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| author | Fernando Borretti <eudoxiahp@gmail.com> | 2014-05-08 21:04:12 -0300 |
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| committer | Fernando Borretti <eudoxiahp@gmail.com> | 2014-05-08 21:04:12 -0300 |
| commit | fa98d738718089e9982f6d4a80bee81c28c9bc01 (patch) | |
| tree | 979c52f46c8be315abd0ba978400d589216024e3 | |
| parent | 18eef56f1ac9d3c2d1ce910379c061ae89a66426 (diff) | |
| download | diyhpluswiki-fa98d738718089e9982f6d4a80bee81c28c9bc01.tar.gz diyhpluswiki-fa98d738718089e9982f6d4a80bee81c28c9bc01.zip | |
Import part of the molecular manufacturing article from the Transhumani wiki: Overview, History, and Mechanosythesis sections with references
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diff --git a/nanotech/molecular-manufacturing.mdwn b/nanotech/molecular-manufacturing.mdwn new file mode 100644 index 0000000..42cb541 --- /dev/null +++ b/nanotech/molecular-manufacturing.mdwn @@ -0,0 +1,97 @@ +Overview +======== + +Molecular Manufacturing is the construction of atomically-precise macroscale +products. It does *not* require the manufacturing process to be +computer-controlled at every step or to handle atoms individually, nor does it +require the chemical processes to be limited to mechanosynthesis; only the +finished product must be machine-phase. + +Molecular Manufacturing is often used a synonym of 'Molecular Nanotechnology', +the vision of nanotechnology started by Eric Drexler and further explored by +Ralph Merkle, Robert Freitas and Zyvex.. While Molecular Nanotechnology is +centered around a variety of (Diamond-based) molecular machines, from the +Drexler Arm (A setting in which one of these builds a copy of itself is pictured +below) to the Respirocyte to the Neon Pump, manufacturing is a more global +process, that concerns itself with such machines and with more global +objectives, such as cheap, distributed manufacturing technologies, which is why +'molecular manufacturing' is the preferred name for this article. + +Nanotechnology, in general, is the art of building practical, complex machinery +with sizes varying from 100 to 1 nanometers. Nanoscience and nanotechnology are +new names for the gradually, naturally extended discipline of chemistry; and so +nanoscience should not be confused with the much more specific field of +Molecular Nanotechnology. The machines and processes shown in this article are +not filling journals or being made daily in laboratories. + +How small are atoms really? Kenneth Ford says, + +> ''"To arrive at the number of atoms in a cubic centimeter of water (a few +> drops), first cover the earth with airports, one against the other. Then go up +> a mile or so and build another solid layer of airports. Do this 100 million +> times. The last layer will have reached out to the sun and will contain some +> 1016 airports (ten million billion). The number of atoms in a few drops of +> water will be the number of airports filling up this substantial part of the +> solar system. If the airport construction rate were one million each second, +> the job could just have been finished in the known lifetime of the universe +> (something over ten billion years)."[^1] + +History +======= + +The origins of nanotechnology, whether 'normal nanotechnology' or Molecular +Nanotechnology, are often linked to Richard Feynman's historic 1959 lecture, +*There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom*, but the origins can be traced further +back. Colin Milburn in his book *Nanovision*, for example, correctly argues that +Feynman 'merely' articulated existing ideas in the science fiction of the time. + +Feynman's path to nanotechnology consisted on having remotely controlled arms +building smaller ones, successively until the nanoscale. The closest parallel to +this idea is Robert Heinlein's 1942 *Waldo*, in which a homonymous robot does +this until its copies are small enough to perform sub-cellular surgery[^2]. A +coworker at Caltech's JPL, Al Hibbs, had read the story and even filed a patent +application for the use of waldoes in space exploration. He talked it over with +Feynman and 'delighted' him with the notion of miniature surgical robots.[^3] + +Mechanosynthesis of Diamondoid +============================== + +Mechanosynthesis is the synthesis of chemical structures catalyzed by mechanical +pressure and constraints, or, simply, the use of mechanical force to direct and +alter the course of chemical reactions. For example, the animations to the left +show a reversible mechanosynthethic reaction in which an acetylene dimer is +placed on a diamond C(100) surface and then removed, using an atomic force +microscope with a special tip geometry. + +Mechanosynthesis of diamond, specifically, is the synthesis through this +mechanical chemistry of diamond, a stiff polycyclic structure. + +The evidence for mechanosynthesis can be traced back to the historic 1989 +spelling of the IBM logo using 35 Xenon atoms in a surface of Nickel by Don +Eigler and Erhard K. Schweizer. However, this experiment took place a few +degrees above absolute zero, and no covalent bonds were formed. + +In 2003, Oyabu et al.[^4] first demonstrated mechanosynthesis on a Silicon +surface using an atomic force microscope to remove an atom from the surface, +then place it again on the same position, again at liquid helium temperatures. + +References +========== + +[^1]: Kenneth W. Ford, "The Large and the Small," in Timothy Ferris, ed., The + World Treasury of Physics, Astronomy, and Mathematics (Boston: Little, Brown + and Company, 1991), 22. First published in *Kenneth W. Ford, The World of + Elementary Particles* (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1958). + +[^2]: *Waldo (short story)*. **Wikipedia**. + [<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waldo_(short_story)#The_waldo> Link]. + +[^3]: Ed Regis. *Nano: The Emerging Science of Nanotechnology*. June + 1995. + +[^4]: Noriaki Oyabu, Oscar Custance, Insook Yi, Yasuhiro Sugawara, Seizo + Morita, “Mechanical vertical manipulation of selected single atoms + by soft nanoindentation using near contact atomic force microscopy,” + Phys. Rev. Lett. 90(2 May 2003):176102; + [abstract](http://prl.aps.org/abstract/PRL/v90/i17/e176102), [APS + story](http://physics.aps.org/story/v11/st19). |