 |
 |
 |
|
 |
|
 |
 |
| Illustrations by Rod Clement |
|
|
We are on the verge of producing machines so small that they will control matter on the scale of molecules. And when we perfect such ultra-tiny machines and apply them widely in biology and medicine, our human body, mind, and behavior will be dramatically transformed forever.
Such ultra-tiny machines already exist in nature. Plants and animals could be thought of as assemblages of them. DNA, RNA, and the enzymes that assist in the reproduction and repair of cells or in the manufacture of proteins may be viewed as ultra-miniature industrial operations. But what is truly exciting is that nanotechnology (a nanometer is one billionth of a meter) is beginning to bring forth practical nanomachines which promise to perform functions never before seen in nature.
As Dr. Jon Roland, head of the Vanguard Institute, a non-profit research foundation in Redwood City, California, says that "researchers will soon be able to custom-build single molecules that can store and process information and manipulate or fabricate other molecules, including more of themselves. This may occur before the turn of the century. We cannot say at this time what might be the limits of what such nanotechnology might make possible.
" Nevertheless, nanomachines could be used to rebuild damaged organs, make cosmetic alterations, or provide humans with entirely new body parts capable of enormous powers. Missing limbs could be regenerated. Defective eyes and ears could be restored--their functions even enhanced. Birth defects could be eliminated even after they occur. Many human disabilities caused by nature or accident could be a thing of the past.
Through nanotechnology, we humans could give ourselves the ability to absorb almost 100 per cent of what we eat. That is, within our own bodies, we could recycle what would otherwise be excreted. This would not only make our bodies far more efficient, but it would make world hunger and food production less problematic. Alternatively, nanotechnology could be used to give our bodies the capability to generate our own supply of vitamins and nutrients. Or, if we wished, we could adapt nanotechnology in such a way in our bodies that we could attain the ability to breathe under water, at very high altitudes, or by consuming only very limited amounts of oxygen.
Nanomachines in the form of powerful super computers could be inserted into our brains. These ultra-tiny devices, containing all the stored knowledge and wisdom of humanity, would then interface directly to the brain's memory system. It would then be possible for us to recall any fact or idea just as if it were our own--carried on a neuron just like any other human thought.
Molecular machines might be used to read the contents of the human brain and its personality, transfer the information to an external storage venue, and then write one or more copies of the record to another brain--either human or computer. Such personalities might be altered in a process called "editing" in order to correct personality defects. Criminal behavior could be eliminated overnight. In addition, unneeded or unpleasant memories could be edited-out as well. Unlimited happiness could be achieved. Indeed, nanomachines transferring and editing personality characteristics and storing them could guarantee that a human being's personality could live forever. This would challenge our notions of death, immortality, and existence itself.
And as if this were not enough, we might even choose to transfer our personalities to some other form of being or machine. For instance, it would be possible to give a human personality to a dog, cat, or bird--even to an insect! Alternatively, several human personalities might be combined into a new, merged personality which would emphasize the best characteristics of each. Imagine, the scientific genius of an Einstein combined with the musical genius of a Mozart!
Nanotechnology applied to personality would alter the very definition of what it is to be human. We could bring other species up to our level of intelligence, create new intelligent organisms, or fashion new forms of mixed species--intelligent, but perhaps with greatly differing ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving.
If this sounds like science fiction, it clearly is not. In fact, there are already several ultra-miniature molecular machines manufactured in laboratories and used in modern biomedicine. For example, as primitive as these early products will seem in fifty years time, artificial antibodies are now designed in laboratories, placed in the human body, and function to attack disease organisms. In addition, and perhaps the most famous nanomachine invented so far, the scanning-probe microscope operates on the scale of single molecules. This is despite the fact that scanning-probe microscopes are themselves neither molecule-sized computers nor robots.
Indeed, the idea of molecular machines is not even new. Ultra-tiny machines and their virtually unlimited potential uses were first discussed in the 1940s by Dr. Richard Feynman, a physicist, and later by Dr. Vannevar Bush, another physicist. The idea turned to a tangible product in 1981 when Drs. Gerd Binnig and Heinrich Rohrer of the IBM Research Institute in Zurich built the first scanning tunneling microscope. This made the detecting of individual atoms possible and earned for them the Nobel Prize in 1986. Also in 1986, Dr. K. Eric Drexler, in the now classic book, ENGINES OF CREATION, coined the term "nanotechnology" and foreshadowed the widespread controlling of matter at the minuscule scale of a billionth of a meter.
According to Dr. Roland, "it is now possible to not only make a probe tip that narrows down to a single atom, but to draw out a glass pipette until the tip is only two to twenty nanometers wide. This should make it possible to deliver single atoms or small molecular building blocks to a binding point on a molecule and thus custom-build molecules atom by atom and building block by building block." And as every scientist knows, "He who controls the molecules, controls the world!"
Thus, nanotechnology seems certain to alter our environment, our way of life, even our very selves. As nanomachines themselves are linked with naturally-occurring biological organisms, mutation, chance, competition, and natural selection itself will no longer be the only forces in evolution. Such ultra-tiny machines could even undergo several generations of evolution within a few seconds. They and we could be fashioned to achieve and create new heights previously unimaginable.
Indeed, all of this may come to past someday--as long as we ever-inventive humans continue to think small.
CURRENT USES OF NANOTECHNOLOGY MEDICAL
- Burn and wound dressings
- A dental bonding agent
- Sunscreens
- Protective and glare-reducing coatings for eyeglasses NON-MEDICAL
- Water filtration
- Step assists on vans
- Longer lasting tennis balls
- Stain-free clothing and mattresses
- Display technology for laptop computers, cell phones, and digital cameras
NANOTECH 'ULTRA-DENSE' MEMORY DEVICE
A team of UCLA and California Institute of Technology chemists reports in the 25 January 2007 journal NATURE the successful demonstration of a large-scale, 'ultra-dense' memory device that stores information using reconfigurable molecular switches. This research represents an important step toward the creation of molecular computers that are much smaller and could be more powerful than today’s silicon-based computers. The memory is based on a series of perpendicular, crossing nanowires, similar to a tic-tac-toe board, with 400 bottom wires and another 400 crossing top wires. Sitting at each crossing of the tic-tac-toe structure and serving as the storage element sits approximately 300 bistable rotaxane molecules. These molecules may be switched between two different states, and each junction of a crossbar can be addressed individually by controlling the voltages applied to the appropriate top and bottom crossing wires, forming a bit at each nanowire crossing. The 160-kilobit molecular memory was fabricated at a density of 100,000,000,000 bits per square centimeter---a density predicted for commercial memory devices in approximately 2020.
Copyright HarperCollins Publishers 2002 | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use