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NanotechnologyBasicsforStudents
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NanotechnologyBasicsforStudents
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Artwork by John Burch, Lizard Fire Studios (3D Animation, Game Development)
Products made by a PN will be assembled from nanoblocks, which will be fabricated within the nanofactory. COMPUTER
aided design
(CAD) programs will make it possible to create stateoftheart products simply by specifying a pattern of predesigned nanoblocks. The
question of when we will see a flood of nanobuilt products boils down to the question of how quickly the first fabricator can be designed
and built.
MOVIE TIME: A short film called Productive Nanosystems: from Molecules to Superproducts depicts an animated view of a nanofactory and
demonstrates key steps in the sample process that converts basic molecules into a billionCPU laptop COMPUTER . The 4minute
streaming video is online here.
It's a bit like enzymes (if you know your chemistry): you fix onto a molecule or two, then twist or pull or push in a precise way until a
chemical reaction happens right where you want it. This happens in a vacuum, so you don't have water molecules bumping around. It's a
lot more controllable that way.
So, if you want to add an atom to a surface, you start with that atom bound to a molecule called a "tool tip" at the end of a mechanical
manipulator. You move the atom to the point where you want it to end up. You move the atom next to the surface, and make sure that it
has a weaker bond to the tool tip than to the surface. When you bring them close enough, the bond will transfer. This is ordinary
chemistry: an atom moving from one molecule to another when they come close enough to each other, and when the movement is
energetically favorable. What's different about mechanochemistry is that the tool tip molecule can be positioned by direct COMPUTER
control, so you can do this one reaction at a wide variety of sites on the surface. Just a few reactions give you a lot of flexibility in what
you make.
http://www.crnano.org/basics.htm
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If MM is so dangerous, why not just completely ban all research and development?
Viewed with pessimism, molecular manufacturing could appear far too risky to be allowed to develop to anywhere near its full potential.
However, a naive approach to limiting R&D, such as relinquishment, is flawed for at least two reasons. First, it will almost certainly be
impossible to prevent the development of MM somewhere in the world. China, Japan, and other Asian nations have thriving
nanotechnology programs, and the rapid advance of enabling technologies such as biotechnology, MEMS, and scanningprobe microscopy
ensures that R&D efforts will be far easier in the near FUTURE
than they are today. Second, MM will provide benefits that are simply
too good to pass up, including environmental repair; clean, cheap, and efficient manufacturing; medical breakthroughs; immensely
powerful COMPUTERS ; and easier access to space.
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molecular manufacturing is uncomfortably close to grey goo. However, the proposed production system that CRN
supports does not involve freefloating assemblers or nanobots, but much larger factories with all the nanoscale
machinery fastened down and inert without external control. As far as we know, a selfreplicating mechanochemical
nanobot is not excluded by the laws of physics, but such a thing would be extremely difficult to design and build
even with a full molecular manufacturing capability. Fiction like Michael Crichton's Prey might be good
entertainment, but it's not very good science.
Shouldn't we be WORKING on current problems like poverty, pollution, and stopping terrorism, instead of
putting money into these far FUTURE technologies?
We should do both! Development and application of molecular manufacturing clearly can have a positive impact on solving many of today's
most urgent problems. But it's equally clear than MM can exacerbate many of society's ills. Knowing that it may be developed within the
next decade or two (which is not "far FUTURE "), makes preparation for MM an urgent priority.
every day
tech
http://www.crnano.org/basics.htm
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Copyright20022008CenterforResponsibleNanotechnologyTMCRNisanaffiliateofWorldCare ,aninternational,nonprofit,501(c)(3)organization.
http://www.crnano.org/basics.htm
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