19-10-2010, 10:43 AM
MOLECULAR MANUFACTURING IN NANO TECHNOLOGY
ABSTRACT: By building an object atom by atom or molecule by molecule, molecular manufacturing , also called molecular nanotechnology, can produce new materials with improved performance over existing materials. For example, an airplane strut must be very strong, but also lightweight. A molecular fabricator could build the strut atom by atom out of carbon, making a lightweight material that is stronger than a diamond. Remember that a diamond is merely a lattice of carbon atoms held together by bonds between the atoms. By placing carbon atoms, one after the other, in the shape of the strut, such a fabricator could create a diamond-like material that is lightweight and stronger than any metal.
Researchers believe that molecular manufacturing also has the potential to revolutionize medicine. For example, sensors that are smaller than blood cells could be produced inexpensively. When released into a patient's blood stream in large numbers, these sensors could provide very accurate diagnoses. Nano robots could be built using molecular manufacturing to perform surgical procedures in a more precise way. By working at the cellular level, such nano robots could prevent much of the damage caused by the comparatively clumsy scalpel . Molecular manufacturing is the use of programmable chemistry to build exponential manufacturing systems and high-performance products. There are several ways this can be achieved, each with its own benefits and drawbacks. This technology is coming soon—almost certainly within 20 years, and perhaps in less than a decade. When it arrives, it will come quickly. Molecular manufacturing can be built into a self-contained, table top factory that makes cheap products efficiently at molecular scale. The time from the first assembler to a flood of powerful and complex products may be less than a year. The potential benefits of such a technology are immense. Unfortunately, the risks are also immense.
