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Molecular
Nanotechnology

www.zyvex.com/nano
Ralph C. Merkle
Principal Fellow, Zyvex
www.merkle.com
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Nick Smith, Chairman
House Subcommittee on Basic Research
June 22, 1999
In Fiscal Year 1999, the federal
government will spend
approximately $230 million on
nanotechnology research.
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National Nanotechnology
Initiative
Interagency (AFOSR, ARO, BMDO,
DARPA, DOC, DOE, NASA, NIH, NIST,
NSF, ONR, and NRL)
Congressional hearings
Objective: double funding through
existing channels
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Academic and Industry
Caltechs MSC (1999 Feynman Prize),
Rice CNST (Smalley), USC Lab for
Molecular Robotics, etc
Private nonprofit (Foresight, IMM)
Private for profit (IBM, Zyvex, Covalent)
And many more.
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There is a growing sense in the
scientific and technical
community that we are about to
enter a golden new era.
Richard Smalley
1996 Nobel Prize, Chemistry
http://www.house.gov/
science/smalley_062299.htm
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The principles of physics, as far as I can see,
do not speak against the possibility of
maneuvering things atom by atom. It is not an
attempt to violate any laws; it is something, in
principle, that can be done; but in practice, it
has not been done because we are too
big.

Richard Feynman, 1959
http://www.zyvex.com/nanotech/feynman.html
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The book that laid out the technical
argument for molecular nanotechnology:
Nanosystems
by K. Eric Drexler, Wiley 1992
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Three historical trends
in manufacturing
More flexible
More precise
Less expensive
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The limit of these trends:
nanotechnology
Fabricate most structures consistent
with physical law
Get essentially every atom in the right
place
Inexpensive (~10-50 cents/kilogram)
http://www.zyvex.com/nano
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Coal
Sand
Dirt, water
and air
Diamonds
Computer chips
Grass
It matters how atoms
are arranged
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Todays manufacturing
methods move atoms in
statistical herds
Casting
Grinding
Welding
Sintering
Lithography

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Possible
arrangements of
atoms
.
What we can make today
(not to scale)
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The goal:
a healthy bite.
.
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Core molecular
manufacturing
capabilities
Today
Products
Products
Products
Products
Products
Products
Products
Products
Products
Products
Products
Products
Products
Products
Products
Products
Products
Products
Products
Products
Products
Products
Products
Products
Products
Products
Overview of the
development of
molecular
nanotechnology
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Terminological caution
Nanotechnology has been
applied to almost any research
where some dimension is less
than a micron (1,000
nanometers) in size.

Example: sub-micron optical lithography
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Two more
fundamental ideas
Self replication (for low cost)
Positional assembly (so
molecular parts go where we
want them to go)
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Von Neumann architecture
for a self replicating system
Universal
Computer
Universal
Constructor
http://www.zyvex.com/nanotech/vonNeumann.html
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Drexlers architecture for an
assembler
Molecular
computer
Molecular
constructor
Positional device Tip chemistry
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Illustration of an assembler
http://www.foresight.org/UTF/Unbound_LBW/chapt_6.html
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The theoretical concept of machine
duplication is well developed. There are
several alternative strategies by which
machine self-replication can be carried out
in a practical engineering setting.
Advanced Automation for Space Missions
Proceedings of the 1980 NASA/ASEE Summer
Study
http://www.zyvex.com/nanotech/selfRepNASA.html

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A C program that prints out
an exact copy of itself
main(){char q=34, n=10,*a="main()
{char q=34,n=10,*a=%c%s%c;
printf(a,q,a,q,n);}%c";printf(a,q,a,q,n);}
For more information, see the Recursion Theorem:
http://www.zyvex.com/nanotech/selfRep.html
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English translation:
Print the following statement twice,
the second time in quotes:
Print the following statement twice,
the second time in quotes:
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C program 800
Von Neumann's universal constructor 500,000
Internet worm (Robert Morris, Jr., 1988) 500,000
Mycoplasma capricolum 1,600,000
E. Coli 9,278,442
Drexler's assembler 100,000,000
Human 6,400,000,000
NASA Lunar
Manufacturing Facility over 100,000,000,000
http://www.zyvex.com/nanotech/selfRep.html
Complexity of self replicating systems
(bits)
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How cheap?
Potatoes, lumber, wheat and other
agricultural products are examples of
products made using a self replicating
manufacturing base. Costs of roughly a
dollar per pound are common.
Molecular manufacturing will make almost
any product for a dollar per pound or less,
independent of complexity. (Design costs,
licensing costs, etc. not included)
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How long?
The scientifically correct answer is
I dont know
Trends in computer hardware suggest
early in the next century perhaps in
the 2010 to 2020 time frame
Of course, how long it takes depends on
what we do
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Developmental pathways
Scanning probe microscopy
Self assembly
Ever smaller systems
Hybrid approaches
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Moving molecules with an SPM
(Gimzewski et al.)
http://www.zurich.ibm.com/News/Molecule/
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Self assembled DNA octahedron
(Seeman)
http://seemanlab4.chem.nyu.edu/nano-oct.html
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DNA on an SPM tip
(Lee et al.)
http://stm2.nrl.navy.mil/1994scie/1994scie.html
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Buckytubes
(Tough, well defined)
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Buckytube glued to SPM tip
(Dai et al.)
http://cnst.rice.edu/TIPS_rev.htm
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Building the tools to build the tools
Directly manufacturing a diamondoid
assembler using existing techniques
appears very difficult .
Well have to build intermediate systems
able to build better systems able to build
diamondoid assemblers.
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If we can make
whatever we want
what
do we want
to make?
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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 10
9
(natural) 10
11
(theoretical)
Compressive strength (pascals) 10
11
(natural) 5 x 10
11
(theoretical)
Band gap (ev) 5.5 Si: 1.1 GaAs: 1.4
Resistivity (W-cm) 10
16
(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 @ 590 nm Glass: 1.4 - 1.8
Coeff. of Friction 0.05 (dry) Teflon: 0.05

Source: Crystallume
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Strength of diamond
Diamond has a strength-to-weight ratio
over 50 times that of steel or aluminium
alloy
Structural (load bearing) mass can be
reduced by about this factor
When combined with reduced cost, this
will have a major impact on aerospace
applications
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A hydrocarbon bearing
http://www.zyvex.com/nanotech/bearingProof.html
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Neon pump
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A planetary gear
http://www.zyvex.com/nanotech/gearAndCasing.html
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A proposal for a molecular
positional device
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Classical uncertainty
k
T k
b

: mean positional error

k: restoring force
k
b
: Boltzmanns constant
T: temperature
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A numerical example of
classical uncertainty
k
T k
b

: 0.02 nm (0.2 )
k: 10 N/m
k
b
: 1.38 x 10
-23
J/K
T: 300 K
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Molecular tools
Today, we make things at the molecular scale
by stirring together molecular parts and
cleverly arranging things so they
spontaneously go somewhere useful.
In the future, well have molecular hands
that will let us put molecular parts exactly
where we want them, vastly increasing the
range of molecular structures that we can
build.
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Synthesis of diamond today:
diamond CVD
Carbon: methane (ethane, acetylene...)
Hydrogen: H
2
Add energy, producing CH
3
, H, etc.

Growth of a diamond film.
The right chemistry, but little control over the site of
reactions or exactly what is synthesized.
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A hydrogen abstraction tool
http://www.zyvex.com/nanotech/Habs/Habs.html
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Some other molecular tools
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A synthetic strategy for the
synthesis of diamondoid structures
Positional assembly
(6 degrees of freedom)
Highly reactive compounds (radicals,
carbenes, etc)
Inert environment (vacuum, noble gas)
to eliminate side reactions
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The impact of
nanotechnology
depends on whats being
made
Computers, memory, displays
Space Exploration
Medicine
Military
Environment, Energy, etc.
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Powerful computers
In the future well pack more computing
power into a sugar cube than the sum total of
all the computer power that exists in the world
today
Well be able to store more than 10
21
bits in
the same volume
Or more than a billion Pentiums operating in
parallel
Powerful enough to run Windows 2015
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Memory probe
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Displays
Molecular machines smaller than a
wavelength of light will let us build
holographic displays that reconstruct
the entire wave front of a light wave
It will be like looking through a window
into another world
Covering walls, ceilings and floor would
immerse us in another reality
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Space
Launch vehicle structural mass will be
reduced by about a factor of 50
Cost per pound for that structural mass
will be under a dollar
Which will reduce the cost to low earth
orbit by a factor 1,000 or more

http://science.nas.nasa.gov/Groups/
Nanotechnology/publications/1997/applications/
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It costs less to launch less
Light weight computers and sensors will
reduce total payload mass for the same
functionality
Recycling of waste will reduce payload
mass, particularly for long flights and
permanent facilities (space stations,
colonies)
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Swallowing the surgeon
...it would be interesting in surgery if you could swallow
the surgeon. You put the mechanical surgeon inside
the blood vessel and it goes into the heart and looks
around. ... Other small machines might be
permanently incorporated in the body to assist some
inadequately-functioning organ.

Richard P. Feynman, 1959
Nobel Prize for Physics, 1965

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Nanomedicine Volume I
By Robert Freitas
Surveys medical applications of
nanotechnology
Extensive technical analysis
Volume I (of three) published in 1999
http://www.foresight.org/Nanomedicine
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Mitochondrion
20 nm scale bar
Ribosome
Molecular computer
(4-bit) + peripherals
Molecular bearing
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Typical cell
Mitochondrion
Molecular computer
+ peripherals
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Disease and illness are
caused largely by damage at
the molecular and cellular
level

Todays surgical tools are
huge and imprecise in
comparison

http://www.foresight.org/Nanomedicine
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In the future, we will have fleets
of surgical tools that are
molecular both in size and
precision.

We will also have computers
that are much smaller than a
single cell with which to guide
these tools.
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Medical applications
Killing cancer cells,
bacteria
Removing blockages
Providing oxygen
(artificial red blood cell)
Adjusting other
metabolites
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A revolution in medicine
Today, loss of cell function results in
cellular deterioration:
function must be preserved
With medical nanodevices, passive
structures can be repaired. Cell
function can be restored provided cell
structure can be inferred:
structure must be preserved
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Cryonics
37 C
37 C
-196 C (77 Kelvins)
Freeze
Restore
to health
Time
T
e
m
p
e
r
a
t
u
r
e

(many decades)
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Clinical trials
to evaluate cryonics
Select N subjects
Freeze them
Wait 100 years
See if the medical technology of 2100 can
indeed revive them

But what do we tell those who dont expect to
live long enough to see the results?
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Would you rather join:
The control group?
(no action required)
or
The experimental group?
(see www.alcor.org for info)
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Military applications of molecular
manufacturing have even greater
potential than nuclear weapons to
radically change the balance of
power.

Admiral David E. Jeremiah, USN (Ret)
Former Vice Chairman, Joint Chiefs of
Staff
November 9, 1995
http://www.zyvex.com/nanotech/nano4/jeremiahPaper.html
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Human impact on the
environment depends on
Population
Living standards
Technology
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Restoring the environment
with nanotechnology
Low cost greenhouse agriculture
Low cost solar power
Pollution free manufacturing
The ultimate in recycling
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Solar power and
nanotechnology
The sunshine reaching the earth has
almost 40,000 times more power than
total world usage.
Nanotechnology will produce efficient,
rugged solar cells and batteries at low
cost.
Power costs will drop dramatically
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Environmentally friendly
manufacturing
Todays manufacturing plants pollute
because they use imprecise methods.
Nanotechnology is precise it will
produce only what it has been designed
to produce.
An abundant source of carbon is the
excess CO
2
in the air
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Nanotechnology offers ...
possibilities for health,
wealth, and capabilities
beyond most past
imaginings.

K. Eric Drexler
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The best way
to predict the future
is to invent it.

Alan Kay