Molecular Manufacturing
Molecular manufacturing is the wonderful idea of being able to precisely place atoms by mechanical means. It's a lot like trying to use a shipyard crane to lay bricks... or dominoes. And, tons of people are talking about ways to build this magic crane.
Howard Lovy wrote a blog post today about a molecular drive shaft built with this software called nanoENGINEER-1. The software basically allows you to take virtual atoms, put them all together in the configuration you want, and simulate whatever happens next. A bunch of big names are attached to nanoENGINEER-1: Mark Sims, Eric Drexler, Ralph Merkle... the list goes on.
Everybody wants molecular manufacturing to work. People like Drexler bleed theories about how to make it happen. But, what exactly does this entail?
Molecular manufacturing means a number of things, including manually overcoming interatomic forces, balancing electric (ionic) charges all over the place, preventing your tool tip from binding onto the object you're manufacturing, and a wide variety of other things that, at times, just don't seem like they can happen. That's not to say they won't happen — they just seem very unlikely, given my knowledge of the physics and engineering involved.
Anyway, I just wanted to point out that it bothers me that everyone's talking about molecular manufacturing, making pretty pictures and animations about molecular manufacturing, and writing long-winded articles about the glorious future of molecular manufacturing, but as far as I know, nobody is actually saying, "hey, let's go back to my lab and build some stuff."
Papers have been published left and right about equipment that can theoretically make atomically precise devices. Let's see it! Let's see a cube made of exactly 125 carbon atoms. Or the outline of a cube made of 44 carbon atoms. When I check out Nature or Science in a few weeks, I would love to see an AFM-generated (or similar) image of that cube on the cover of the issue, staring me in the face.
Anyway, that's my rant for this morning. I'm going to watch some Farscape.
Comments
Wow...Aldous Huxley was right when he said it was going to be a brave new world. Like you said, everyone is talking about molecular manufacturing but no one is actually doing it. Maybe it is time to make a name for yourself in the industry by leading the way in building the machines that will do all this. Or you could wait until after grad school, which would probably be a good thing. Do you have any ideas on how to overcome the problems that were mentioned, for example preventing your tool tip from binding onto the object that you are manufacturing? Whatever the solution, you could be on the leading edge.
Posted by: arc | June 4, 2006 10:00 AM