Feynman Grand Prize
 Richard P. Feynman
(1918-1988)
Personal:
Born:
New York, New York, May 11, 1918
Married:
to Gweneth Howarth, Ripponden, Halifax, England
Children:
Carl Richard (April 22, 1962)
Michelle Catherine (August 13, 1968)
Died:
February 15, 1988
Education:
B.S. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1939
Ph.D. Princeton University, 1942
Professional:
Research Assistant, Princeton University, 1940-41
United States Government (Manhattan Project) 1941-45
Professor of Theoretical Physics, Cornell University, 1945-50
Visiting Professor, California Institute of Technology, 1950
Professor of Theoretical Physics, Caltech, 1950-59
Richard Chace Tolman Professor of Theoretical Physics,
Caltech, 1959-88
Honors:
Albert Einstein Award (Princeton), 1954
Atomic Energy Commission E.O. Lawrence Award, 1962
Elected Foreign Member of the Royal Society, 1965
Nobel Prize for Physics (for work in quantum
electrodynamics), 1965
Oersted Medal for Teaching, Caltech, 1972
Niels Bohr International Gold Medal, 1973
Dr. Feynman also served as a leading member of the Rogers
Commission, which investigated the cause of the 1986 Space
Shuttle Challenger accident.
Those who knew Dr. Feynman remember him as an extraordinarily
brilliant theoretical physicist, a passionate and inspiring
teacher, a witty and lucid public speaker, a lover of practical
jokes, a devoted family man, and a strong advocate for honesty in
science and public policy. In his personal appendix to the Rogers
Commission report, he concluded, "For a successful
technology, reality must take precedence over public relations,
for nature cannot be fooled." He published numerous
scientific papers, and several popular books for lay readers.
Dr. Feynman spoke at Caltech in 1959 on the topic, "There's Plenty
of Room at the Bottom." In that talk, he pointed toward
the feasibility of molecular nanotechnology. It is because of
that speech that the Feynman Prize is named in his honor.
"A magician does things that nobody else
can do and that seem completely unexpected, and that is
Feynman" -- Hans Bethe
Books by and about Richard Feynman
Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman --
by R. Feynman
What Do You Care What Other People Think, Mr. Feynman? --
by R. Feynman
Six Easy Pieces -- Some easy physics lectures
The Feynman Lectures on Physics -- Texts of
lectures at CalTech
QED - by R. Feynman
Feynman Lectures on Gravitation -- by R. Feynman
Genius: The Life and Times of Richard Feynman --
by James Gleick
Most of the Good Stuff: Memories of Richard Feynman
-- edited by Laurie Brown and John Ridgen
No Ordinary Genius: The Illustrated Richard Feynman
-- by Christopher Sykes
The Beat of a Different Drum -- by Jagdish Mehra
Tuva or Bust! -- by Ralph Leighton
Information on ordering these publications online from the
California Institute of Technology bookstore can be obtained on
the World Wide Web at http://www.cco.caltech.edu/~citbook/.
[More information about Dr. Richard
P. Feynman is available on the Web.]
Foresight
Institute Purpose and Policy
Purpose
Foresight Institute's goal is to guide emerging technologies
to improve the human condition. Foresight focuses its efforts
upon nanotechnology and upon systems that will enhance knowledge
exchange and critical discussion, thus improving public and
private policy decisions.
Policy
Foresight Institute recognizes that nanotechnology - like all
pivotal technologies - brings both potential perils and benefits.
To help achieve the advantages and avoid the dangers, Foresight's
policy is to prepare for nanotechnology by:
- promoting understanding of nanotechnology and its
effects;
- informing the public and decision makers;
- developing an organizational base for addressing
nanotechnology-related issues and communicating openly
about them; and,
- actively pursuing beneficial outcomes of nanotechnology,
including improved economic, social and environmental
conditions.
Perspective
Foresight Institute recognizes that sound public and private
policy can be built only upon a solid foundation of knowledge and
tested ideas. Humanity needs better methods to exchange
knowledge, and to subject new ideas to effective intellectual
scrutiny. Foresight thus supports the development of new systems
and technologies that will lead to better dissemination of
information and analysis of proposed policies. This is crucial in
addressing emerging technologies. When nanotechnology is
realized, it will trigger widespread social and economic change,
for which public and private policy must now prepare.
Nanotechnology will allow control of the structure of matter
within the broad limits set by physical laws. Other limits will
be necessary to prevent abuses by individuals, groups and nations
bent upon undesirable ends. Global competitive forces and
continuing progress in molecular sciences will lead ultimately to
the realization of nanotechnology. Foresight seeks to ensure that
nanotechnology, when developed, will be used to improve
conditions in the broadest sense, rather than for destructive or
narrow purposes. Nanotechnology must be developed openly to serve
the general welfare and the continued realization of the human
potential.
Sources
of Information
Technical Book:
Nanosystems:
Molecular Machinery, Manufacturing, and Computation
by K. Eric Drexler, (John Wiley & Sons, 1992)
provides the definitive technical dissertation on molecular
manufacturing.
Books accessible to non-specialists:
Engines of Creation
by K. Eric Drexler (Doubleday, 1986) discusses both
the technology and its possible applications and
consequences.
Prospects
in Nanotechnology: Toward Molecular Manufacturing,
edited by Markus Krummenacker and James Lewis (John Wiley
& Sons, 1995) has chapters by 15 authors providing
multiple perspectives on the field.
Books accessible to a broader audience:
Unbounding the Future, by K. Eric
Drexler, Chris Peterson and Gayle Pergamit (Quill 1991)
provides a non-technical discussion of what nanotechnology
should let us do, using technically feasible scenarios to
clearly illustrate the possibilities.
Nano! by Ed Regis (Little, Brown 1995) is
an engaging and entertaining book that describes the
researchers involved in this area, particularly Drexler, and
the reactions of different members of the scientific
community to the concept.
Journal, publication and Internet newsgroup
Foresight Update is a newsletter published by
the Foresight Institute and is an
excellent way to keep abreast of developments and events in
this rapidly moving area. Many older copies are available
from Josh
Hall's nanotechnology site on the Internet. The current
issue is available from Foresight.
Sci.nanotech is
an Internet news discussion group that covers nanotechnology
and related areas.
The journal
Nanotechnology covers nanotechnology both in
the specific sense of molecular nanotechnology and in the
broader sense. Nanotechnology is published by
the Institute of
Physics.
Key Nanotechnology Internet Sites
Foresight Institute http://www.foresight.org
Includes past issues of Foresight newsletters, Feynman Prize
information.
Nanotechnology (Ralph Merkle's nanotechnology page at
Xerox)
http://www.zyvex.com/nano
A comprehensive nanotechnology site with excellent basic
information and many links to other sites; maintained by one of
the leading researchers in the field.
Nanolink: Key Technology Sites on the Web (in
Singapore)
http://sunsite.nus.sg/MEMEX/nanolink.html
A comprehensive (over 50) set of links to other nanotechnology
sites.
Laboratory for Molecular Robotics (at the University
of Southern California)
http://alicudi.usc.edu/lmr/molecular_robotics_lab.html
Describes relevant research at USC.
Nanomanipulator Project (at University of North
Carolina)
http://www.cs.unc.edu/nano/etc/www/nanopage.html
Describes multi-university project to develop virtual reality
simulator of Scanning Tunnel Microscope operations.
Nanotechnology Archives (at Rutgers)
http://nanotech.rutgers.edu/nanotech
The most comprehensive reference source for nanotechnology
related research reports and related information.
Molecular Manufacturing Shortcut Group
http://www.islandone.org/MMSG/
A discussion of the positive implications of nanotechnology
for space exploration and settlement.
Nanotools: The STM Home Brew Page
http://www.skypoint.com/members/jrice/STMWebPage.html
Instructions to home-build at low cost a Scanning Tunneling
Microscope, one of the key tools in nanotechnology research.
Initiatives in Nanotechnology (at Rice University)
http://cnst.rice.edu/
Describes work at one of the leading academic centers of
nanotechnology research.
Brad Hein's Nanotechnology Page
http://www.public.iastate.edu/~bhein/nanotechnology.html
Another useful set of links to other nanotechnology sites.
Scanned Probe
http://www.ou.edu/research/electron/mirror/subjects/scanprob.html
The definitive Web reference for scanning probes and related
research tools.
Small is Beautiful
http://science.nas.nasa.gov/Groups/Nanotechnology/nanotech.html
An extensive set of links to other nanotechnology sites
maintained by NASA.
All of these sites offer cross-links to many other
nanotechnology-related sites on the Internet; over 100
content-based sites are dedicated to the topic.
The
Biennial Feynman Prizes in Nanotechnology
Winners of Previous Biennial Feynman Prizes in Nanotechnology
1995:
Dr.
Nadrian C. Seeman, professor of chemistry, New York
University, for his pioneering work in synthesizing complex
three-dimensional structures from DNA molecules.
1993: Dr.
Charles Musgrave, Dept. of Chemical Engineering,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, for his work on modeling
a hydrogen abstraction tool useful in nanotechnology.
Judges for the 1995 Feynman Prize in Nanotechnology
- Dr. K. Eric Drexler, Molecular nanotechnologist,
Institute for Molecular Manufacturing
- Carl Feynman, Computer scientist
- William A. Goddard III, Professor of Chemistry and
Applied Physics, Materials and Molecular Simulation
Center, Caltech
- Tracy Handel, Professor of Molecular and Cell Biology, UC
Berkeley
- Neil Jacobstein, Chairman, Institute for Molecular
Manufacturing; President, Teknowledge, Inc.
- Arthur Kantrowitz, Professor of Engineering, Dartmouth
College, and Advisor, Foresight Institute
- Ralph C. Merkle, Computational nanotechnologist, Xerox
Palo Alto Research Center
- Marvin Minsky, MIT Media Lab professor, and Advisor,
Foresight Institute
- Charles Musgrave, Dept. of Chemical Engineering, MIT;
Winner of 1993 Feynman Prize
- Nils Nilsson, Professor of Computer Science, Robotics
Laboratory, Stanford
- Heinrich Rohrer, IBM Research Division, Zurich,
Switzerland; Nobel Laureate in Physics
- George M. Whitesides, Professor of Chemistry, Harvard
University
Background
on Nanotechnology
By Ralph C. Merkle
Manufactured products are made from atoms. The properties of
those products depend on how those atoms are arranged. If we
rearrange the atoms in graphite (as in a pencil lead) we can make
diamond. If we rearrange the atoms in sand (and add a few other
trace elements) we can make computer chips. If we rearrange the
atoms in dirt, water and air we can make potatoes.
Todays manufacturing methods are very crude at the molecular
level. Casting, grinding, milling and even lithography move atoms
in great thundering statistical herds. It's like trying to make
things out of LEGO blocks with boxing gloves on your hands. Yes,
you can push the LEGO blocks into great heaps and pile them up,
but you can't really snap them together the way you'd like.
In the future, nanotechnology will let us take off the boxing
gloves. We'll be able to snap together the fundamental building
blocks of nature easily, inexpensively and in almost any
arrangement that we desire. This will be essential if we are to
continue the revolution in computer hardware beyond about the
next decade, and will also let us build a broad range of
manufactured products more cleanly, more precisely, more
flexibly, and at lower cost.
It's worth pointing out that the word "nanotechnology"
has become very popular and is used to describe a broad range of
research where the characteristic dimensions are less than about
1,000 nanometers. For example, continued improvements in
lithography have resulted in line widths that are less than one
micron: this work is often called "nanotechnology."
Sub-micron lithography is clearly very valuable (ask anyone who
uses a computer!) but it is equally clear that lithography will
not let us build semiconductor devices in which individual dopant
atoms are located at specific lattice sites. Many of the
exponentially improving trends in computer hardware capability
have remained steady for the last 50 years. There is fairly
widespread confidence that these trends are likely to continue
for at least another ten years, but then lithography starts to
reach its fundamental limits.
If we are to continue these trends we will have to develop a new
"post-lithographic" manufacturing technology which will
let us inexpensively build computer systems with mole quantities
of logic elements that are molecular in both size and precision
and are interconnected in complex and highly idiosyncratic
patterns. Nanotechnology will let us do this.
When it's unclear from the context whether we're using the
specific definition of "nanotechnology" (given here) or
the broader and more inclusive definition (often used in the
literature), we'll use the term "molecular
manufacturing."
Whatever we call it, it should let us:
- Get essentially every atom in the right place.
- Make almost any structure consistent with the laws of
physics and chemistry that we can specify in atomic
detail.
- Have manufacturing costs not greatly exceeding the cost
of the required raw materials and energy.
There are two more concepts commonly associated with
nanotechnology:
Clearly, we would be happy with any method that achieved the
first three objectives. However, it seems difficult to accomplish
all three objectives without using some form of positional
control (to get the right molecular parts in the right places)
and some form of self replication (to keep the costs down).
The need for positional control implies an interest in molecular
robotics, e.g., robotic devices that are molecular both in their
size and precision. These molecular scale positional devices are
likely to resemble very small versions of their everyday
macroscopic counterparts. Positional control is frequently used
in normal macroscopic manufacturing today, and provides
tremendous advantages. Imagine trying to build a bicycle with
both hands tied behind your back! The concept of manipulating
individual atoms and molecules is quite new and still takes some
getting used to. However, as Feynman said in a classic talk
in 1959: "The principles of physics, as far as I can
see, do not speak against the possibility of maneuvering things
atom by atom." We need to apply at the molecular scale the
concept that has demonstrated its effectiveness at the
macroscopic scale: making parts go where we want by putting them
where we want!
The requirement for low cost creates our interest in self
replicating systems, studied by von Neumann in the 1940's. These
systems are able to make copies of themselves, and so if we can
design and build one such system the manufacturing costs for more
such systems (assuming they can make copies of themselves in some
reasonably inexpensive environment) will be very low. (The reader
might note that I do work at Xerox. Hence, an interest in systems
that can make copies of themselves is perhaps appropriate).
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