Nanotechnology

NASA Ames nanotechnology effort started in early 1996 and has steadily grown to establish a Center for Nanotechnology. The research work focuses on experimental research and development in nano and bio technologies as well as on a strong complementary modeling and simulation effort that includes computational nanotechnology, computational nanoelectronics, computational optoelectronics, and computational modeling of processes encountered in nanofabrication. The Center has about 55 scientists working on the above aspects; in addition, graduate students, faculty on sabbatical or summer visits, undergraduate and high school students work at the Center through various internship programs.

Up until 1959 most scientists and engineers working at or below the nanometer scale were primarily concerned with the theory of breaking very small things (or at least whacking them as hard as possible)... with admittedly spectacular results. Physicists ripped apart, smashed, and bombarded the atom until they were fairly sure that they could be predictably uncertain of its workings; however, in 1959 Richard Feynman suggested that some of the same techniques made available through modern physics might be used to design and build novel types of machinery from the atom up. This reversal of the classical strategy of fabrication, which tends to whittle down large objects until they roughly approximate the desired product, is the fundamental concept upon which nanotechnology is based.

After Feynman's address, there was a brief period of excitement involving alot of dreamy talk and a reprint in Engineering and Science, and then everyone went quietly back to finding out who could throw a subatomic particle the hardest. Most scientists considered the prospect of directing the manipulation of material at the molecular level improbable and impractical at best, but with the advent of recombinant DNA technology in the '70's, and the ever increasing need for miniaturization of computer components and astronautical hardware, it became apparent to some that nanotechnology was not only possible, but essential to the continued advancement of science in the coming century.

Nanotechnology strives to use biological, physical, chemical, and computational techniques already in existence to build things with atomic precision. What things? Self cleaning clothing, blood vessel maintenance robots, and food are some of the long term goals of nanotechnology's most ambitious advocates. Conservative researchers and groups are concentrating on much more modest goals, such as developing computational devices which exceed today's cycle rates by as much as ten orders of magnitude, simulating hypothetical molecular components, using DNA computing to solve brain teasers, and writing their names with individual xenon atoms.