Foresight Update 29
Page 5
A publication of the Foresight Institute
 Web
Watch.29
The Molecular Manufacturing Shortcut Group (MMSG) is a chapter
of the National Space Society founded to inform government,
industry, academia, the space activist community, and the public
about what molecular nanotechnology is and how it can be used to
facilitate the development of space. In addition to basic
information about the MMSG and a list of links to Web sites
related to space and nanotechnology, this site
collects a number of documents that discuss the role of
nanotechnology in space development. Included are five issues (of
the eleven issues that have been published) of the MMSG
newsletter The Assembler. The May 1994
issue contains Tom McKendree's thoughts on a "Timeline
for Molecular Manufacturing Development." Highlights of the First Quarter
1996 issue include a detailed report on "The Fourth
Foresight Conference on Molecular Nanotechnology" by Tom
McKendree, an article by Jerome D. Rosen on "Using
Mechanosynthetic Assemblers to Build an Orbital Tower," and
an article by Robert J. Coppinger on "The Drexlerian
Terraformation of Mars: A New Ark for Humanity." The major
feature of the Third
Quarter 1996 issue is an article entitled "LEGO(TM)s to
the Stars: Active MesoStructures, Kinetic Cellular Automata, and
Parallel Nanomachines for Space Applications" written by
Tihamer Toth-Fejel and presented at the 1996 International Space
Development Conference, New York City, May 1996.
Other major documents provided include the "NSS
Position Paper on Space and Molecular Nanotechnology." A
more technical consideration of the relation of molecular
nanotechnology to space development is presented by the PhD
thesis proposal of Tom McKendree, "System
Architectures for Space Systems Using Molecular Nanotechnology."
An article "Robot
Bushes" by Dr. Hans Moravec proposes a progressively
branching robot arm design in which the fingers at the end of
each arm in turn have even smaller fingers. The several largest
fingers are cm in length scale and 1 hertz in movement time
scale. After 50 levels of branching, the smallest fingers,
numbering about 1015, would be nm in length scale and
gigahertz in movement time scale, and able to manipulate matter
at the atomic level.
Molecular modeling of nanodevices
A final page, "NASA
Explains How Molecular-Sized Gears Might Work," presents
a NASA press release that describes work done at NASA's Ames
Research Center that uses molecular dynamics to simulate how
molecular-sized gears made from fullerene nanotubes might work.
The press
release is also available at a NASA Web page with a larger
picture available. An early
draft of the original technical publication referenced by the
press release is available on the Web. The computational
nanotechnology accomplishments of the group at NASA Ames were featured in Update
26, and their Web site was profiled in that issue's Web Watch column.
This research paper is also the subject of an article
on the Scientific American Web site.
Molecular dynamics is a very powerful tool for understanding
molecular devices, and has been used for that purpose not only by
the group at NASA Ames, but also by Bill Goddard's group at Cal
Tech to simulate
the molecular planetary gear designed by Drexler and Merkle,
and by Drs. Don Noid, Bobby Sumpter, and Robert Tuzun at Oak
Ridge National Laboratory to model nanometer-scale
pistons and laser-driven motors made from graphite nanotubes
and buckyballs. Yet another Web page featuring molecular dynamics
simulations of fullerene-based nanoscale gears showcases the research
of D.H. Robertson at Indiana University-Purdue University at
Indianapolis. These latter three Web sites have available several
MPEG movies that demonstrate the movements of these nanodevices,
if you have either a fast Internet connection or the patience to
download files of several to 20 megabytes each.
The following Web pages do not deal explicitly with
nanotechnology, but rather with molecular modeling, a necessity
for the design and simulation of molecular devices, as
exemplified by the molecular dynamics studies described in the
above Web pages. A page at the University of Florida Quantum
Theory Project site provides a list of pointers to
Web resources. The Center
for Molecular Modeling for computational chemical and physics
software of the National Institutes of Health has a page that
lists Guides and Tutorials available on the Web. One excellent tutorial
is the NIH Guide to Molecular Modeling, which offers substantial
discussions of computation
engines, geometry
engines, and graphics
engines. A particularly useful feature of the NIH molecular
modeling site is the "Universal
Molecular Modeling Software List," which lists more than
a hundred molecular modeling software packages, classified
according to the functions they provide and whether they are
available for personal computers.
Ralph Merkle's nanotechnology Web site offers, as part of a vast
array of information about nanotechnology, another starting point
for material on molecular modeling. The paper "Computational
Nanotechnology" discusses molecular modeling
specifically from the viewpoint of its role in the design and
modeling of molecular devices. There is also a page with useful
links to computational
chemistry and molecular modeling resources on the Web.
Another useful brief overview
of molecular modeling has been written by Oliver Smart. It
has an especially good introduction to the basic forces between
atoms that must be considered by molecular modeling software, and
is part of a larger online course on the principles of protein
structure. An elementary but still very informative
introduction to molecular modeling is available at the MathMol Web site. In
addition to basic information clearly presented, this site offers
animated graphics, interactive tutorials, and molecular dynamics
simulations done with Java. A much more advanced
tutorial on theory and general methodology, including
extensive discussion of molecular dynamics, is also available on
the web.
A large amount of molecular structural data is available on the
Internet, including Eric Drexler's molecular machine
parts designs. Such data are in the form of atomic coordinate
files, which can be formatted in a number of different file types
(chemical MIME types). Information about chemical MIME
types (and also)
can be found on the web. To view the structures that are encoded
by these atomic coordinate files, and to be able to manipulate
the images to view the molecules from various perspectives,
requires molecular graphics visualization tools. One free
molecular graphics visualization tool available over the Internet
is RasMol, developed by Roger Sayle. RasMol is available for
UNIX, VMS, Macintosh and Microsoft Windows (OS/2 and Windows NT).
Excellent introductions to RasMol, along with instructions for
obtaining and setting up the program, are available (at the University of
Massachusetts and as part
of the principles of protein structure course). An alternative free
visualization tool is the Netscape (TM) 3.01 Plugin called
Chime, supplied by MDL Information Systems, Inc. Additional
information about Chime is available on the web. A third free
visualization tool is WebLab(TM) Viewer, provided by
Molecular Simulations, Inc.
Searching
For Nanocritics
By Chris Worth
Scientific criticism is useful, because if someone's looking
over your shoulder you'll make doubly sure your methods and
results are sound. But most criticism of molecular nanotechnology
is just punditry. (Count the !!s and ?!s contained in one Web
posting, Fractal
Shape Changing Robots: Problems With Current Nanotechnology
Research Ideas for an example.)
That's troubling: it reduces science to lawyering, people
advocating or debunking MNT with no grasp of its scientific
basis. So for seventy-two hours in April I went searching for
hard criticism of MNT—which I defined as criticism of the
science in the technical text Nanosystems.
First task was to cut away the pundits. Pundits included pop
science journalist Gary Stix of Scientific American,
whose "Waiting for breakthroughs" article did little
more than draw word cartoons of Eric Drexler. After comprehensive rebuttals
from Ralph Merkle and Will Ware, SciAm somewhat
left-handedly apologised
on the Web with an unbiased account of nanotech's
possibilities. Lesson learned: you don't find real nanocriticism
in magazines written for Joe Sixpack.
Next came what I call "slant" critics—criticism by
scientists with narrow credentials. Chemist and Nature
columnist David Jones picked a soft target for his punditry: he
turned his review of Ed Regis's Nano (a book about
people, not science) into a soapbox to deliver his own anti-MNT
views from. (It seemed Jones hadn't read Nanosystems
either.)
Ralph Merkle disputed
him and confirms Jones hasn't replied, either privately or in
the pages of Nature. Other slant critics include
microtechnologists, who often call their science nanotechnology
but aren't working towards mechanosynthesis. Lesson two: check a
critic's credentials, and look out for personal opinions masked
as criticism.
Our third pundit, software engineer Brad Cox, attacks MNT from a
different viewpoint: he argues that molecular nanotechnology is a
technology unknowable by man, drawing analogies with that old MNT
chestnut Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle. (Presumably he files
Nanosystems on his fiction shelf.) Lesson three:
philosophy isn't criticism. It's like a shark fighting a tiger;
neither can enter the other's arena.
That leaves MNT-savvy scientists. Fortunately, these researchers
are their own sternest critics.
In Nanosystems Drexler states how difficult
molecular nano ball-and-sockets would be and draws several
devices in atomic detail—hardly the kind of vague-and-fuzzy
work that's difficult to criticize. The Institute for Molecular
Manufacturing makes several
.pdb files of nanomachines available for computational
chemists to analyse, while Merkle and others test a principle for
abstracting hydrogen atoms with three qualitatively different
computational models before pronouncing it valid.
Markus Krummenacker strategizes on molecular building blocks in
his 1994 paper "Steps
toward molecular manufacturing", while John Mark
Michelson at UCI puts his nanofabrication
work on the Web for all to see.
On the sci.nanotech newsgroup, Eugene Leitl tears into
nanodreamers with hard science and sporadic personal abuse,
footnoted by moderator and MNT researcher John Storrs-Hall. Also
on the Web, Nobel prizewinner Richard E. Smalley
suggests with evidence that an atom-by-atom assembler
couldn't build in resolutions sharper than a cubic nanometre.
And here's where I found my criticism of Nanosystems:
Because 1-nanometer resolution isn't sharp enough for
mechanosynthesis, it takes about 60 carbon atoms to fill a cubic
nanometre.
Smalley, free from dogma, calls for further research. Perhaps
this is the next step for MNT researchers: build a nanoscale tool
(probably an AFM tip) that can provably abstract and insert a
carbon atom or dimer into a surface at room temperature without
disturbing nearby atoms. (John Mark Michelson details a method,
but it's yet to be tested in real life.)
It's odd that the team to prove Smalley wrong may be led by
Smalley himself. In the meantime, check the credentials of every
nanocritic you see—and if they're good, listen hard to what
he says.
Chris Worth (cworth@pacific.net.sg)
is a technology writer and Foresight Senior Associate based in
Singapore.
Thanks
"Thanks of the decade" go to Foresight/IMM/CCIT
office manager Judy Hill, as she moves on to a new career as a
book author. So much of our organizations' success to date is
attributable to her long hours of cheerful work over the years.
We will miss her, and the joy she brings to all around her, very
much.
Ongoing profound thanks go to Jeffrey Soreff, author of our
Recent Progress technical column. The quality and breadth of his
analysis makes this column the best anywhere on technical
advances in molecular nanotechnology.
For recruiting Foresight's summer intern Franklin Van Ardoy,
thanks go to Russell Whitaker. For recruiting new staff member
Tanya Jones, we thank Gayle Pergamit. For the donation of three
beautiful "dogs," an advanced form of mobile office
furniture, we thank MG Taylor (the company of Senior Associates
Matt and Gail Taylor), and Sheryl Corchnoy for arranging the
donation. For ongoing pro bono legal advice, vigorous
thanks go to Elizabeth Enayati of Venture Law Group.
Special thanks to Ka-Ping Yee for assistance at the Gathering and
doing systems administration on our two Linux machines. For
coding assistance on Web Enhancement, thanks go to Miron
Cuperman. For taking photos at the Gathering, we thank Wayne
Beckley. For donating Prentice-Hall molecular modeling sets,
thanks to Forrest Bishop.
For sending information, we thank Frank Bourgeois, Per Bro, Nimit
Chomnawang, Allan Drexler, Dave Forrest, Dan Fylstra, Martin
Haeberli, Mark and Judy Haviland, Neil Jacobstein, Andrew Levine,
Wayne McConnell, Tom McKendree, Gerald Portis, Greg Rehmke,
Richard Smith, Alvin Steinberg, Richard Terra, Dean Tribble,
Steve Vetter, Brian Wang, Will Ware.
—Chris Peterson,
Executive Director, Foresight Institute
Upcoming
Events
Nanotechnology: Where are We? June 23, Silicon Graphics
(Mt. View), MIT Club of Northern California. Lecture by Deepak
Srivastava of Computational Molecular Nanotechnology Group at
NASA Ames. tel 415-965-4097, email Christine_Lam@pa.xerox.com.
Nanotechnology:
Materials, Manufacturing, and Applications, Cambridge
Healthtech Institute, June 26-27, San Francisco. Similar to
Foresight Conference series. tel 617-630-1300, fax 617-630-1325,
email chi@healthtech.com
On
the Edge: Exploring Tomorrow's High-Risk, High-Payoff
Technologies, Index Vanguard, July 15-16, Philadelphia.
Includes nanotechnology (Eric Drexler) and ultrascale computing.
tel 617-492-1500, fax 617-520-1836
American
Bar Assn. Millennium Program, Aug. 2, San Francisco.
Includes Eric Drexler on nanotechnology. tel 312-988-5000, email
info@abanet.org
EXTRO-3,
August 9-10, San Jose, CA. Includes Eric Drexler (keynote), Chris
Peterson on high-tech radical environmentalism, Ralph Merkle and
Marvin Minsky on AI. Future of body, brain, computers,
communications, law, economy. Contact Extropy Institute, tel
310-398-0375, exi-info@extropy.org
Micro-
and Nano-Engineering International Conference, Sept.
15-18, Athens, Greece. Includes Nobel laureate Heinrich Rohrer on
"Nanotechnology-Nature's Way." tel 305-653-3781, fax
305-651-1723, (USA contact) evgog@cyclades.nrcps.ariadne-t.gr
American Vacuum Society
Annual Meeting, Oct 20-24, San Jose, CA. Includes
nanoscale science & technology. tel 212-248-0200, fax
212-248-0245, email avsnyc@vacuum.org
Fifth Foresight
Conference on Molecular Nanotechnology, Nov. 5-8, Palo
Alto, CA. Enabling science and technology, computational models.
Contact Foresight, tel 415-917-1122, fax 415-917-1123, email
foresight@foresight.org
7th Int'l
Symposium on Molecular Electronics and Biocomputing, Nov.
10-12, Nanjing, PR China. tel +86-25-361-9983, fax
+86-25-771-2719, email zhlu@seu.edu.cn
2nd Intl. Conference
on Evolvable Systems: From Biology to Hardware, Sept.
24-26, 1998. Lausanne, Switzerland. Self-replicating hardware,
self-repairing hardware, applications of nanotechnology. Email
Moshe.Sipper@di.epfl.ch
From Foresight Update 29, originally
published 30 June 1997.
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