Nanotechnology and its applications to healthcare
-
Upload
danila-medvedev -
Category
Technology
-
view
8.493 -
download
1
description
Transcript of Nanotechnology and its applications to healthcare
Nanotechnologyand its applications to healthcare
Ralph C. Merkle, Ph.D.
Principal Fellow
2
The overheads (in PowerPoint) are available on the web at:
http://www.zyvex.com/nanotech/talks/ppt/
France 010608.ppt
Slides on web
3
Ninth Foresight Conferenceon Molecular Nanotechnology
November 9-11, 2001Santa Clara, CaliforniaIntroductory tutorial November 8
www.foresight.org/Conferences/MNT9/
Foresight
4
Foresight
www.foresight.org/SrAssoc/
www.nanodot.org
Gatherings
5
Health, wealth and atoms
6
Arranging atoms
• Diversity• Precision• Cost
7
Richard Feynman,1959
There’s plenty of roomat the bottom
8
1980’s, 1990’s
Binnig and Rohrer
Experiment and theory
9
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
10
Arrangements of atoms
.
Today
Overview
11
The goal
.
Overview
12
Core molecularmanufacturingcapabilities
Today ProductsProducts
Products
Products
Products
Products
Products
Products
Products
ProductsProducts
Products
Products
ProductsProducts
Products
Products
Products
Products
Products
Products
ProductsProducts
Products
Products
Overview
13
Positional assembly
14
Experimental
100 microns
15
H. J. Lee and W. Ho, SCIENCE 286, p. 1719, NOVEMBER 1999
Experimental
16
Theoretical
17
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
18
Making diamond today
Illustration courtesy of P1 Diamond Inc.
19
Hydrogen abstraction tool
20
Other molecular tools
21
Bearing
22
Planetary gear
23
Fine motion controller
24
Theoretical
25
Self replication
A redwood tree(sequoia sempervirens)112 meters tallRedwood National Park
26
The Von Neumann architecture
UniversalComputer
UniversalConstructor
http://www.zyvex.com/nanotech/vonNeumann.html
Self replication
27
Replicating bacterium
DNA
DNA Polymerase
Self replication
28
http://www.foresight.org/UTF/Unbound_LBW/chapt_6.html
Drexler’s proposal for an assembler
Self replication
29
• Von Neumann's constructor 500,000
• Mycoplasma genitalia 1,160,140
• Drexler's assembler 100,000,000
Complexity (bits)
30
Micro rotation
31
Exponential assembly
32
The impact
of a manufacturing technology
depends on what we manufacture
Impact
33
• 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
34
• 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
35
• 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
36
“Typical” mitochondrion~1-2 by 0.1-0.5 microns
Size of a robotic arm~100 nanometers
Scale
8-bit computer
37
“Typical” cell: ~20 microns
MitochondrionSize of a robotic
arm ~100 nanometers
Scale
8-bit computer
38
Remove infections
39
Clear obstructions
40
Respirocyte
41
Today: preserve function
Tomorrow: preserve structure
A Revolution
42
Liquid nitrogen
Time
Tem
pera
ture
Cryonics
43
Would you rather
join the control group
or
the experimental group?
(www.alcor.org)
What to do?
44
“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
45
• 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
46
Human impact on the environment depends on
• Population• Living standards• Technology
The Vision
47
Restoring the environmentwith nanotechnology
• Low cost greenhouse agriculture• Low cost solar power• Pollution free manufacturing
The Vision
48
Nanotechnology offers ... possibilities for health, wealth, and capabilities beyond most past imaginings.
K. Eric Drexler