Editor's Note: Life is nanotechnology that works. Hence, biology provides guiding principles and examples to this rapidly developing field.
In his 1986 book, Engines of Creation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology researcher K. Eric Drexler presented detailed theories for the development of a new technology based on molecular-scale "universal assemblers." These assemblers would be able to manufacture not only other "nanomachines" and components of larger objects, but also copies of themselves. The book extended physicist Richard Feynman's ideas that it should be possible, theoretically, to build functional, minute machines by arranging individual molecules.
Engines of Creation envisioned scenarios in which nanomachines and
nanodevices would forever alter the world as we know it. "Immune machines"
would patrol the body and destroy invading microorganisms. Other "nanobots"
would venture inside cells and control gene expression, or eliminate cancer
cells. Nanomachines would transform pollution and toxic substances into
harmless compounds. Almost anything could be cheaply and easily replicated.
This would make food "replicators" like those on "Star Trek" a reality, and
poverty would be eliminated.
Drexler's theories, expounded most recently in an article in the January issue of Trends in Biotechnology (217K PDF download), have ignited the imagination of an entire generation of scientists who are exploring the limits of "downsizing" and molecular engineering. However, these same scientists do not universally agree that Drexler's vision of the future is plausible, or even feasible.
In this Opinion, three researchers who specialize in nanotechnology give their opinions on its future development, the role that biology might play in that development, and the feasibility of Drexler's vision. Nadrian Seeman, professor in the Department of Chemistry at New York University, has developed methods for directing the synthesis of three-dimensional objects from DNA. Ralph Merkle, a senior researcher at Xerox Corporation's Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) and a director of the Foresight Institute, studies computational nanotechnology. Kevin Ausman is a postdoctoral research associate in the Laboratory for the Study of Novel Carbon Materials in the Department of Physics at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, where he explores techniques for chemically functionalizing carbon nanotubes.
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I have been asked to address several questions involving nanotechnology that stem from the work of K. Eric Drexler. Our laboratory conducts research related to nanotechnology. We have used branched DNA motifs to produce stick polyhedra (a cube and a truncated octahedron), knots, Borromean rings, and 2-D lattices with designed surface patterns and tunable cavities.
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It was almost 40 years ago that Feynman gave his famous talk "There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom," but it has only been recently that his basic premise - that we will be able to arrange atoms in most of the patterns allowed by physical law - has been generally accepted. This agreement, of course, simply opens up new topics of debate.
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The scientific and popular attention paid to the burgeoning field of nanotechnology is well deserved. Controlled structuring on the nanometer scale is the ultimate in miniaturization and theoretically allows us to produce materials with exceptional properties. However, as James Murday of the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory explained in his talk at the Sixth Foresight Conference on Molecular Nanotechnology, nanotechnology doesn't yet exist. Today, we have nanoscience. The first commercialized applications that will make the field into a technology are years, maybe decades away.
Katherine Austin, a freelance writer, recently edited Nanotechnology: Emerging Trends for John Wiley & Sons.
Ed Himelblau is currently a graduate student in the Cell and Molecular Biology Program at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. Working in the laboratory of Richard Amasino, he studies the genes involved in flowering and leaf senescence (i.e., "fall colors") in the plant Arabidopsis thaliana.
Endlinks
Chemistry on the Nanometer Scale - another view on the future of nanotechnology. By R.E. Smalley; presented at the Robert A. Welch Foundation 40th Conference on Chemical Research.
Foresight Institute - home of the Drexlerians.
Nanotechnology - an extensive set of links to other nanotechnology sites. Maintained by NASA.
Nanotechnology Sites on the WWW - a collection of Internet resources related to nanotechnology.
Nanotechnology Papers and Sci.Nanotech Archives - a comprehensive reference source for research reports and information related to nanotechnology.
Nanotechnology Database - provides information on nanotechnology in the following areas: major research centers, funding agencies, major reports, and books.
World Transhumanist Association - a philosophy of reengineering humanity. Views nanotechnology a bit too uncritically.
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