Efficient nanotechnology, how? When?

[Warspite]

When will we see the first aplications of nanotechnology? As in, the first comercial, mass-production aplication.
Where will be the dominating field of choice for the use of nanotechnology?
Will we have a house made out of nanobots, were with one thought a chair will solidify?

[Gil Hamilton]

Probably not those in the near future, but I do expect nanotechnology in the form of smart and memory materials, and molecular circuitry in computers.

[NecronLord]

I think you over estimate the abilities of nanotechnology.

[UltraViolence83]

You can have a house made of nanobots.

Granted you keep it away from sunlight and other radiation, and have a very long time to spend watching it build itself molcule by molecule.


...Or you could just hire some guys to hammer wood together. You know, just to keep your options open.

[SyntaxVorlon]

Nanotech is moving along, but don't expect to see a vial of nano repair bots that they inject into you to rebuild vast amounts of tissue. Full large scale application of nanotech will not be around for another century I would venture.

[kojikun]

Nanotechnology will never do anything more the nanoscale things. No building houses, no instamatic food replicators, nothing. Nanotechnology will make for very tiny computer memory, or MAYBE programmable antibodies, but nothing more.

[KK]

Wasn't their a project creating BDU's for the Army with nanotech that would make cloth that was light as silk but bulletproof, and would be able to seal itself from chemical attack, absorb or reflect heat and absorb or repel moisture based on the conditions, and harden as a splint around injuries, plus form artificial muscles to boost a soldier's strength for short periods of time?

I swear I read an article about something like that at MIT.

[kojikun]

I think that was the acid, KK.

[KK]

No, I'm positive I read an article on that.

I just don't remember the specifics. It was most likely theoretical. I'll try to dig up the article.

[Solid Snake]

Wasn't their a project creating BDU's for the Army with nanotech that would make cloth that was light as silk but bulletproof, and would be able to seal itself from chemical attack, absorb or reflect heat and absorb or repel moisture based on the conditions, and harden as a splint around injuries, plus form artificial muscles to boost a soldier's strength for short periods of time?

I swear I read an article about something like that at MIT.

... You read an article about smart fabric, that changes due to combat or environmental conditions. Nothing to do with nanotech.

[KK]

Nanotech will also be used to protect the military's most precious asset: the human soldier. Researchers are currently working on embedding nanosensors into ultra-strong and lightweight nanomaterials for the military uniforms of the future at MIT's new Institute of Solider Nanotechnologies. The Army awarded $50 million to the ISN in April as part of the "Objective Force Warrior" program, which seeks to develop "a lightweight, overwhelmingly lethal, fully integrated individual combat system."

"The uniforms we have today are not so different from the ones we had in Vietnam, which are not so different from the ones in Custer's day," says Ned Thomas, MIT materials science professor and director of the ISN. MIT is hoping to develop flexible bullet-proof battle armor that can not only reject or filter out chemical agents and toxins, but also weigh less than the average 120 pounds of equipment that today's special forces carry on a three-day mission. The ISN breaks its nanotech efforts into three areas of focus: protection (against bioweapons and gunshots), performance enhancement (helping to lift heavy objects) and injury intervention and cure. All the projects are predicated on nanoscale approaches.

The ISN is a huge undertaking, staffed by 150 researchers, including 35 MIT faculty members from eight different departments. MIT also selected several industrial partners to staff the ISN with their own researchers in a bid to bring the nanotech research closer to a reality. DuPont (nyse: DD - news - people ) brings years of experience in fibers and polymer materials. Raytheon (nyse: RTN - news - people ) will handle systems integration. The ISN's budget is $10 million per year over the next 5 years, and it will be moving into a brand-new 28,000-square-foot facility this spring.

One particularly exciting ISN project is a collaboration between MIT chemist Tim Swager and mechanical engineer Ian Hunter. They turned an electroactive polymer into an actuator so that the material could change to exert force with an electrical signal, basically creating an exomuscle. The project has shown great progress: Right now, the synthetic muscle is close to the capabilities of human muscle. "The materials become dynamic," says Thomas. "Flexible, then rigid on command. This tickles the generals." Imagine, if a soldier is in battle and happens to break his leg, the nanomaterial could stiffen to form a hardened material that immobilizes the leg like a cast. Or if a soldier was shot in the arm and blood loss was a dire concern, the material could tighten and constrict blood flow around the wound to form a tourniquet. The potential exists for such a system to provide a soldier with superhuman strength.

The uniforms of the future could also use nanoscale sensors to detect soldiers' physiological signs, monitoring heart rate, blood pressure, levels of hydration and chemical signs of stress. Military commanders could conceivably use the sensors to identify the most alert and battle-ready soldiers to serve as the mission's point people.

http://www.forbes.com/2003/03/19/cz_jw_0319soapbox.html

[Admiral Valdemar]

I love ow nanotech apparently doesn't exist yet or has to be able to make houses and cars in seconds or is total wank.

Nanotech has been around for years, you just don't know about it. Only sci-fi fanboys think nanotech means molecular assemblers (say nanites and I will hurt you). Hell, the packaging most fragile goods come in use nanotechnology and have done for ages, medicine uses nanotech and has done for ages, my dad's workplace which makes cardboard has bloody nanotech components!

As for assemblers, not for a couple of decades yet and they won't make money obsolete nor will they defy physics and make anything in an instant, the problem is buildtime (you have a car made of several thousand pieces, takes an hour to make, you have a plane of several hundred thousand pieces, takes months to build. Now imagine building a machine from molecules. Millions of years at best).

Nanotech is here, has been for ages, the real interesting stuff hasn't been made or perfected yet. Nanomachines already exist in us all anyway, nothing nature didn't make first yet again.

[UltraViolence83]

Wasn't their a project creating BDU's for the Army with nanotech that would make cloth that was light as silk but bulletproof, and would be able to seal itself from chemical attack, absorb or reflect heat and absorb or repel moisture based on the conditions, and harden as a splint around injuries, plus form artificial muscles to boost a soldier's strength for short periods of time?

I swear I read an article about something like that at MIT.

Sounds like LotR mithril.

[Sea Skimmer]

Objective Force Warrior is looking at equipment for solider beyond 2008. Most of it is theoretical right now and some program are actually aimed at the 2020 timeframe.

[Solid Snake]

Objective Force Warrior is looking at equipment for solider beyond 2008. Most of it is theoretical right now and some program are actually aimed at the 2020 timeframe.

And "Land Warrior" by 2005 seems a little farfetched.

[Drooling Iguana]

You can have a house made of nanobots.

Granted you keep it away from sunlight and other radiation, and have a very long time to spend watching it build itself molcule by molecule.


...Or you could just hire some guys to hammer wood together. You know, just to keep your options open.

Well, you could build it out of fried nano-corpses.

[Howedar]

When will we see the first aplications of nanotechnology?

We already have.

As in, the first comercial, mass-production aplication.

Oh, you mean never.

Where will be the dominating field of choice for the use of nanotechnology?

Well golly, the nano-field. You know, small shit.

Will we have a house made out of nanobots, were with one thought a chair will solidify?

Never.

[Sea Skimmer]

And "Land Warrior" by 2005 seems a little farfetched.

No actually. Land Warrior works, costs about 1/8th of what was originally projected and could have been fielded over a year ago. However the decision was made to delay fielding to take advantage of new computer technology to reduce the bulk and improve battery life. 2005 is the fielding date for the new improved version.

[NecronLord]

I love ow nanotech apparently doesn't exist yet or has to be able to make houses and cars in seconds or is total wank.

Nanotech has been around for years, you just don't know about it. Only sci-fi fanboys think nanotech means molecular assemblers (say nanites and I will hurt you). Hell, the packaging most fragile goods come in use nanotechnology and have done for ages, medicine uses nanotech and has done for ages, my dad's workplace which makes cardboard has bloody nanotech components!

Err... There's a difference between nanoscale chemistry and nanotechnology. Technology implies that there is some designed mechanical process going on at that level, rather than simple polymers and the like.

[Shortie]

Err... There's a difference between nanoscale chemistry and nanotechnology. Technology implies that there is some designed mechanical process going on at that level, rather than simple polymers and the like.

Well, the difference is somewhat arbitrary at that scale. Is an array of molecules stuck to a piece of glass to provide a visible reaction (colour change) when a particular molecule reaches a certain concentration nanotech or not?

Anyway, they have made some really dinky gears and such, but AFAIK nothing really practical along those lines. It's not far off being really useful, but it'll never be Trek-style. It's not for replicating things we can do with a hammer or an oven, it's for doing things we can't do by other means. Equally it's not some magically seperate field, you can work on down the scale.

[Tasoth]

I was actually involved in a competition where we had to research this. The nanotech of Sci-Fi is bunk as far as it goes, most nanotech being things such as buckyballs and little motors with arms that they have to make that extend to the level they're looking for. A product of nanotech is the Carbon Tubule, a thin strand of high tensil carbon that conducts marvelously and can support a very large amount of weight for its size.

[Traceroute]

A product of nanotech is the Carbon Tubule, a thin strand of high tensil carbon that conducts marvelously and can support a very large amount of weight for its size.

I remember reading about that. The carbon nanotubule actually has the tensile strength to make a space elevator feasible. THAT'S some cool shit.

You attach a cord of this stuff to a satellite just past geosynchronous orbit and basically steal some of the earth's momentum to get things out there. Ideally, you also return an equal mass to balance the sheet.

Here's a better discussion of it.

[Admiral Valdemar]

A product of nanotech is the Carbon Tubule, a thin strand of high tensil carbon that conducts marvelously and can support a very large amount of weight for its size.

I remember reading about that. The carbon nanotubule actually has the tensile strength to make a space elevator feasible. THAT'S some cool shit.

You attach a cord of this stuff to a satellite just past geosynchronous orbit and basically steal some of the earth's momentum to get things out there. Ideally, you also return an equal mass to balance the sheet.

Here's a better discussion of it.

Though if it were to somehow sever and fall to Earth, uh-oh...

[Xenophobe3691]

Though if it were to somehow sever and fall to Earth, uh-oh...

I thought it would just hang in orbit...

[kojikun]

If an orbital lift ribbon were to be cut, everything below the cut would call to earth, and likely flutter while doing so because of its light weight and width (a metre or two). Because it would be over the ocean, there would be no impact and very little danger to the crew. If it was cut high enough, however, it might wrap around the planet, but likely would burn up on entry and only a few tens of miles near the base would reentry unharmed (assuming it too doesnt burn up). It might be possible to add break-away devices that cut the cable into 10km long strips which could burn up easilly. Anything above the cut in the ribbon would float away from the earth slowly as the now unbalanced mass of the lift and its counterweight pull the end station away from the planet.

The worst case scenario is if the ribbon is cut a few hundred to a few thousand miles up. That would enable it to wrap a significant way around the planet. Reentry would hopefully take care of the cable, however. Otherwise the earth might get an actual equator line! I doubt it would hurt anyone tho, it would flutter down because its weight could be carried by the wind and air. It would look like a REALLY big black flag going from horizon to horizon.