2 Nanotechnology Ralph C. Merkle Principal Fellow, Zyvex
3 Health, wealth and atoms
4 Arranging atoms Diversity Precision Cost
5 Richard Feynman,1959 There’s plenty of room at the bottom
6 Eric Drexler, 1992
7 President Clinton, 2000 “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.” The National Nanotechnology Initiative
8 Today
9 Arrangements of atoms. Today
10 The goal.
11 Bearing
12 Planetary gear
13 Fine motion controller
14 Robotic arm
15 σ:mean positional error k: restoring force k b : Boltzmann’s constant T:temperature
16 σ:0.02 nm (0.2 Å) k: 10 N/m k b : 1.38 x J/K T:300 K
17 Making diamond today Carbon Hydrogen Add energy Grow diamond film.
18 Hydrogen abstraction tool
19 Some other molecular tools
20 H. J. Lee and W. Ho, SCIENCE 286, p. 1719, NOVEMBER 1999 Experimental work
21 Self replication
22 The Von Neumann architecture ComputerConstructor
23 Molecular computer Molecular constructor Positional deviceTip chemistry Drexler’s architecure for an assembler
24 main(){char q=34, n=10,*a="main() {char q=34,n=10,*a=%c%s%c;printf(a,q,a,q,n );}%c";printf(a,q,a,q,n);} A C program that prints out an exact copy of itself
25 Print the following statement twice, the second time in quotes: “Print the following statement twice, the second time in quotes:” English translation:
26 An overview of self replicating systems for manufacturing Advanced Automation for Space Missions, edited by Robert Freitas and William Gilbreath NASA Conference Publication 2255, 1982 A web page with an overview of replication:
27 Von Neumann's constructor 500,000 Mycoplasma genitalia 1,160,140 Drexler's assembler 100,000,000 Human6,400,000,000 Complexity of self replicating systems (bits)
28 Exponential assembly
29 The impact
30 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 bits in the same volume Almost a billion Pentiums in parallel Powerful Computers
31 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 Nanomedicine
32 In the future, we will have fleets of surgical tools that are molecular both in size and precision. We will also have computers much smaller than a single cell to guide those tools. Nanomedicine
33 Human impact on the environment depends on Population Living standards Technology
34 Restoring the environment with nanotechnology Low cost hydroponics Low cost solar power Pollution free manufacturing
35 New, inexpensive materials with a strength-to-weight ratio over 50 times that of steel Critical for aerospace: airplanes, rockets, satellites… Useful in cars, trucks, ships,... Lighter, stronger, smarter, less expensive
36 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
37 Space Launch vehicle structural mass could be reduced by a factor of 50 Cost per kilogram for that structural mass could be under a dollar Which will reduce the cost to low earth orbit by a factor 1,000 or more publications/1997/applications/
38 Nanotechnology offers... possibilities for health, wealth, and capabilities beyond most past imaginings. K. Eric Drexler
40 Born-Oppenheimer approximation A carbon nucleus is more than 20,000 times as massive as an electron Assume the atoms (nuclei) are fixed and unmoving, and then compute the electronic wave function If the positions of the atoms are given by r 1, r 2,.... r N then the energy of the system is: E(r 1, r 2,.... r N ) This is fundamental to molecular mechanics Quantum uncertainty
41 Ground state quantum uncertainty σ 2 :positional variance k: restoring force m: mass of particle ħ :Planck’s constant divided by 2 π Quantum uncertainty
42 C-C spring constant:k~440 N/m Typical C-C bond length:0.154 nm σ for C in single C-C bond:0.004 nm σ for electron (same k):0.051 nm Quantum uncertainty A numerical example
43 Basic assumptions Nuclei are point masses Electrons are in the ground state The energy of the system is fully determined by the nuclear positions Directly approximate the energy from the nuclear positions, and we don’t even have to compute the electronic structure Molecular mechanics
44 Example: H 2 Internuclear distance Energy Molecular mechanics
45 Parameters Internuclear distance for bonds Angle (as in H 2 O) Torsion (rotation about a bond, C 2 H 6 Internuclear distance for van der Waals Spring constants for all of the above More terms used in many models Quite accurate in domain of parameterization Molecular mechanics
46 Pump
47 Saw-Wai Hla et al., Physical Review Letters 85, , September Manipulation and bond formation by STM II Positional devices
48 A hydrocarbon bearing
49 Killing cancer cells, bacteria Removing circulatory obstructions Providing oxygen (artificial red blood cells) Adjusting other metabolites Nanomedicine
50 By Robert Freitas, Zyvex Research Scientist Surveys medical applications of nanotechnology Volume I (of three) published in 1999 Nanomedicine
51 Today, loss of cell function results in cellular deterioration: function must be preserved With medical nanodevices, passive structures can be repaired. Cell function can be restored provided cell structure can be inferred: structure must be preserved
52 37 º C -196 º C (77 Kelvins) Freeze Restore to health Time Temperature (some decades) Cryonics
53 Select N subjects Freeze them Wait 100 years See if the medical technology of 2100 can indeed revive them But what do we tell those who don’t expect to live long enough to see the results? Clinical trials
54 Join the control group or the experimental group? ( What to do?