Nanotechnology and its applications to healthcare

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Nanotechnologyand its applications to healthcare

• Ralph C. Merkle, Ph.D.
• Principal Fellow

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Slides on web

• The overheads (in PowerPoint) are available on
  the web at
• http//www.zyvex.com/nanotech/talks/ppt/
• France 010608.ppt

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Foresight

• Ninth Foresight Conferenceon Molecular
  Nanotechnology
• November 9-11, 2001
• Santa Clara, CaliforniaIntroductory tutorial
  November 8
• www.foresight.org/Conferences/MNT9/

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Foresight
www.nanodot.org
www.foresight.org/SrAssoc/
Gatherings
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Health, wealth and atoms
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Arranging atoms

• Diversity
• Precision
• Cost

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Richard Feynman,1959
Theres plenty of room at the bottom
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1980s, 1990s
Experiment and theory
Binnig and Rohrer
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President Clinton, 2000
The National Nanotechnology Initiative

• 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.

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Overview
Arrangements of atoms
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Today
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Overview
The goal
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Overview
Core molecular manufacturing capabilities
Products
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Positional assembly
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Experimental
100 microns
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Experimental
H. J. Lee and W. Ho, SCIENCE 286, p. 1719,
NOVEMBER 1999
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Theoretical
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What to make
Diamond physical properties

• Property Diamonds value Comments
• Chemical reactivity Extremely low
• Hardness (kg/mm2) 9000 CBN 4500 SiC 4000
• Thermal conductivity (W/cm-K) 20 Ag 4.3 Cu
  4.0
• Tensile 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 1.4
• Resistivity (W-cm) 1016 (natural)
• Density (gm/cm3) 3.51
• Thermal Expansion Coeff (K-1) 0.8 x 10-6 SiO2
  0.5 x 10-6
• Refractive index 2.41 _at_ 590 nm Glass 1.4 - 1.8
• Coeff. of Friction 0.05 (dry) Teflon 0.05
• Source Crystallume

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Making diamond today
Illustration courtesy of P1 Diamond Inc.
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Hydrogen abstraction tool
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Other molecular tools
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Bearing
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Planetary gear
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Fine motion controller
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Theoretical
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Self replication
A redwood tree (sequoia sempervirens) 112 meters
tall Redwood National Park
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Self replication
The Von Neumann architecture
Universal Computer
Universal Constructor
http//www.zyvex.com/nanotech/vonNeumann.html
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Self replication
Replicating bacterium
DNA
DNA Polymerase
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Self replication
Drexlers proposal for an assembler
http//www.foresight.org/UTF/Unbound_LBW/chapt_6.h
tml
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Complexity (bits)

• Von Neumann's constructor 500,000
• Mycoplasma genitalia 1,160,140
• Drexler's assembler 100,000,000

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Micro rotation
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Exponential assembly
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Impact

• The impact
• of a manufacturing technology
• depends on what we manufacture

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Impact
Powerful Computers

• Well 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

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Impact
Nanomedicine

• Disease and ill health are caused largely by
  damage at the molecular and cellular level
• Todays surgical tools are huge and imprecise in
  comparison

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Impact
Nanomedicine

• 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.

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Scale
Size of a robotic arm 100 nanometers
8-bit computer
Typical mitochondrion 1-2 by 0.1-0.5 microns
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Scale
Mitochondrion
Size of a robotic arm 100 nanometers
8-bit computer
Typical cell 20 microns
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Remove infections
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Clear obstructions
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Respirocyte
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A Revolution

• Today preserve function
• Tomorrow preserve structure

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Cryonics
Liquid nitrogen
Temperature
Time
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What to do?

• Would you rather
• join the control group
• or
• the experimental group?
• (www.alcor.org)

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Perception

• 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

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Theory
Nanomedicine

• By Robert Freitas, Zyvex Research Scientist
• Surveys medical applications of nanotechnology
• Volume I (of three) published in 1999

http//www.foresight.org/Nanomedicine
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Human impact on the environment depends on
The Vision

• Population
• Living standards
• Technology

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Restoring the environmentwith nanotechnology
The Vision

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

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• Nanotechnology offers ... possibilities for
  health, wealth, and capabilities beyond most past
  imaginings.
• K. Eric Drexler

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