If molecular nanotechnology is realized in the future, nanometer scale "assembler nanobots" would be able to manufacture products and goods with atomic precision in nanofactories (like this desktop computer seen here). Currently assembler nanobots don't exist, but once they are produced, they could quite possibly change the future.
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Of course to understand molecular nanotechnology, you first have to comprehend nanotechnology. And it's simply human engineering at the atomic or molecular level. Physicist and Nobel Prize winner Richard Feynman (seen here speaking at Cal Tech University in 1959) is credited with the theory of nanotechnology.
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Engineer Eric Drexler, Ph.D., however, is best known for highlighting the possibility of molecular nanotechnology in his book, "Nanosystems: Molecular Machinery, Manufacturing and Computation".
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Now engineering on a molecular level is no small feat. Scientists are working with molecules and atoms barely visible with high-powered microscopes. For instance, the carbon nanotube seen in this artist's rendering is less than two nanometers in diameter -- that's 50,000 times thinner than a human hair -- and has methane molecules flowing through it.
Image Credit: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Nanotechnology may one day allow us to use microbots as part of our standard healthcare. Seen here is an artist's rendition of a microbot en route to destroy a malfunctioning red blood cell.
Image Credit: National Institute of Standards and Technology
Advancements in tools for controlling nanocomponents smaller than the size of a red blood cell will help accelerate the science. Here physicist Thomas LeBrun at the National Institute of Standards and Technology controls nanowires with a joystick and "optical tweezers" that utilize a highly focused laser beam.
Image Credit: National Institute of Standards and Technology
Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology are also studying helium ion microscopes in hopes they can improve measuring at a nanoscale -- something critical to nanomanufacturing. Here you can see how much sharper gold atoms appear when viewed through the helium ion microscope (right) than through a state-of-the-art scanning electron microscope (left).
Image Credit: National Institute of Standards and Technology
NASA is also growing a new form of carbon in the lab. Carbon nanotube (CNT) is a few nanometers in diameter and can be metallic or semiconducting. This new CNT has opened up endless possibilities in molecular nanotechnology and the assembly of nanoelectronics devices, circuits and computers.
Image Credit: NASA
Polymers are also being utilized in molecular nanotechnology. Research has shown, though, that it is extremely difficult to control their self-assembly. But a technique using roughened substrates has been useful in controlling the orientation of nanostructures. Seen here: Silica nanoparticles (orange) cast onto silicon substrates (grey) create "tunable" substrates that can control self-assembly, despite their inherent disorder.
Image Credit: National Institute of Standards and Technology
Researchers at the Numerical Aerospace Simulation Systems Division (NAS) of NASA have created a simulation of "Fullerene nanogears" by attaching benzyne molecules to the outside of a nanotube to form gear teeth. The gears are driven using a supercomputer-simulated laser as a motor. One of NASA's intentions is to utilize nanobots and nanofactories that can self-repair and adapt to nearly any environment.
Image Credit: NASA
Heme carrier protein 1 (HCP1) is a building block that is ideal for assembling nanostructures because it is so easy to work with. Assuming conditions are optimal, scientists can add a few cysteines to HCP1 and the donut-shaped proteins form nanotubes that can be lengthened or shortened, and topped with molecules that can give the tubes specific functions. View the next slide to see how genomes go from cells to protein machines.
Image Credit: U.S. Department of Energy
Genomes "come to life" according to a complex set of directions embedded in the DNA sequence that tell proteins to do the work of the cell. They build cellular structures, digest nutrients, execute other metabolic functions, and much more. They work with other proteins to create "molecular machines," which is why proteins are ideal for molecular nanofactories.
Image Credit: U.S. Department of Energy
Science is also working to develop new, synthetic nanostructures that can perform the same functions as living cells. In this figure, the enzyme organophosphorus hydrolase (OPH) is embedded in a synthetic nanomembrane (mesoporous silica) to enhance its activity and stability. The OPH transforms toxic substances (purple molecules at left of OPH) to harmless byproducts (yellow and red molecules at right).
Image Credit: U.S. Department of Energy
Nanosensors may be used in the future to map the terrains of alien planets. This rendering from NASA shows just that. The cross-section at the top-right shows biologically derived molecules (yellow and red) that would perform the sensing and signaling functions.
Image Credit: NASA
Most scientists working in the field of molecular nanotechnology have to use high-performance supercomputers like Oak Ridge National Laboratory's (ORNL) Jaguar because of the large number of atoms it requires to simulate the working components. ORNL's Jaguar's XT4 component calculates at a speed of 0.263 petaflop, or quadrillion floating point operations, per second.
Image Credit: National Center for Computational Sciences
To those in the nanotechnology field, carbon nanotubes are grown, not made. Using a method called chemical vapor deposition -- a general chemical process that produces solids -- large groups of carbon nanotubes can be grown for use as composites, or the nanotubes can be grown in a more controlled way on substrates that will be used for nanoelectronics.
Image Credit: NASA
The lab gear seen in this photo was used to help create a process inspired by the pistol shrimp, which uses high-velocity water jets to stun its prey. Similarly, the process used by NanoMatrix uses liquid jets to cut and give shape to objects. The idea is to do small-scale machining work such as sub-micron etching, welding and drilling -- all at a nanometer level of precision. Using the NanoMatrix approach, small-scale electronic, medical and mechanical devices can be developed and built.
Image Credit: NASA
To work down at the nano scale, it takes much more than a few beakers and some microscopes. Shown here is the atom-on-demand apparatus in the National Institute for Standards and Technology's atom optical facilities. Teams there can produce laser light in several nanometer ranges and use it to perform atomic manipulation experiments.
Image Credit: National Institute for Standards and Technology
We've already talked a bit about carbon nanotubes. Among the many useful applications envisioned for them is their potential to help diagnose and treat brain tumors. Nanotube technology could one day allow for minimally invasive surgery on brain tumors, no matter where they're located. Furthermore, cancer-fighting drugs may one day be delivered by a nanotube.
Image Credit: NASA
Industries have often been vexed about the carbon-dioxide their processes release into the atmosphere. The approaches currently taken are often expensive, unwieldy and not exactly 100 percent effective. So how about using carbon dioxide cages to trap the CO2 before it reaches the atmosphere? Researchers at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory created miniscule, hexagonal crystals cages at the nano scale. When gas passes through the nanocages, carbon dioxide binds to the cage's frame. The CO2 can later be released in a more controlled way, and the nanocages can be reused repeatedly.
Image Credit: Praveen K. Thallapally
Not only could nanotechnology help capture carbon dioxide, but it's also being used to help better understand, and hopefully improve upon, today's ubiquitous lithium-ion battery. Li-ion batteries are used in cell phones, laptop computers and all manner of other devices. Researchers have been able to use nanotechnology to create the world's smallest battery and observe changes in its charge and discharge cycles at atomic-sized resolution. The image here is a tiny nanowire anode becoming distorted during charging. Studying a battery's behavior at this resolution gives scientists a better understanding of how batteries work at their most fundamental level. Battery developers should be able to make good use of the data to improve their products.
Image Credit: U.S. Dept. of Energy
NASA has been quite involved in nanotechnology research. The group that put the first man on the moon has shown high interest in nanolasers -- lasers constructed from nanometer-scale wires. The nanowires are usually about 10-100 nanometers wide and only a few micrometers long; nonetheless, their light emissions can function as lasers, and NASA thinks the technology has applications in both communications and sensing. In the next image, we'll see NASA's idea of a space transportation system that uses nanotubes.
Image Credit: NASA
This artist's rendering from NASA depicts a space transportation vehicle of the future that uses nanotubes in its construction. Note the smart materials denoted on its external surface; its nano-based electrochemical systems; and its digital nanoelectronics. Now if only it could get to Mars and back in three days.
Image Credit: NASA
Sometimes you don't have the kind of electrical power you'd prefer. For NASA, molecular nanotechnology might be especially helpful in such cases. Engineering a DNA strand between metal atom contacts, such as we see modeled here, could make possible a molecular electronics device. Indeed, these kinds of molecules and nanostructures may spark the next revolution in electronics. NASA hopes one day to be able to make devices and sensors from these kinds of structures.
Image Credit: NASA
Chip cooling is yet another application where carbon nanotubes may come in handy. This picture may look like a bunch of misshapen eggs, or unadorned Easter peeps, but they're actually carbon nanotubes interposed with copper to create a composite that has good cooling properties, such as might be needed by computers. Note the scale on the image of 10 microns. That's just .01 millimeters (.00039 inches).
Now that you've seen our molecular nanotechnology pictures, test your knowledge by taking the molecular nanotechnology quiz!
Image Credit: NASA
If prosthetic limbs with super-pinch force aren't enough to show the incredible progress seen in modern medicine, how about a bionic exoskeleton? Shown here is a paralyzed woman who is nonetheless able to walk with the help of a bionic exoskeleton. The battery-powered exoskeleton was developed by Ekso Bionics to help those in wheelchairs as well as those who have spinal cord injuries.
Image Credit: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images
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