Nanobots

Nanorobotics is the technology of creating machines or robots at or close to the microscopic scale of a nanometer (10−9 meters). More specifically, nanorobotics refers to the still largely hypothetical nanotechnology engineering discipline of designing and building nanorobots, devices ranging in size from 0.1-10 micrometers and constructed of nanoscale or molecular components. As no artificial non-biological nanorobots have yet been created, they remain a hypothetical concept. The names nanobots, nanoids, nanites or nanomites have also been used to describe these hypothetical devices.
Nanomachines are largely in the research-and-development phase but some primitive molecular machines have been tested. An example is a sensor having a switch approximately 1.5 nanometers across, capable of counting specific molecules in a chemical sample. The first useful applications of nanomachines, if such are ever built, might be in medical technology, where they might be used to identify cancer cells and destroy them. Another potential application is the detection of toxic chemicals, and the measurement of their concentrations, in the environment. Recently, Rice University has demonstrated a single-molecule car developed by a chemical process and includes buckyballs for wheels. It is actuated by controlling the environmental temperature and by positioning a scanning tunneling microscope tip.

There is a race among scientists and researchers to develop computers that operate on the molecular level using only a few atoms to convey information and do calculations. Binary technology with its simple 1/0 or on-off allows for technology of the most complex kinds to be represented by almost anything. From the race to make smaller more energy efficient computers two models have come to the fore; the electronic and the biological.


Each is still experimental. Each has potential advantages and disadvantages, neither is ready to replace your home computer yet. But as of the last few weeks due to some breakthroughs the advantage has shifted toward the biological models. What does this mean to the world of computers and society? That is what this paper will explore.




There has been a great deal of science-fiction and future projections of the reduction of computer size with component being of molecular size. The logic of such an approach can be seen in the results of component reduction in computers from the vacuum tube; to the transistor; to the integrated circuit; to the microprocessor computer chip.

With each reduction in size came an exponential increase in power and efficiency of computers. Today's desktop and laptop personal computers are light-years in advance of the most advanced computers of the early space age. In fact today's personal computers are several times more powerful than those used to place men on the moon a little more than thirty years ago.


Keep this in mind it is easy to understand why so much effort and research has gone into the development of computers which will work using components that are molecular in size. The hardware theoritians, physist, and chemist thought that it would be just a matter of extending current theory of microprocessor to its basic level and you would have a solution. In theory this would be simple enough, but the technology to work effectively with small groups of atoms in molecules designed for calculating and detecting using sub-atomic particles did not yet exist. The complications of quantum mechanics and exotic cutting-edge theory had brought many to believe that what once seemed very near on the horizon may be further off than imagined. Then some researchers thought of another approach.


Micro-biologist had examples of micro-machines with molecular components around them all the time. Single-celled animals and plants worked with components which operated through enzyme stimulation offered an interesting model. Living organisms offered examples of micro-computing that had been overlooked! If binary is either an "off" or an "on" these living things switched off and on by reacting to enzymes. Somewhere along the way someone figured that if a small scale biological reaction could be detected, living material could be used as a computer.


Earlier this year researchers successfully tested this theory using enzymes to cause DNA strands to calculate using binary. The strands opened and closed in response to external input. While this is far from the complex circuitry of a sophisticated computer, it is a breakthrough that may shift the whole focus of research.


The possibility of using organic components with enzyme stimulated responses has some interesting possiblities. Organics and their reactions are known and the material for them is easily available. This doesn't mean that this technology will be immediately available! An organic based computing system has several drawbacks. Living material would be susceptible to "infections" of a sort, and you can image that computer virus could be both organic and software based. Then comes the ethical question of animating organic material. If you design organic machines to react to stimuli, where does the line of creation versus builder come into play?


Then of course there are places where organic material just would not work. The nano-machines that would be a natural by-product of molecular computers would often have uses for which inorganics would be preferable. For many of the medical applications for which nano-machines driven by molecular computers would be designed, organic material would be a risky and unwise choice.


The race to create the molecular computer is not just a race of competing technologies, but and attempt to maximize the efficency, effectiveness, and usefulness of the computer. The first to successfully created a working molecular computer will be able to create the microscopic nano-machines that will be able to build and repair things at a fundamental level. They will create a new technology that will change everything from medicine to space exploration. Both technologies hold promise, have limits, and will have a profound impact on every aspect of society. If history is any indicator, the potential of this prospective new technology is beyond measure. Computers small enough to operate machines which could travel through your bloodstream, repair your body, or monitor the flow of oil in an engine, or fight disease. These would be some of many possibilities, the race is on!