Dr. Asher Idan - Nano technology - the revolution after the Internet

Nanotechnology entails many challenges. How will it affect our daily lives, and what do the computing people, who are the audience of the lecture at the Oracle conference, need to know

Dr. Asher Idan

The personal computer revolution and the Internet revolution were made possible by technologies that allow working with devices, such as the processor components, at the micro (thousandth of a millimeter) level. Now the next revolution is getting closer due to technologies that allow working with devices, such as blood capillaries and artificial neurons at the nano (millionth of a millimeter) level. Perhaps we have reached the stage of entry of venture capital funds into the field of nanotechnology in a massive way, because recently the US government allocated to the "American Nanotechnology Agency" an amount approaching a billion dollars.
The nano revolution moved from the philosophical and scientific phase to the technological phase in 1984, due to three important events:
1 At IBM, the microscope was invented that allows you to see nano particles the size of an atom, and also to act on such particles.
2. The first nanotechnological material was developed, based on spherical particles with a hexagonal structure called "Becky spheres".
3. The first book was written that presented the business potential of nanotechnology.
In the years that followed, the events unfolded quickly and event follows event to this day. Nanotechnological activity is currently divided into three areas: nano-devices, nano-materials, and nano-control.
Nanodevices or nanomotor
The most prominent nanotechnological device is the nanomotor or nanotor. What is a nanotor? The highlight of the efforts currently being made in the construction of systems at the nano-millimeter level (micro-mechanics. A nanotor combines sensors, motors and digital processors, on the order of a millionth of a millimeter, like a molecule or an atom, which work when they are integrated with each other, for example:
• The meeting in nature between the sperm cell and the egg creates a nanotube that eventually produces an organism.
• A spacecraft the size of a bird, sent to Mars and containing everything that today's spacecraft the size of a high-rise building contains, is a nanotor whose fuel costs for a trip to Mars are almost as much as a car's fuel costs for a trip to the nearby city.
• A "body repairer" the size of a bacterium that penetrates the human body and repairs damages such as: blockages in the arteries, destruction of areas infected with bacteria, detoxification and more, is a nanotor.

Nanotor is not only a very tiny and very cheap motor, it is also very smart. A normal mechanical motor contains parts made of stupid materials. The wisdom of the mechanical engine is found in its human operator. On the other hand, the wisdom of the nanotor is found in all its parts, similar to the wisdom found in all parts of the organism, in DNA. and in neurons. An airplane or a car containing nanotors are modular devices that change their shape according to the driving conditions or according to the parking conditions.

For the past three years, the airbags in the car have first-generation nanomotors that "know how to sense" the force of the blow needed to release the airbag.

Today, the first experiments are being done with nanomotors that connect themselves to each other and create spontaneous communication networks similar to coral colonies. Experiments in wireless communication nano-networks are already being done today at the computer and communication companies Lucent and Siemens. At the University of California, they are currently working on a wireless computer network whose server is the size of a credit card. Within ten years, anyone with a computer the size of a credit card will be able to move in a space containing modems and wireless servers that will allow them to transmit voice, video and data from any point to any point on the planet.

Nanomaterials based on carbon nanotubes
As the highlight of the nanodevices is the nanocolumn, so the highlight of the nanomaterials is the Nano Tube, made of carbon. A nanotube can be used for power fibers (elevators to space), for communication fibers (at the transfer speed of a DVD per second), and as an artificial substitute for blood capillaries and neurons.

At Bell Laboratories in the USA, they have already succeeded in building chips that build themselves from a given raw material. At the University of Rochester, they have already succeeded in building polymer molecules that create pre-planned structures in shapes such as a cylinder or a ring. Molluscs build shells which are the strongest structures of all that man knows how to build. Spiders build webs which are the strongest threads of all the threads that humans know how to build. why?

Because human construction up until now has been mechanical construction, while construction in the biological world is organic construction. Mechanical construction is attaching parts at the millimeter level or larger, to each other. The molecular or atomic building blocks from which the above parts were built, remained unchanged. On the other hand, in organic construction, the construction begins "from the bottom up", that is, the parts are built atom by atom, or molecule by molecule. Here we are talking about attaching parts at the micrometer (thousandth of an atom) or nanometer (millionth of an atom) level.

The personal computer and Internet revolution of 1993-1980 stems from the revolution of computer chips at the micro level. What then does the revolution at the nano level entail? The technology of building computer chips at the micro level is reaching its limits. The next step will be computer chips and other communication equipment that will be built at the nano level. Chips that will be built molecule next to molecule or atom next to atom. Already today, molecular biologists use technologies at the nano level, when they make changes in human genes. Therefore, it is possible that one of the directions in the development of nano chips will be DNA chips. In addition to this, one of the development directions of hyper-strong materials and structures is related to molecular biology by the fact that materials scientists are currently trying to study the mechanisms of the "factories" of animals such as spiders (hyper-strong fibers) and oysters (hyper-strong structures).

Nano-control and nano-surveillance based on nano-dust
These are millimeter-sized grains. Each grain contains a sensor and a communication system. The sensor can measure temperature, speed, humidity, or smell, and translate these "sensory data" into digital information. This information is transmitted in a fast wireless network of sensors between grain to grain, or between all the grains to the "grain-server" that centralizes the information and transmits it to the control center or the human user.

Networks of nanosensors can detect enemy on the battlefield, terrorists in sensitive areas. They can detect a lack of moisture in agricultural crops, minor earthquakes that predict strong and dangerous earthquakes, leakage of hazardous materials, and the like.

The theoretical basis of nanotechnology
In the 50s, the physicist Feynman came up with the idea of ​​building new materials by assembling them from the base atom by atom. In 1984 Drexler in his book "Engines of Creation" laid the foundations of a new field of nanotechnology, which means technology of tiny units at the sub-micro level (molecules and atoms). Nanotechnology is a kind of intersection between the technology of microchips and the genetic technology of DNA. DNA is a natural nanomachine and the chip is an artificial nanomachine. The research and production of silicon chips and the research and production of genetic drugs nowadays already provide the basic nanotechnological knowledge. In the future it is possible to merge the natural nanotechnology with the artificial nanotechnology. This merger will allow: computer processors not from silicon but from DNA, nanotubes for repairing cells and genes, etc.

Nanotechnology is part of a new thought super-paradigm that includes: fractal mathematics, chaos physics, organicist philosophy and molecular biology.

Fractal mathematics: this is mathematics of incomplete forms, broken forms (fractor in English broken). This is, for example, a square built from fractions of a square and a circle built from fractions of circles. A river in nature is made up of small tunnels, streams, wadis, etc. ad infinitum. So are blood vessels, nerve networks, tree branches and more. Fractal shapes are the result of a macro shape formed from similar micro kernel shapes. Nanotechnological devices have practical forms because each device is built from tiny devices that look like it.

Chaotic Physics: Because of the repeating micro form that creates a macro form, a change in one micro unit quickly propagates to all similar micro units and thus changes the entire macro form. This radical change is seen as "chaos". The famous "butterfly effect" is an example of this: if the movement of one butterfly's wings in Japan changes the molecular balance of a cloud in Japan, this can cause a hurricane from Japan to the USA.

Organicist philosophy or the Monda idea. This idea was put forward in the 18th century by Leibniz, one of the founders of the calculus of magnitudes tending to zero, intifinimal calculus, and the first people who tried to build a computer. Let's imagine a nanomachine the size of a bacterium containing a nanocomputer the size of a virus. We will continue to imagine that this smart nanomachine will replicate itself over and over again as the egg fertilized by the sperm replicates itself. By replicating this we will get a smart material, consisting of thousands of computerized nanomachines. If the thousands of computerized nanomachines are also connected to each other through some kind of internet, then we will get smart machines with smart minds. Except then they will no longer be machines, but maybe organisms, or maybe brains. Immaterial basic units are monads.

Genomic biology or the idea of ​​self-replication. This idea was put forward by von Neumann, the father of the digital computer, in 1951. Two years later, DNA decipherers Watson and Crick showed that it operates according to the principle of self-replication.

The economic, psychological, and social effects of nanotechnology
McLaughlin understood as early as 1962 that the printing press was a serial production technology of information that preceded the steam engine which was a serial production technology of material. Thus the Internet is a digital technology of information that preceded the nanotechnological production which is a digital technology of matter.

The talk has a double meaning: First, nanotechnology will enable the production and transfer of materials and devices at speeds and ease comparable to the speed and ease with which the Internet transmits information and applications. Second, since the raw material of the nanotechnological materials and products is atoms, the raw material is infinite and found everywhere. For example, you don't need to send a station to Mars from here. It is enough to send a nanotech builder the size of a bacterium and when the builder reaches Mars he will build the entire colony from the atoms on Mars. It's just like a sperm cell and a candle build a whole person or a whole elephant, or similar to a whole book found in the USA and through the Internet can be reproduced in Israel on paper from a printer found here, within a few minutes. In this case the printer paper is the raw material and the "builder" is a certain software agent.

In the same way, in our technology we will have a "printer of materials". For example, there will not be a refrigerator but a "food printer" where today's printer contains a paper cartridge and an ink cartridge, the "food printer" will contain a cartridge of sea sand. Our computer will store or download from the Internet only formulas. From the molecular formulas, the computer will organize different materials according to our request: ice cream, salad, steak, etc.

It is therefore a bigger and more drastic revolution than the agricultural revolution of thousands of years ago, the industrial revolution of hundreds of years ago and the electronic revolution of decades ago. As 20 years ago there was a lack of information and today there is an excess of information because of the Internet, so we are expected to an era of excess in food and raw materials. We are moving from the age of lack and needs to the age that the philosopher Nietzsche called "the age of the will to power". In this era, the person will also upgrade himself to "Superman" in the nearby clinic of plastic surgeries from the nose to the brain. This change has social, cultural, educational and political implications. Perhaps as nanotechnology has developed, now Nano-Reality will develop.

These and other topics will be presented as part of the 11th Oracle Week, which will be held on November 7, at the David Intercontinental Hotel in Tel Aviv. Oracle Week is the largest computing conference in Israel - last year, when it celebrated its tenth anniversary, more than 8,000 people participated and learned in more than 150 seminars and events that lasted a whole week.