs continue to decrease while the quantity and quality increase. As the materials become more affordable, engineered solutions to complex or novel problems will become increasingly available. For example, it was once regarded as too expensive to consider using specialized nanoparticles to replace palladium, another costly material used in many automobiles for catalytic conversion. But today, cheaper materials make this possible, and tomorrow it will be necessary if businesses want to remain competitive.
This scenario will repeat itself almost daily in almost every field. What was once considered impossible or, at best, impracticable, is now possible; and what is possible will soon become inevitable as nanotechnology attacks thousands of existing products from both a cost and a quality perspective. Printing, sunscreens, photography, and catalytic conversion are just a few of the areas where nanotechnology is already present; and stronger, lighter, more wear-resistant, and even self-cleaning products are under development. And, in the not-too-distant-future, novel optical, thermal, and electrical products will arrive.
Push from Public Money
The second factor pushing nanotechnology into the marketplace is public money. In 1999, President Clinton announced the creation of the National Nanotechnology initiative, providing $422 million. In 2001, President Bush followed up with a $487 million initiative. Governments around the world–Japan, China, Israel, Australia, South Korea, Great Britain, Canada, and Russia–are investing another $1 billion a year in basic nanotechnology research and development.
This figure is only going to continue to climb, especially in light of the events of September 11, 2001. Nanotechnology has so much to offer in terms of enhancing national security and fighting terrorism. In addition to aiding in the development of new, more sophisticated materials (for jets and ships), nanotechnology is expected to play a vital role in the development of supersensitive nanosensors capable of scanning remote lands like Afghanistan in search of terrorists. Similarly, nanosensors might also help detect chemical and biological agents, thus making airports, post offices, and other public places safer. Novel nanoparticles are likely to play an important role in the battle against bioterrorism. In fact, some nanoparticles can already render some chemical agents, like anthrax, harmless.
State governments are also investing in nanotechnology: California has invested more than $100 million at UCLA, while New York, with matching funds from IBM, is investing $150 million in a new nanotechnology center. Illinois, Indiana, and Pennsylvania have also recently announced nanotechnology investments.
Similar public investments are funding groundbreaking nanoscience research at universities and in government labs in the United States and around the world.
Push from Research
This heavily funded research is the third element driving nanotechnology. The United States is conducting a significant amount of research at its top national labs, including Argonne, Sandia, Los Alamos, and Brookhaven. Many universities, including Michigan, Harvard, MIT, and Georgia Tech, already have small and growing nanoscience and nanotechnology centers, and UCLA, New York University, Northwestern, Duke, Cornell, Rensselaer, and the universities of Texas (at Arlington) and Washington have all recently established new nanotech R&D centers.
In addition to conducting the necessary basic research and development for nanotechnology, these centers are training the nanotechnology scientists and workers of tomorrow. And it is these workers who will be conducting equally groundbreaking research in corporate labs around the globe. IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Motorola, and Siemens are but a few of the larger corporations involved in nanotechnology research.
Push from Cross-Fertilization Of Ideas
All this work in university, corporate, and government labs has a number of positive net benefits, such as the creation of new products. Nanotechnology does not fit neatly into one specific discipline. In fact, it is at the center of many areas of science, including chemistry, engineering, biology, materials science, physics, and information sciences.
Because of the cross-disciplinary nature of nanotech research, scientists who might never have crossed paths are now working together. The result is an explosion of new developments. For instance, material scientists attempting to develop the next generation of materials for the space shuttle are now talking to biologists to understand how natural systems manipulate atoms. A case in point: Biologists are helping material scientists understand how the simple abalone can take calcium carbonate–the same material used to make common (and crumbly) schoolroom chalk–and make a shell that is as hard as a rock. Similarly, medical professionals attempting to solve complex health problems at the molecular level are now speaking with mechanical engineers to learn how to develop the tools that mimic the motors in ATP, an enzyme in the human body. To mechanical engineers’ amazement, ATP has a shaft and a rotor just like a motor, suggesting that even Mother Nature has something to teach today’s brightest engineers.
Push from Entrepreneurial Spirit
The fifth contributing factor is that academic and government researchers are now allowed–even encouraged–to spin off commercial applications. The Bayh-Dole Act allows researchers whose work is funded by federal agencies to share in the ownership of their work and to file patents in their own name. The result has been an astounding entrepreneurial spirit flourishing in government labs.
The government has taken this policy another step further, permitting scientists to take up to a three-year leave of absence to pursue the commercialization of promising new technologies. Not only is this facilitating the commercialization of these technologies, but it is also making the federal government a much more attractive employer. In the past, many of the brightest Ph.D.s were intrigued by the cutting-edge research the government was pursuing, but they also wanted to make money. Today, rather than having to choose, they can do both. In the city of Albuquerque, New Mexico, 40 new private start-ups have sprouted up in the last five years. Not surprisingly, most have been started by federal employees at Sandia National Laboratory.
Meanwhile, the National Competitiveness Technology Transfer Act allows national labs to enter into a variety of agreements with the private sector, including exclusive and nonexclusive licensing rights. The fees that companies pay to use patented technologies create a win-win situation: Cash-strapped research centers receive a new stream of income that can pay for the pursuit of other interesting and promising areas of study, while businesses are freed up from the expensive prospect of conducting their own risky and costly research and development.
Push from Venture Capital
Add these developments to America’s highly charged and highly effective venture-capital community and you have the sixth factor drawing nanotechnology closer into our futures.
Not one to lick their wounds over the collapse of the dot-com industry, venture capitalists are constantly seeking promising new technologies, and nanotechnology is now a growing center of attention. A number of venture-capital firms already specialize in this area or are seeking to create a niche. Many of the most promising companies and technologies will thus make their way to the market soon. According to one leading venture capitalist, Steve Jurvetson, “It’s starting to happen.”
Push from Competition
The seventh factor leading to the development of nanotechnology is the age-old and powerful influence of competition. Many existing companies are investing heavily in nanotechnology because they understand that if they don’t they may not be around in a few years. Lucent, Dupont, Eastman Kodak, 3M, and Dow are just a few of the companies investing in nanotechnology. Hitachi, one of Japan’s leading companies, recently reorganized itself to take advantage of new developments in nanotechnology. Each company is very aware of the potential of nanotechnology and is investing heavily to ensure that they are not caught sleeping.
Similar competitive battles are being fought in the fields of molecular computing and the race to develop commercially scalable amounts of carbon nanotubes.
Push from Computer Power
The eighth factor is the continued advancement of ever more powerful computers for nanotech research–ironically a development that nanotechnology itself continues to advance. Just as Boeing can design, test, and “fly” a plane on a computer before it is ever built, nanotechnologists–armed both with a better understanding of how atoms and molecules move and operate and with vastly more powerful computers–can run sophisticated computer programs and design new materials, new drugs, and more powerful computers. This is a virtuous cycle that will only push nanotechnology to ever greater heights at an ever quicker pace.
Distributed computing will allow researchers to put thousands of idle personal computers to work, matching the power of supercomputers. This, too, will help accelerate nanotech R&D, as well as solve complex problems, such as understanding how proteins fold, and aid research in gene sequencing and atmospheric chemistry.
Push from More Sophisticated Software
Robust modeling systems and advances in computer-aided design, in combination with computational chemistry, computational biology, and computational material sciences, will also hasten the design, characterization, and optimization of nanoscale machines and devices.
Push from Better Understanding
The final factor fueling nanotechnology is simply the increased recognition that nanotechnology can completely transform industries. According to Harvard professor George Whitesides, “It’s important to stay on top of the industry. . . because if you bet wrong, you can be out of business in a very short time.”
In 1999, The Institute of Global Studies surveyed executives in leading Fortune 1000 companies about the emerging area of nanotechnology. Fewer than 2% could accurately define the term, and only another 2% had ever heard of nanotechnology.
Once the concept was explained to the executives, fully 80% agreed that nanotechnology was relevant to their respective industries. Many undoubtedly have followed up and are making the necessary changes and investments to grow, prosper, and profit from the advances that are emerging on an almost daily basis. This demand in turn will further fuel the rapid development of nanotechnology.
It is for these 11 reasons we can see that nanotechnology, once the stuff of science fiction, is coming and will arrive faster than most people expect.
About the Author
Jack Uldrich is the deputy director of the Minnesota State Office of Strategic and Long Range Planning, 658 Cedar Street, St. Paul, Minnesota 55155. Telephone 1-651-215-1093; e-mail jack.uldrich@mnplan.state.mn.us; Web site www.mnplan.state.mn.us. He is the author of a forthcoming paper entitled “Nanotechnology: Implications for Public Policy,” to be published by the state of Minnesota in spring 2002.
A longer version of this paper appears in the spring 2002 issue of Futures Research Quarterly ($25 plus $3 shipping; order online at www.wfs.org/bookord.htm).
RELATED ARTICLE: NANOTECHNOLOGY RESOURCES
Books
Engines of Creation: The Coming Era of Nanotechnology by K. Eric Drexler. Anchor. Reprint edition 1987. Paperback. $13.95. Classic introduction to nanotechnology examines potential applications in medicine, the environment, and other key areas. (Order online from www.wfs.org/specials.htm.)
Nanotechnology edited by BC Crandall. MIT Press. 226 pages. Paperback. $16.54. Illuminating overview of the concepts and potential applications of molecular-scale engineering. (Order online from www.wfs.org/specials.htm.)
Travels to the Nanoworid: Miniature Machinery in Nature and Technology by Michael Gross. Perseus Books. 2001. 272 pages. $16. In the “universe” of the incredibly small, nanomachines will be built that can treat diseases and offer alternatives to toxic materials and fossil fuels. (Order online from www.wfs.org/specials.htm.)
Web Sites
The Foresight Institute, www.foresight.org: Founded in 1989 by K. Eric Drexler, Foresight is a non-profit educational organization dedicated to helping prepare society for anticipated advanced technologies, especially nanotechnology.
Nanodot, http://nanodot.org/: a Foresight Institute Web site devoted to news and discussion on nanotechnology and its potential impacts on society.
Small Times, www.smalltimes.com: online journal covering" big news in small technology."
National Nanotechnology Initiative, www.nano.gov: a “virtual” agency reporting to the U.S. President on science and technology research, with links to industry, government agencies, and academic institutions.