Nanofactory Collaboration – the Website Thursday, Jul 27 2006
nanotechnology 1:26 pm
The U.S., Indian, Russian, Chinese, and Japanese governments are spending billions of dollars on something they call “nanotechnology”. The leaders of these countries are calling nanotechnology critical to the future of their national economies and security. But what is nanotechnology? To them, it involves any branch of materials science or manufacturing that invokes extremely small particles or coatings. These particles or coatings, when added to typical everyday products like sunscreen, can result in marginal product performance improvements. For example, there are the infamous nano-pants.
Because governments are pumping billions into the area, it pays to call your work nanotechnology, but is it really? When Eric Drexler popularized the term in the 1980s, he wasn’t talking about stain-resistant pants, but rather molecular manufacturing – dense arrays of molecular arms building macro-scale products by working in parallel. This is “bottom-up” manufacturing, building products atom by atom, rather than “top-down” manufacturing, where we take large chunks of matter and chip at them until we get what we want. The difference in performance and speed is predicted to be phenomenal.
Very few researchers are actually working on molecular manufacturing, the “true” nanotechnology. And very little of this government money I’ve mentioned actually gets to them. But they do exist, and are supported – but more frequently by working professionals who donate than by huge governments handing out grants. These researchers recently got together and put up a new website – Nanofactory Collaboration – that outlines some of the key milestones to be overcome before we can have a desktop molecular manufacturing system, and invites researchers to join the effort.
Nanofactories will be profoundly transformative when they roll out from these researchers’ brains to the labs and then to store shelves. It is currently unknown exactly how much work will be required to implement a nanofactory, and the technology could be as far as two decades away, but one thing is certain – when these machines do arrive, they will usher in a new Industrial Revolution, and in hindsight will be seen as far more significant than the invention of the atomic bomb.
The core researchers leading this collaboration are Robert A. Freitas Jr. and Ralph C. Merkle, located in the SF Bay Area and Atlanta, respectively.
Nanotechnology is a huge field. But calling your product “nano” to capitalize on the trend is foolish and short-sighted. With the new FTC regime it could land your company in serious trouble for false advertising as well as the media making a mockery of you when you are exposed.
It is also a good reminder that not everything is as it is labeled – nanopants indeed.
Sincerely,
Thomas Anderson
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