cww.blog!

I have learned so much about nanotechnology in the past couple weeks that my head is about to explode. I know where the current research stands, and I know the open problems and what people are doing to try to solve them. It's kind of an amazing feeling, really.

I also subscribed to the sci.nanotech newsgroup (but not through Google Groups, ugh!), after a Usenet hiatus of about four years. The frequent posters in sci.nanotech seem to enjoy debating meta-nanotechnological issues like ethics and policy, along with the more hard science stuff.
Carbon nanotube: artist's rendering.There is also the nominal amount of trolls and idiots, but that's fine. It's a good read, and now that I'm up to date on the discussions there, I think I'll stick around.

Now that I have been reading a lot about nanotech, I realize why my nanostructures class has proceeded in the way that it has. The professor, Elias Towe, is an electrical engineer (Ph.D. MIT, 1987), so he likes things that work with circuits and things that can build other electronic things. This, then, is why we have studied photonic crystals and carbon nanotubes: they are both technologies (materials, really) that could end up being integral to the future development of electronics.

This realization has also brought to light something about my own interests. I don't care nearly as much about these "building block" materials as I do about actual nanoscale machines. My interests are in molecular nanotechnology, which deals with actual devices that are built atom by atom and perform tasks with sub-nanometer precision.

Microbivore: artist's rendering. Click to enlarge.So, right now, I'm researching the microbivore, which is Robert A. Freitas Jr.'s idea (PDF) of an artificial white blood cell. Specifically, I have contacted Freitas and asked him what bits of the design still need some work. I'm currently trying to decide whether to research weaknesses in the ultrastructure of the human kidney as possible ingress/egress points for microbivores or to research pathogenic antigens for unique combinations thereof required to determine the kind of organism the microbivore is touching. The magic 8-ball is pointing toward the kidney ultrastructure right now, and I have a four-volume book set on the kidney on the floor next to me.

As an aside, I'd just like to note it was incredibly easy to request that the kidney books be transferred from the library at the Mellon Institute, which is elsewhere in Pittsburgh (admittedly, not that far of a walk, but I was busy!), to the Engineering & Science Library at CMU. The set arrived within about 24 hours, and I received an email suggesting I might go pick them up soon. Wonderful!

Anyway, I'm excited about nanotech (rather, molecular nanotechnology) and the stuff I'll get to do with it in the future.