11 replies to this topic

[bacopa]

There's alot of speculation but what are the chances of us seeing nanotechnology results coming anytime soon?

[Lazarus Long]

Do you mean specifically in the area of medicine?

Or any of the many possible applications?

The former is more subtle the later is already happening.

[bacopa]

I was just curious about a time frame for some of the progress being made in Nanotech. Medicine and some of the other grandiose ideas that have been presented such as self replicating nano devices that can make our bodies stronger in some way.

[Lazarus Long]

Genetics is basically a branch of nanotech, one that is already bearing fruit. This is the failure built into Smalley's arguments with Drexler. Smalley sees these as separate fields or areas of chemistry but genetics is applied and proven nanotech for organic chemistry "distinct from biology," but once we are facile with the basic chemical principles it is simply a matter of making all matter follow the applications of intelligent molecular design.

We still don't fully understand "why" genetics works as it does. What we recognize is how it is working. The more for now we study how, the closer to understanding why and once we fully grasp that basic set of fundamental laws of matter we will start defining and designing "living" (smart) molecules towards our own ends.

In the areas of medicine some basic chemical synthetics are under study now from synthetic flesh to synthetic hemoglobin. We are using nano tech applications to highlight and facilitate transcription of genetic material to manipulate mutation in controllable ways. These are already leading to some of the first treatments designed to alter phenotype expression of a gene or get it to turn on or off.

More applications are coming and the more one grasps of the synergy between genetics and nano the faster the fusion of these fields of study is going to take place. Basically I suspect that in fifty years nanotech will assimilate many branches of chemistry from basic physical and organic chemistry, genetics, and overlap into program language and nuclear physics.

But that fifty years will likely represent a proportional level of advancement equivalent to the last four to five centuries of industrial achievement combined.

[kevin]

dfowler,

Just recently there was a paper out which described the proper folding of a synthetic protein. It won't be long before we are constructing protein molecules with specific function from scratch, so in a way nanotech has probably been growing all along as we discover how our bodies work on a molecular level. Here's a link to an article on Betterhumans that talks about it.

http://www.betterhum...ID=2003-11-20-2

[MichaelAnissimov]

The Center for Responsible Nanotechnology is always a reliable source for nanotech data:

http://www.crnano.org/timeline.htm

[bacopa]

thanks for the links I'm a novice it's an amazing burgeoning technology that could effect the human condition immensely to say the least I simply can't get over it's implications. [:o]

Edited by dfowler, 16 December 2003 - 03:55 AM.

[MichaelAnissimov]

In many cases, I think reading the literature on the internet will get you more detailed answers that querying on these forums, especially for something as general as nanotechnology.

[bacopa]

I'm realizing that don't worry.

[chubtoad]

Prediction -
5 years significant advances in material science with nanotech
10 years first major application in consumer products
15 years significant advances in medicine with nanotech
20 years machines swimming through your bloodstream or hunting down cancerous cells.

[bacopa]

I was reading over the intro for Responsible Nanotech and I thought it interesting the fabricators that in turn make up nanofactories which than put together the intended product itself what an interesting process

[Omnido]

The theory is quite interesting, as it denotes a myriad of processess that will be required, many of which will be excessively expensive in some cases, and extremely technical in others.
Its akin to describing an electron microscope.
The device itself is highly complicated and quite large, though they are getting smaller, is designed only to view a very small surface area at a great degree of magification.
Yet, to see something small with detail, a device billions of times larger is required.

The dream is that, In the end, the technology will become so sophisticated that size will be irrelavent. Nanomachines will not only fabricate other nanomachines, but also very large machines and items.

From molecules we were conceived, into giant products from those arranged atoms we end up, only to develop the tools from our cognitive abilities which allow us to return to the level upon which we were created.