Zyvex

Molecular Nanotechnology

www.zyvex.com/nano Ralph C. Merkle Principal Fellow, Zyvex www.merkle.com

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In Fiscal Year 1999, the federal government will spend approximately $230 million on nanotechnology research.

Nick Smith, Chairman House Subcommittee on Basic Research June 22, 1999 2 Zyvex

National Nanotechnology Initiative • Interagency (AFOSR, ARO, BMDO, DARPA, DOC, DOE, NASA, NIH, NIST, NSF, ONR, and NRL) • Congressional hearings • Objective: double funding through existing channels 3 Zyvex

Academic and Industry • Caltech’s MSC (1999 Feynman Prize), Rice CNST (Smalley), USC Lab for Molecular Robotics, etc • Private nonprofit (Foresight, IMM) • Private for profit (IBM, Zyvex, Covalent) • And many more….

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There is a growing sense in the scientific and technical community that we are about to enter a golden new era.

Richard Smalley 1996 Nobel Prize, Chemistry http://www.house.gov/ science/smalley_062299.htm

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The principles of physics, as far as I can see, do not speak against the possibility of maneuvering things atom by atom. It is not an attempt to violate any laws; it is something, in principle, that can be done; but in practice, it has not been done because we are too big. Richard Feynman, 1959 Zyvex http://www.zyvex.com/nanotech/feynman.html

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The book that laid out the technical argument for molecular nanotechnology:

Nanosystems

by K. Eric Drexler, Wiley 1992 Zyvex 7

Three historical trends in manufacturing

• More flexible • More precise • Less expensive Zyvex 8

The limit of these trends: nanotechnology

• Fabricate most structures consistent with physical law • Get essentially every atom in the right place • Inexpensive (~10-50 cents/kilogram) http://www.zyvex.com/nano 9 Zyvex

It matters how atoms are arranged

• Coal • Sand • Dirt, water and air • Diamonds • Computer chips • Grass 10 Zyvex

Zyvex Today’s manufacturing methods move atoms in statistical herds • Casting • Grinding • Welding • Sintering • Lithography 11

Possible arrangements of atoms .

Zyvex What we can make today (not to scale) 12

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The goal: a healthy bite.

.

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Today Overview of the development of molecular nanotechnology Zyvex Products Products Core molecular manufacturing capabilities Products Products Products Products Products Products Products Products Products Products Products Products Products Products Products Products Products Products Products Products Products

Terminological caution

“Nanotechnology” has been applied to almost any research where some dimension is less than a micron (1,000 nanometers) in size.

Example: sub-micron optical lithography Zyvex 15

Two more fundamental ideas

• Self replication (for low cost) • Positional assembly (so molecular parts go where we

want

them to go) Zyvex 16

Von Neumann architecture for a self replicating system Universal Computer Universal Constructor Zyvex http://www.zyvex.com/nanotech/vonNeumann.html

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Zyvex Drexler’s architecture for an assembler Molecular computer Molecular constructor Positional device Tip chemistry 18

Illustration of an assembler http://www.foresight.org/UTF/Unbound_LBW/chapt_6.html

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The theoretical concept of machine duplication is well developed. There are several alternative strategies by which machine self-replication can be carried out in a practical engineering setting.

Advanced Automation for Space Missions

Proceedings of the 1980 NASA/ASEE Summer Study http://www.zyvex.com/nanotech/selfRepNASA.html

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A C program that prints out an exact copy of itself 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);} Zyvex For more information, see the Recursion Theorem: http://www.zyvex.com/nanotech/selfRep.html

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English translation: Print the following statement twice, the second time in quotes: “Print the following statement twice, the second time in quotes:” Zyvex 22

Complexity of self replicating systems (bits) C program Von Neumann's universal constructor500,000 800 Internet worm (Robert Morris, Jr., 1988) Mycoplasma capricolum E. Coli 500,000 1,600,000 9,278,442 Drexler's assembler Human NASA Lunar Manufacturing Facility 100,000,000 6,400,000,000 over 100,000,000,000 http://www.zyvex.com/nanotech/selfRep.html

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How cheap?

• Potatoes, lumber, wheat and other agricultural products are examples of products made using a self replicating manufacturing base. Costs of roughly a dollar per pound are common.

• Molecular manufacturing will make almost

any

product for a dollar per pound or less, independent of complexity. (Design costs, licensing costs, etc. not included) Zyvex 24

How long?

• The scientifically correct answer is

I don’t know

• Trends in computer hardware suggest early in the next century — perhaps in the 2010 to 2020 time frame • Of course, how long it takes depends on what we do 25 Zyvex

Developmental pathways • Scanning probe microscopy • Self assembly • Ever smaller systems • Hybrid approaches Zyvex 26

Moving molecules with an SPM (Gimzewski et al.) Zyvex http://www.zurich.ibm.com/News/Molecule/ 27

Self assembled DNA octahedron (Seeman) Zyvex http://seemanlab4.chem.nyu.edu/nano-oct.html

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DNA on an SPM tip (Lee et al.) Zyvex http://stm2.nrl.navy.mil/1994scie/1994scie.html

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Zyvex Buckytubes (Tough, well defined) 30

Buckytube glued to SPM tip (Dai et al.) Zyvex http://cnst.rice.edu/TIPS_rev.htm

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Building the tools to build the tools • Directly manufacturing a diamondoid assembler using existing techniques appears very difficult .

• We’ll have to build intermediate systems able to build better systems able to build diamondoid assemblers.

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If we can make whatever we want

what

do we want to make?

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Diamond Physical Properties

Property Diamond’s value Comments

Chemical reactivity Hardness (kg/mm2) Thermal conductivity (W/cm-K) Tensile strength (pascals) Compressive strength (pascals) Band gap (ev) Resistivity (W-cm) Density (gm/cm3) Thermal Expansion Coeff (K-1) Refractive index Coeff. of Friction Extremely low 9000 20 3.5 x 10 9 (natural) 10 11 (natural) 5.5

10 16 (natural) 3.51

0.8 x 10-6 2.41 @ 590 nm 0.05 (dry) Source: Crystallume CBN: 4500 SiC: 4000 Ag: 4.3 Cu: 4.0

10 11 (theoretical) 5 x 10 11 (theoretical) Si: 1.1 GaAs: 1.4

SiO2: 0.5 x 10-6 Glass: 1.4 - 1.8

Teflon: 0.05

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Strength of diamond • Diamond has a strength-to-weight ratio over 50 times that of steel or aluminium alloy • Structural (load bearing) mass can be reduced by about this factor • When combined with reduced cost, this will have a major impact on aerospace applications 35 Zyvex

A hydrocarbon bearing Zyvex http://www.zyvex.com/nanotech/bearingProof.html

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Zyvex Neon pump 37

A planetary gear http://www.zyvex.com/nanotech/gearAndCasing.html

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A proposal for a molecular positional device Zyvex 39

Zyvex Classical uncertainty  2 

k b T k

σ: mean positional error k: restoring force k b : Boltzmann’s constant T: temperature 40

Zyvex A numerical example of classical uncertainty  2 

k b T k

σ: 0.02 nm (0.2 Å) k: 10 N/m k b : 1.38 x 10 -23 T: 300 K J/K 41

Molecular tools

• Today, we make things at the molecular scale by stirring together molecular parts and cleverly arranging things so they spontaneously go somewhere useful.

• In the future, we’ll have molecular “hands” that will let us put molecular parts exactly where we want them, vastly increasing the range of molecular structures that we can build.

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Synthesis of diamond today: diamond CVD • Carbon: methane (ethane, acetylene...) • Hydrogen: H 2 • Add energy, producing CH 3 , H, etc.

• Growth of a diamond film.

The right chemistry, but little control over the site of reactions or exactly what is synthesized.

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A hydrogen abstraction tool

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

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Some other molecular tools Zyvex 45

A synthetic strategy for the synthesis of diamondoid structures • Positional assembly (6 degrees of freedom) • Highly reactive compounds (radicals, carbenes, etc) • Inert environment (vacuum, noble gas) to eliminate side reactions 46 Zyvex

The impact of nanotechnology depends on what’s being

Zyvex • Space Exploration • Medicine • Military • Environment, Energy, etc.

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Powerful computers

• In the future we’ll pack more computing power into a sugar cube than the sum total of all the computer power that exists in the world today • We’ll be able to store more than 10 21 the same volume bits in • Or more than a billion Pentiums operating in parallel • Powerful enough to run Windows 2015 48 Zyvex

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Memory probe

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Displays

• Molecular machines smaller than a wavelength of light will let us build holographic displays that reconstruct the entire wave front of a light wave • It will be like looking through a window into another world • Covering walls, ceilings and floor would immerse us in another reality 50 Zyvex

Space • Launch vehicle structural mass will be reduced by about a factor of 50 • Cost per pound for that structural mass will be under a dollar • Which will reduce the cost to low earth orbit by a factor 1,000 or more Zyvex http://science.nas.nasa.gov/Groups/ Nanotechnology/publications/1997/applications/ 51

It costs less to launch less • Light weight computers and sensors will reduce total payload mass for the same functionality • Recycling of waste will reduce payload mass, particularly for long flights and permanent facilities (space stations, colonies) 52 Zyvex

Swallowing the surgeon

...it would be interesting in surgery if you could swallow the surgeon. You put the mechanical surgeon inside the blood vessel and it goes into the heart and “looks” around.

...

Other small machines might be permanently incorporated in the body to assist some inadequately-functioning organ.

Richard P. Feynman, 1959 Nobel Prize for Physics, 1965 53 Zyvex

Nanomedicine Volume I

• By Robert Freitas • Surveys medical applications of nanotechnology • Extensive technical analysis • Volume I (of three) published in 1999 • http://www.foresight.org/Nanomedicine Zyvex 54

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Mitochondrion

Molecular bearing 20 nm scale bar Ribosome Molecular computer (4-bit) + peripherals 55

Zyvex “Typical” cell Mitochondrion Molecular computer + peripherals 56

Disease and illness are caused largely by damage at the molecular and cellular level Today’s surgical tools are huge and imprecise in comparison Zyvex http://www.foresight.org/Nanomedicine 57

In the future, we will have fleets of surgical tools that are molecular both in size and precision.

We will also have computers that are much smaller than a single cell with which to guide 58

Medical applications • Killing cancer cells, bacteria • Removing blockages • Providing oxygen (artificial red blood cell)

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metabolites

A revolution in medicine

• 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

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Cryonics

37 º C 37 º C Zyvex Freeze -196 º C (77 Kelvins) Time (many decades) Restore to health 61

Clinical trials to evaluate cryonics • 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?

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Would you rather join:

The

control group?

(no action required)

or The

experimental group?

(see www.alcor.org for info)

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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 Zyvex 64

Human impact on the environment depends on • Population • Living standards • Technology

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Restoring the environment with nanotechnology

• Low cost greenhouse agriculture • Low cost solar power • Pollution free manufacturing • The ultimate in recycling 66 Zyvex

Solar power and nanotechnology

• The sunshine reaching the earth has almost 40,000 times more power than total world usage.

• Nanotechnology will produce efficient, rugged solar cells and batteries at low cost.

• Power costs will drop dramatically Zyvex 67

Environmentally friendly manufacturing

• Today’s manufacturing plants pollute because they use imprecise methods.

• Nanotechnology is precise — it will produce only what it has been designed to produce.

• An abundant source of carbon is the excess CO 2 in the air Zyvex 68

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

K. Eric Drexler Zyvex 69

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The best way to predict the future is to invent it.

Alan Kay 70