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How Nanotechnology Will Work
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How Nanotechnology Will Work
How will nanotechnology change the way goods are manufactured? Learn how nanomachines will manufacture products, and what impact nanotechnology will have on various industries in the coming decades.
Originally published 2000 at howstuffworks.com. Published on KurzweilAI.net June 11, 2001.
Nanotechnology is an umbrella term that covers many areas of research dealing with objects that are measured in nanometers. A nanometer (nm) is a billionth of a meter, or a millionth of a millimeter.
In the early 20th century, Henry Ford built a car manufacturing plant on a 2,000-acre tract of land along the Rouge River in Michigan. Built to mass-produce automobiles more efficiently, the Rouge housed the equipment for developing each phase of a car, including blast furnaces, a steel mill and a glass plant. More than 90 miles of railroad track and conveyor belts kept Ford's car assembly line running. The Rouge model was lauded as the most efficient method of production at a time when bigger meant better.
The size of Ford's assembly plant would look strange to those born and raised in the 21st century. In the next 50 years, machines will get increasingly smaller--so small that thousands of these tiny machines would fit into the period at the end of this sentence. Within a few decades, we will use these nanomachines to manufacture consumer goods at the molecular level, piecing together one atom or molecule at a time to make baseballs, telephones and cars. This is the goal of nanotechnology. And as televisions, airplanes and computers revolutionized the world in the last century, scientists claim that nanotechnology will have an even more profound effect on the next century. Building with AtomsAtoms are the building blocks for all matter in our universe. You and everything around you are made of atoms. Nature has perfected the science of manufacturing matter molecularly. For instance, our bodies are assembled in a specific manner from millions of living cells. Cells are nature's nanomachines. Humans still have a lot to learn about the idea of constructing materials on such a small scale. Consumer goods that we buy are made by pushing piles of atoms together in a bulky, imprecise manner. Imagine if we could manipulate each individual atom of an object. That's the basic idea of nanotechnology, and many scientists believe that we are only a few decades away from achieving it.
Nanotechnology is a hybrid science combining engineering and chemistry. Atoms and molecules stick together because they have complementary shapes that lock together, or charges that attract. Just like with magnets, a positively charged atom will stick to a negatively charged atom. As millions of these atoms are pieced together by nanomachines, a specific product will begin to take shape. The goal of nanotechnology is to manipulate atoms individually and place them in a pattern to produce a desired structure. There are three steps to achieving nanotechnology-produced goods:
- Scientists must be able to manipulate individual atoms. This means that they will have to develop a technique to grab single atoms and move them to desired positions. In 1990, IBM researchers showed that it is possible to manipulate single atoms. They positioned 35 xenon atoms on the surface of a nickel crystal, using an atomic force microscopy instrument. These positioned atoms spelled out the letters "IBM." You can view this nano-logo on this page.
- The next step will be to develop nanoscopic machines, called assemblers, that can be programmed to manipulate atoms and molecules at will. It would take thousands of years for a single assembler to produce any kind of material one atom at a time. So, trillions of assemblers will be needed to develop products in a viable time frame.
- In order to create enough assemblers to build consumer goods, some nanomachines, called replicators, will be programmed to build more assemblers. Trillions of assemblers and replicators will fill an area smaller than a cubic millimeter, and still will be too small for us to see with the naked eye. Assemblers and replicators will work together like hands to automatically construct products, and will eventually replace all traditional labor methods. This will vastly decrease manufacturing costs, thereby making consumer goods plentiful, cheaper and stronger. In the next section you'll find out how nanotechnology will impact every facet of society, from medicine to computers.
In January 2000, U.S. President Bill Clinton requested a $227-million increase in the government's investment in nanotechnology research and development, which includes a major new initiative called the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI). This initiative nearly doubles America's 2000-budget investment in nanotechnology, bringing the total invested in nanotechnology to $497 million for the 2001 national budget. In a written statement, White House officials said that "nanotechnology is the new frontier and its potential impact is compelling."
About 70 percent of the new nanotechnology funding will go to university research efforts, which will help meet the demand for workers with nanoscale science and engineering skills. The initiative will also fund the projects of several governmental agencies, including the National Science Foundation, the Department of Defense, the Department of Energy, the National Institutes of Health, NASA and the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Much of the research will take more than 20 years to complete, but the process itself could touch off a new industrial revolution. Nanotechnology is likely to change the way almost everything, including medicine, computers and cars, are designed and constructed. Nanotechnology is anywhere from five to 15 years in the future; and we won't see dramatic changes in our world right away. But let's take a look at the potential effects of nanotechnology:
- The first products made from nanomachines will be stronger fibers. Eventually, we will be able to replicate anything, including diamonds, water and food. Famine could be eradicated by machines that fabricate foods to feed the hungry.
- In the computer industry, the ability to shrink the size of transistors on silicon microprocessors will soon reach its limits. Nanotechnology will be needed to create a new generation of computer components. Molecular computers could contain storage devices capable of storing trillions of bytes of information in a structure the size of a sugar cube.
- Nanotechnology may have its biggest impact on the medical industry. Patients will drink fluids containing nanorobots programmed to attack and reconstruct the molecular structure of cancer cells and viruses to make them harmless. There's even speculation that nanorobots could slow or reverse the aging process, and life expectancy could increase significantly. Nanorobots could also be programmed to perform delicate surgeries--such nanosurgeons could work at a level a thousand times more precise than the sharpest scalpel. By working on such a small scale, a nanorobot could operate without leaving the scars that conventional surgery does. Additionally, nanorobots could change your physical appearance. They could be programmed to perform cosmetic surgery, rearranging your atoms to change your ears, nose, eye color or any other physical feature you wish to alter.
- Nanotechnology has the potential to have a positive effect on the environment. For instance, airborne nanorobots could be programmed to rebuild the thinning ozone layer. Contaminants could be automatically removed from water sources and oil spills could be cleaned up instantly. And manufacturing materials using the bottom-up method of nanotechnology also creates less pollution than conventional manufacturing processes. Our dependence on non-renewable resources would diminish with nanotechnology. Many resources could be constructed by nanomachines. Cutting down trees, mining coal or drilling for oil may no longer be necessary. Resources could simply be constructed by nanomachines.
- The promises of nanotechnology sound great, don't they? Maybe even unbelievable? But researchers say that we will achieve these capabilities within the next century. And if nanotechnology is, in fact, achieved, it might be the human race's greatest scientific achievement yet, completely changing every aspect of the way we live.
copyright 2000 Howstuffworks.com
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Mind·X Discussion About This Article:
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Re: The New Dawn
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>Somehow you feel enslaved, but in what way?
Women do not need us as much as we need them, and are not interested in sex. We are responsible not only for running the world (inventing, creating), but also for providing things for them (buying material goods, giving emotional stability), and "convincing" them to be with us; the whole relationship then continues only because of our continuous effort - when our effort ends, the relationship also ends. I feel not enslaved but extremely unimportant and lonely in a system of this kind. I resent the fact that women make their bodies attractive and we do not (or it has no effect), that they are so popular and wanted while we are mere begging machines, that every encounter is a pass or fail test rather than an emotional interchange.
>The new dawn seems to involve a happy >relationship with a robot or maybe not? Any
It involves a relationship with a creature (VR or robot or engineered biological human) of human traits that will look like a woman and behave as a woman would behave if she had a deep unchanging desire for a man's body and affection, and she had been solitary for decades. If she had a brain of her own to think about things, if she had burning desire to get what she wants, and was very sensitive. She would have the freedom of choosing any man. I would not restrain her freedom. This to me is far more important than prolonged life or wealth, that is all I was saying.
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What Makes Rachel Hot?
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>ok I dont usally pick at peoples posts but yours is crazy!
No his post is not "crazy" it was a very honest and mature post ' one that will go right over many of the politically-correct, "young, dumb and full 'o cum" males in the world. Or maybe you are just one of those enslaved guys that Bill Maher talks about all the time, who endlessly "nods at women" so that they can gain favor in order to get laid. Do you lie to women for sex?
>Are you saying women dont have sex drives?!
No he's not saying that: He's saying 'that women do not need us as much as we need them, and are not interested in sex as much as men are interested in sex. No? Well who buys most of the porn? Not women. He is saying that men are responsible for not only for running the world (which they basically do, unfortunately) but also doing most of the inventing (which they basically do) and for providing things for women (like all manner of material possessions for the living room, but hardly any books on philosophy). Males also give emotional stability (at times of need, but so do women) YET men must "convince" them to be with us (the male DOES propose and the female DOES disposes in the date selection process, the copulation/fornication process and the marriage process). He is also saying that the whole relationship then continues only because of the male's continuous effort and when that effort ends (or slacks off) the relationship also ends.'
All this is BASICALY true. NOT always true. Not ultimately true. Basically true.
Again, who initiates the relationship? The male. If the male does not continue the relationship under terms acceptable to the female, the female terminates the relationship "because he was such a cheater." No? I can't tell you how many "happily" married men I know who have to practically beg their wives for a little sex and when they give it, it's usually as a negotiating chip for some more material possessions or to have their cell phone bill paid. Obviously you haven't had very much experience with women, haven't been married very long or don't have very many mature male friends.
>Women indeed do have sex drives equal to that of males,...
False (maybe when they're 27, but that's about it). This is what Hollywood, and a few women's libbers trying to sell books, would like you to believe. Plus, even in a place like Hollywood where males use sex as their basic "pain killer" for a life-style they must endure to merely BE there, you will find that more than 50% of the women there don't have orgasms as compared with women in more rural areas around the country and on the East Coast. Thus, the fact that so many of them engage in sex with men anyway (not because they enjoy it so much, but because of political/economic gain), is evidence that what this guy is saying has some truth.
>...maybe not as high as your obvious teenage hormone rush, but perhaps you will grow up and stop being so foolish.
Well maybe you will grow up and find out how much you didn't know about women.
>I mean honestly this is a future-sight page, not a problem page for your 'woman trouble', sheesh people these days, lol.
And I'm enjoying LOL at you because of how little you apparently know women, men and sexy robots --thus his post is completely appropriate here on this high-tech site. (And I'm getting tired of the self-appointed censors that occasion this site, deciding what relates to the technical universe and what does not. Sheesh!) How many of you males who post here, including you, have NEVER wondered about, or hoped, that nanotechnology may someday make possible androids like Rachel in BLADE RUNNER? And don't lie. There is no reason why AI, nanotech and/or post-singularity technology will not create beings every bit as capable and aware as us Humans -- and this includes capabilities in the arena of human sexuality AND android sexuality. And I think this is what this guy is saying, if not dreaming about -' not that he just has sex problems. What a mindless way to sum up a dream that probably every male has but only 10% have the guts to admit.
Why couldn't MEAT MALES create more perfect ROBOT FEMALES if the MEAT FEMALES of the world won't cooperate or grant males the right to screw or be the way they are or want what they want when they want it without getting labeled "cheaters," "pigs," "scum," "liars," "horny old men," "bastards" -- all terms used quite often by meat females. Fact of the matter is: sex drives everything in the biological universe -' and it will drive said universe into the next universe of nanotechnology and through the Singularity. It's not that this is some side-subject proffered by a "crazy" poster in a black rubber raincoat, it's a subject that should concern all males and females in the hope that they may be able to improve their relationships and the institutions that bind them together.
James Jaeger
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Re: What the hell is this?
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OK, here's a female perspective on these posts. First, a man's sex drive is more constant and women's fluctuates based on time of month. And unlike men, women tend to put rules around sex (commitment required, clean the house first, not during my period, etc.).
So it's interesting to think about AI/VR and how we'll turn into gods... creating mates in our own image and likeness. I see men creating VR/Robot women with certain male characteristics like high constant sex drive, sex/emotion disconnect, sports lover, etc. Men will be on cloud 9. Then the women will create their own version of a man: cyclical sex drive, high emotion/affection, attentive, etc. The result may ultimately be the dissolution of the family as we know it. We'll fall in love with our creations and procreate only when necessary. |
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