Lecture 2: Nanotech fact from fiction, whats possible and whats not'

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Lecture 2 Nanotech fact from fiction, whats
possible and whats not.
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• CLE Spring 2005 lecture series
• Dr Heidi Fearn

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Next few slides borrowed from NanoWorld website.
Nano101 course http//www.nanoworldusa.com/pages/e
ducation.htm (Slides 2-5 and 6-9).
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No list of contributors would be complete
withoutK. Eric Drexler futuristic guy.Founder
of the Foresight inst. In CA.
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http//www.imm.org Inst. For Molecular
Manufacturing
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Some Nanotech inventions

• Nanowires of silicon, and other materials, have
  remarkable optical, electronic and magnetic
  properties. It is hoped they will prove useful in
  computer memory. Carbon nanotubes for circuits,
  transistors, switches etc. Examples next lecture.
• In contrast, we use nanoparticles of soot in
  tires since 1900 to make them black, and nano
  bits of gold and silver have been added to color
  pigments in stained glass since the 10th century!
  Color depends on the size of these particles.
• You cant avoid nanoparticles- or youd have to
  stop drinking milk, which is full of nano-sized
  particles of casein. The sugar molecule is about
  1nm is diameter.
• Humans are living proof nanotechnology works. Our
  cells work dont they?

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Scanning Probe devices STM and AFM.
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Some more inventions in progress

• Put Nanoparticles into paints will reduce weight,
  used on aircraft will reduce fuel.
• Nanoparticles will keep the environment cleaner-
  researchers are studying how to use them to
  transform hazardous chemicals found in the soil
  and groundwater into harmless compounds.
• Nanoparticles can be used to deliver drugs to
  specific parts of the body. Quantum dots
  fluoresce and are used to label drugs.
• Intelligent clothing, which can monitor heart
  rate and blood pressure and detect dangerous
  chemicals in the air.
• Nanoparticles of titanium oxide (transparent) can
  be added to cosmetics, can absorb and reflect uv.
  Same particles can be layered into glass- the
  glass will repel water and use sunlight to
  breakdown dirt- self cleaning windows! ( Fixed)

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What is fact/fiction ?http//www.nanotech-now.com
/nanotechnology-art-gallery/htm
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No miniature Raquel Welchs with laser
beams Sorry guys!!
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Some nano-predictions.
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• Eternal life-cell reconstruction by nanobots
  (inject robots into the blood) NO!
• Utopia- no more old age, no more disease, no
  more energy crisis no more food shortage. NO!
• Restoration of the environment- nanobots again
  (let the little-bots loose in the air- repair one
  molecule at a time. The threat of grey-goo) NO!
• Computers in clothes in the walls all around us
  (each computer is very small- transmitters in
  everything)
• err - not yet anyway?
• Living cells- artificially made cells that
  reproduce and are alive- nano-Frankensteins.
  Maybe but not yet?

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Many new journals are dedicated to Nanotechnology
issues
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Have we found a super-molecule?
http//www.nanotech-now.com/nanotechnology-art-gal
lery/htm
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Fullerene or Buckyball Nanotube Carbon
atoms. Special properties Electrons move
ballistically and retain their spin. Very high
thermal and electrical Conductivity. Tensile
strength, weight for weight more than 100x
stronger than Steel, made from methane.
The stuff of dreams http//news.com.com/2009-733
7-5091267.html
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Carbon nanotubes

• Single walled Carbon nanotubes will debut in
  polymers as a way to strengthen plastics parts in
  cars or get them to conduct electricity through
  normally nonconductive materials. Paint that can
  deflect radar is anticipated within a year or
  two. Computer and TV manufacturers plan to use
  C-nanotubes to reduce the cost of flat screens.
  Coming soon 2005.
• A carbon nanotube ½ the width of a pencil can
  support over 40,000 Kg.

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Molecular Bearings?Ill talk about this in the
next lecture. http//www.nanotech-now.com/nanotec
hnology-art-gallery/htm
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Molecular scaffolding for nanotube
structures.http//www.nanotech-now.com/Art_Galler
y/damian-gregory-allis.htm
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How about nano-motors ? http//www.nanotech-now.c
om/nanotechnology-art-gallery/htm
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Rotors and switches ?
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So what dont we have?
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We dont have self assembler factories or
microbots in the blood to repair our cells. No
eternal life any time soon or the utopia dream of
no disease and restoration of the environment
wait at least another 30-50 years for those
things.
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Dorian novelist Will Selfs modern reworking
ofPicture of The Dorian Grayby Oscar Wild
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• We find Dorian Gray and friends looking across
  rows of Dewar flasks in which bodies are frozen,
  waiting for the day when medical science has
  advanced enough to thaw out the people. One of
  the friends doubt science will advance that far
  but Fergus says
• Course they will, the ferret yawned Dorian
  says theyll do it with nannywhatsit, little
  robot thingies- isnt that it, Dorian?
• Nanotechnology, Fergus- youre quite right
  theyll have tiny hyperintelligent robots working
  in concert to repair our damaged bodies.

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Thanks to the respective artists for putting
their work online.http//www.nanotech-now.com/nan
otechnology-art-gallery/htm
No not yet!!
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Quantum dots YES. Although not quite like this
one. Used as fluorescent markers for drugs.
Little micro-bots in the blood NO
Investments in Nanotechnology YES
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Space Elevatorhttp//www.sciencenews.org/articles
/20021005/bob9.aspRibbon to the stars

• In The Fountains of Paradise by
• Arthur C. Clarke.
• If the celestial mechanics make it possible
  for an object to stay fixed in the sky, might it
  not be possible to lower a cable down to the
  surface and so establish an elevator system
  linking earth to space ?

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Thanks to the respective artists for putting
their work online.http//www.nanotech-now.com/nan
otechnology-art-gallery/htm
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The space elevator climber.http//www.sciencene
ws.org/articles/20021005/bob9.aspRibbon to the
stars
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A laser beam from the Earth, Powers the climber
by shining On the photocells underneath the
climber.
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Moving up in the world!

• Lightening might be a problem- a floating station
  could move out of the way of storms- also
  position the ground station off the coast of
  Ecuador, to receive fewer lightening strikes.
• The ribbon of the elevator could be made of
  carbon nanotubes encased in graphite. This
  encasing causes the tubes to align and aggregate.
  Needs to be 100,000km long.
• The initial ribbon would be micron thick and 20
  to 40cm wide, it would support a weight of 1,800
  Kg. ( Space station moves out from 35,000km to
  100,000km as counterweight to ribbon unfurling.)
• http//www.sciencenews.org/20021005/note15.asp

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The End
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• See you again Feb 14, Valentines day for next
  lecture.
• Lecture 3 Micromachines, motors and
  nano-circuits.