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Ralph C. Merkle, Ph.D.

Ralph C. Merkle, Ph.D. Senior Research Fellow: Institute for Molecular Manufacturing. Diamond Mechanosynthesis as a Pathway to Medical Nanorobots. Ralph C. Merkle Senior Fellow IMM. www.molecularassembler.com/Nanofactory/

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Ralph C. Merkle, Ph.D.

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  1. Ralph C. Merkle, Ph.D. Senior Research Fellow: Institute for Molecular Manufacturing

  2. Diamond Mechanosynthesis as a Pathwayto Medical Nanorobots Ralph C. Merkle Senior Fellow IMM

  3. www.molecularassembler.com/Nanofactory/ (For further information, links to papers, links to other researchers) www.nanomedicine.com Long-term goal: design and ultimately build a diamondoid nanofactory. Web pages

  4. Health, wealth and atoms

  5. Experimental A 40-nanometer-wide NIST logo made with cobalt atoms on a copper surface in a cryogenic UHV STM Controlling the Dynamics of a Single Atom in Lateral Atom Manipulation Joseph A. Stroscio and Robert J. Celotta, Science, Vol 306, Issue 5694, 242-247, 8 October 2004 http://www.nist.gov/public_affairs/releases/hiphopatoms.htm

  6. What to make Diamond physical properties Property Diamond’s value Comments Chemical reactivity Extremely low Hardness (kg/mm2) 9000 CBN: 4500 SiC: 4000 Thermal conductivity (W/cm-K) 20 Ag: 4.3 Cu: 4.0 Tensile strength (pascals) 3.5 x 109 (natural) 1011 (theoretical) Compressive strength (pascals) 1011 (natural) 5 x 1011 (theoretical) Band gap (ev) 5.5 Si: 1.1 GaAs: 1.4 Resistivity (W-cm) 1016 (natural) Density (gm/cm3) 3.51 Thermal Expansion Coeff (K-1) 0.8 x 10-6 SiO2: 0.5 x 10-6 Refractive index 2.41 @ 590 nm Glass: 1.4 - 1.8 Coeff. of Friction 0.05 (dry) Teflon: 0.05 Source: Crystallume

  7. Hydrocarbon bearing

  8. Bucky gears NASA Ames

  9. Planetary gear

  10. Positional assembly

  11. Respirocytes http://www.foresight.org/Nanomedicine/Respirocytes.html

  12. New paper to appear in JCTN 2008 Publication • A Minimal Toolset for Positional Diamond Mechanosynthesis • Robert A. Freitas Jr., Ralph C. Merkle

  13. Molecular tools HAbs HDon GM Germylene Methylene HTrans AdamRad DimerP GeRad

  14. H abstraction Hydrogen abstraction from adamantane. -1.59 eV

  15. H donation Hydrogen donation onto an adamantane radical. -0.60 eV

  16. C placement C placement on C(111) using GM tool C radical addition to C radical -3.17 eV GeRad removal +2.76 eV (note Ge-C bond is “soft”) HDon hydrogenate C radical -0.70 eV

  17. Summary • 9 tools • 100% process closure • Feedstock: C2H4, GeH4 • 65 reaction sequences • 328 reaction steps • 102,188 CPU-hours (1-GHz CPUs)

  18. Impact Nanomedicine • Disease and ill health are caused largely by damage at the molecular and cellular level • Today’s surgical tools are huge and imprecise in comparison

  19. Impact Nanomedicine • In the future, we will have fleets of surgical tools that are molecular both in size and precision. • We will also have computers much smaller than a single cell to guide those tools.

  20. Scale Size of a robotic arm ~100 nanometers 8-bit computer Mitochondrion ~1-2 by 0.1-0.5 microns

  21. Scale Mitochondrion Size of a robotic arm ~100 nanometers “Typical” cell: ~20 microns

  22. End of talk END OF TALK

  23. Future work • Further analysis of all reactions (higher level of theory, molecular dynamics, etc) • Note the volume of work for HAbs alone – analysis of all reactions at this depth will require substantial resources • Development of directly accessible experimental pathways (the Direct Path)

  24. Future work • Funding of long term system design by conventional funding sources has so far been very limited • Angel funding has proven more effective

  25. Overview What we see when we look only at today’s experimental work Today

  26. Overview Core molecular manufacturing capabilities Products Products Products Products Products Products Products Products Products Products Products Products Products Products Today Products Products Products Products Products The context that theory provides Products Products Products Products Products Products

  27. Future work We will wander in the desert for a long time without the guidance that computational and theoretical work can provide

  28. Self replication

  29. Complexity (bits) • Von Neumann's constructor 500,000 • Mycoplasma genitalia 1,160,140 • Drexler's assembler 100,000,000 • Human 6,400,000,000 • NASA over 100,000,000,000

  30. Self replication The Von Neumann architecture Universal Computer Universal Constructor http://www.zyvex.com/nanotech/vonNeumann.html

  31. Self replication Replicating bacterium DNA DNA Polymerase

  32. Self replication Drexler’s proposal for an assembler http://www.foresight.org/UTF/Unbound_LBW/chapt_6.html

  33. Molecular constructor Molecular constructor Molecular constructor Broadcast architecture Macroscopic computer http://www.zyvex.com/nanotech/selfRep.html

  34. Replication Manufacturing costsper kilogramwill be low • Today: potatoes, lumber, wheat, etc. are all about a dollar per kilogram. • Tomorrow: almost any product will be about a dollar per kilogram or less. (Design costs, licensing costs, etc. not included)

  35. An overview of replicating systemsfor manufacturing Replication • Advanced Automation for Space Missions, edited by Robert Freitas and William Gilbreath NASA Conference Publication 2255, 1982 • A web page with an overview of replication: http://www.zyvex.com/nanotech/selfRep.html

  36. Impact The impact of a new manufacturing technology depends on what you make

  37. Impact Powerful Computers • We’ll have more computing power in the volume of a sugar cube than the sum total of all the computer power that exists in the world today • More than 1021 bits in the same volume • Almost a billion Pentiums in parallel

  38. Impact Lighter, stronger, smarter, less expensive • New, inexpensive materials with a strength-to-weight ratio over 50 times that of steel • Critical for aerospace: airplanes, rockets, satellites… • Useful in cars, trucks, ships, ...

  39. Remove bad things

  40. Digest bacteria

  41. Nanomedicine Volume I • Nanosensors, nanoscale scanning • Power (fuel cells, other methods) • Communication • Navigation (location within the body) • Manipulation and locomotion • Computation • http://www.foresight.org/Nanomedicine • By Robert Freitas,

  42. A revolution in medicine • Today, loss of cell function results in cellular deterioration: function must be preserved • With medical nanodevices, passive structures can be repaired: structure must be preserved

  43. Cryonics Liquid nitrogen Temperature Time

  44. Payoff matrix It works It doesn't Experimental group www.alcor.org A very long and healthy life Die, lose life insurance Control group Die Die

  45. Public perception “Thus, like so much else in medicine, cryonics, once considered on the outer edge, is moving rapidly closer to reality” ABC News World News Tonight, Feb 8th “…[medical] advances are giving new credibility to cryonics.” KRON 4 News, NightBeat, May 3, 2001

  46. Human impacton the environment The environment • Population • Living standards • Technology

  47. The environment Reducing human impacton the environment • Greenhouse agriculture/hydroponics • Solar power • Pollution free manufacturing

  48. Nanotechnology offers ... possibilities for health, wealth, and capabilities beyond most past imaginings. K. Eric Drexler

  49. I I Experimental work Manipulation and bond formation by STM Saw-Wai Hla et al., Physical Review Letters 85, 2777-2780, September 25 2000

  50. Experimental work H. J. Lee and W. Ho, SCIENCE 286, p. 1719, NOVEMBER 1999

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