2

Nanotechnologyand its applications to healthcare

Ralph C. Merkle, Ph.D.

Principal Fellow

3

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

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

France 010608.ppt

Slides on web

4

Ninth Foresight Conferenceon Molecular Nanotechnology

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

www.foresight.org/Conferences/MNT9/

Foresight

5

Foresight

www.foresight.org/SrAssoc/

www.nanodot.org

Gatherings

6

Health, wealth and atoms

7

Arranging atoms

• Diversity• Precision• Cost

8

Richard Feynman,1959

There’s plenty of roomat the bottom

9

1980’s, 1990’s

Binnig and Rohrer

Experiment and theory

10

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

11

Arrangements of atoms

.

Today

Overview

12

The goal

.

Overview

13

Core molecularmanufacturingcapabilities

Today ProductsProducts

Products

Products

Products

Products

Products

Products

Products

ProductsProducts

Products

Products

ProductsProducts

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Products

Products

Products

Products

Products

ProductsProducts

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Products

Overview

14

Positional assembly

15

Experimental

100 microns

16

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

Experimental

17

Theoretical

18

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

19

Making diamond today

Illustration courtesy of P1 Diamond Inc.

20

Hydrogen abstraction tool

21

Other molecular tools

22

Bearing

23

Planetary gear

24

Fine motion controller

25

Theoretical

26

Self replication

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

27

The Von Neumann architecture

UniversalComputer

UniversalConstructor

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

Self replication

28

Replicating bacterium

DNA

DNA Polymerase

Self replication

29

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

Drexler’s proposal for an assembler

Self replication

30

• Von Neumann's constructor 500,000

• Mycoplasma genitalia 1,160,140

• Drexler's assembler 100,000,000

Complexity (bits)

31

Micro rotation

32

Exponential assembly

33

The impact

of a manufacturing technology

depends on what we manufacture

Impact

34

• 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

35

• 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

36

• 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

37

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

Size of a robotic arm~100 nanometers

Scale

8-bit computer

38

“Typical” cell: ~20 microns

MitochondrionSize of a robotic

arm ~100 nanometers

Scale

8-bit computer

39

Remove infections

40

Clear obstructions

41

Respirocyte

42

Today: preserve function

Tomorrow: preserve structure

A Revolution

43

Liquid nitrogen

Time

Tem

pera

ture

Cryonics

44

Would you rather

join the control group

or

the experimental group?

(www.alcor.org)

What to do?

45

“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

46

• 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

47

Human impact on the environment depends on

• Population• Living standards• Technology

The Vision

48

Restoring the environmentwith nanotechnology

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

The Vision

49

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

K. Eric Drexler