Nanotechnologyand its applications to healthcare

Ralph C. Merkle, Ph.D.

Principal Fellow

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The overheads (in PowerPoint) are available on the web at:

http://www.zyvex.com/nanotech/talks/ppt/

France 010608.ppt

Slides on web

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Ninth Foresight Conferenceon Molecular Nanotechnology

November 9-11, 2001Santa Clara, CaliforniaIntroductory tutorial November 8

www.foresight.org/Conferences/MNT9/

Foresight

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Foresight

www.foresight.org/SrAssoc/

www.nanodot.org

Gatherings

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Health, wealth and atoms

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Arranging atoms

• Diversity• Precision• Cost

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Richard Feynman,1959

There’s plenty of roomat the bottom

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1980’s, 1990’s

Binnig and Rohrer

Experiment and theory

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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

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Arrangements of atoms

.

Today

Overview

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The goal

.

Overview

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Core molecularmanufacturingcapabilities

Today ProductsProducts

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Overview

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Positional assembly

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Experimental

100 microns

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H. J. Lee and W. Ho, SCIENCE 286, p. 1719, NOVEMBER 1999

Experimental

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Theoretical

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Property Diamond’s value Comments

Chemical reactivity Extremely lowHardness (kg/mm2) 9000 CBN: 4500 SiC: 4000Thermal conductivity (W/cm-K) 20 Ag: 4.3 Cu: 4.0Tensile strength (pascals) 3.5 x 109 (natural) 1011 (theoretical)Compressive strength (pascals) 1011 (natural) 5 x 1011 (theoretical)Band gap (ev) 5.5 Si: 1.1 GaAs: 1.4Resistivity (W-cm) 1016 (natural)Density (gm/cm3) 3.51Thermal Expansion Coeff (K-1) 0.8 x 10-6 SiO2: 0.5 x 10-6

Refractive index 2.41 @ 590 nm Glass: 1.4 - 1.8Coeff. of Friction 0.05 (dry) Teflon: 0.05

Source: Crystallume

Diamond physical properties

What to make

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Making diamond today

Illustration courtesy of P1 Diamond Inc.

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Hydrogen abstraction tool

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Other molecular tools

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Bearing

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Planetary gear

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Fine motion controller

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Theoretical

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Self replication

A redwood tree(sequoia sempervirens)112 meters tallRedwood National Park

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The Von Neumann architecture

UniversalComputer

UniversalConstructor

http://www.zyvex.com/nanotech/vonNeumann.html

Self replication

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Replicating bacterium

DNA

DNA Polymerase

Self replication

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http://www.foresight.org/UTF/Unbound_LBW/chapt_6.html

Drexler’s proposal for an assembler

Self replication

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• Von Neumann's constructor 500,000

• Mycoplasma genitalia 1,160,140

• Drexler's assembler 100,000,000

Complexity (bits)

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Micro rotation

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Exponential assembly

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The impact

of a manufacturing technology

depends on what we manufacture

Impact

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• 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

Powerful Computers

Impact

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• 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

Impact

Nanomedicine

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• 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.

Impact

Nanomedicine

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“Typical” mitochondrion~1-2 by 0.1-0.5 microns

Size of a robotic arm~100 nanometers

Scale

8-bit computer

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“Typical” cell: ~20 microns

MitochondrionSize of a robotic

arm ~100 nanometers

Scale

8-bit computer

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Remove infections

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Clear obstructions

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Respirocyte

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Today: preserve function

Tomorrow: preserve structure

A Revolution

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Liquid nitrogen

Time

Tem

pera

ture

Cryonics

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Would you rather

join the control group

or

the experimental group?

(www.alcor.org)

What to do?

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“Thus, like so much else in medicine, cryonics, once considered on the outer edge, is moving rapidly closer to reality”

ABC News World News Tonight, Feb 8th

“…[medical] advances are giving new credibility to cryonics.”

KRON 4 News, NightBeat, May 3, 2001

Perception

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• By Robert Freitas, Zyvex Research Scientist

• Surveys medical applications of nanotechnology

• Volume I (of three) published in 1999

Theory

Nanomedicine

http://www.foresight.org/Nanomedicine

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Human impact on the environment depends on

• Population• Living standards• Technology

The Vision

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Restoring the environmentwith nanotechnology

• Low cost greenhouse agriculture• Low cost solar power• Pollution free manufacturing

The Vision

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Nanotechnology offers ... possibilities for health, wealth, and capabilities beyond most past imaginings.

K. Eric Drexler