Nanotechnology: Molecular Speculations on Global Abundance [Paperback]

BC Crandall (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 1996 | ISBN-10: 0262531372 | ISBN-13: 978-0262531375

Technology is becoming molecularly precise. Nanotechnology, otherwise known as molecular engineering, will soon create effective machines as small as DNA. This capacity to manipulate matter -- to program matter -- with atomic precision will utterly change the economic, ecological, and cultural fabric of our lives. This book, which is accessible to a broad audience while providing references to the technical literature, presents a wide range of potential applications of this new material technology.The first chapter introduces the basic concepts of molecular engineering and demonstrates that several mutually reinforcing trends in current research are leading directly into a world of surprisingly powerful molecular machines. Nine original essays on specific applications follow the introductory chapter. The first section presents applications of nanotechnology that interact directly with the molecular systems of the human body. The second presents applications that function, for the most part, outside the body. The final section details the mechanisms of a universal human-machine interface and the operation of an extremely high resolution display system.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"BC Crandall's Nanotechnology is both shocking and authoritative - a feast for those who truly enjoy a glimpse of the future!" Greg Bear, author of Blood Music and Queen of Angels

"In clear and compelling language, Nanotechnology describes the ideas and techniques that are creating a new domain of science and technology." Edward O. Wilson, Pellegrino University Professor, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University

About the Author

BC Crandall is cofounder and Vice President of Prime Arithmetics, Inc., and the Director of Molecular Realities.

Product Details

• Paperback: 226 pages
• Publisher: MIT Press (August 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0262531372
• ISBN-13: 978-0262531375
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,890,998 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Premier Technology of the 21st Century., September 13, 1996

By A Customer

This review is from: Nanotechnology: Molecular Speculations on Global Abundance (Hardcover)

Nanotechnology, The Premier Technology of the 21st Century, is about
building things atom by atom like biology does.
About making
extraordinary things from ordinary mater (see
http://planet-hawaii.com/nanozine/WHATNANO.HTM).

After reading nanotechnology, Molecular Speculations on Global
Abundance (The MIT Press), I found an ancient bottle washed ashore by
the tide.
I popped the top and to my surprise, a Green Genie
materialized before my eyes.
You have three wishes boomed the
Arabian aberration.
Cool.
Ill have nanotechnology. And your other
two wishes? And to his surprise I said, Pack up and join the ether.
Who needs magic if you have atomic precision chemistry.
This attitude is amply backed up by the stream of authors and their
thoughts presented in BC Crandalls latest work.

Prepare for anew wave
of startling ideas written by a group of the Worlds foremost
nanotechnologist.
Attention Nano Venture Capitalists.
This is the info you are looking
for.
Read and profit.
Now a summery of the authors and their
chapters:

1. Molecular engineering.
BC Crandall, the books editor, founder of Molecular Realities, Memetic
Engineering and co-founder of Prime Arithmetics inc., starts the work
with a thorough intro to the concept beginning with an explanation of
the atom, the workings of chemistry and self assembling natural
machines like DNA in a style comfortably accessible to the uninitiated
layperson.
Then Crandall moves on to A Genealogy of Nanotechnology.
How ideas and discoveries of the past, (the study of artificial life
concepts, the invention of scanning tunneling microscopes, walking
molecules) have transported science to the brink of this incredible
power.
Excellent and mandatory background information.

2. In-Vivo Nanoscope and the Two-Week Revolution.

Ted Kaehler of Apple Computer, has a two part chapter that sheds a
calibrating light on the time table and extreme complexity of
developing nanotechnology through the eyes of a computer scientist
(Carnegie-Mellon) with a physics background (Stanford).
Kaehler
argues that a great deal of early nano (preassembler) devices must be
developed and understood before moving on.
His example in part one of
his chapter is an early nano-like multi-purpose bioprobe unobtrusively
investigating the immune system in a living organism.
This device is
connected to desk top computers in a normal lab scene.
This is early
nanotechnology.
The bioprobe was extremely expensive to hand craft
(no assemblers yet exist).
The information from the experiment is
richly rewarding and will be added to a massive library of knowledge
needed to make the sophisticated cell repair machines of a mature
nanofuture.
Venture capitalist: There will be many steps to mature nanotechnology
that need financing and because of the novel utility of these
breakthroughs, such first on the block investments should produce
fabulous returns.

Kaehler goes on to explain away the myth of the Two-Week Revolution,
referring to the concept that very shortly after the building of the
first self replicating assembler, every nanotechnology idea conceived
and nanotech product would spread across the planet and into space
like wild fire. Arguing from the experience of complex systems
builders, Kaehler predicts that lots of debugging and product cycle
improvement are inevitable.
The two-week revolution will not happen.
Two weeks after the first assembler works, it will be in the shop for repairs.
And not many of the things that it builds in those two weeks will work either.
The pervasive use of assemblers in our lives depends on the development of several new fields of study and entire new layers of infrastructures.
It will be a human endeavor operating at human speeds. It wont happen without thousands of cycles of experimental feedback, and it wont
happen in the first two weeks.
Good news for society as we will have, mercifully, more time to adapt.
(Good sources tell me, he argues the other side as well, that while it won't be 2 weeks, it won't be all that long either, especially with
good design ahead.)

3. Cosmetic Nanosurgery

Former senior editor at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories
prestigious monthly, Energy and Technology Review , Richard Crawford
blows the doors off the $18 + Billion Cosmetic industry, showing how
even early nanotechnology can actually deliver on the bogus promises
made today by copywriters for their big business Oil of Old Lady
clients.
He shows relatively simple designs for early nanodevices that change
hair color, texture and skin color (I would love a tan in the
winter!).
No more bitter baldness for male and female. Cast off
unwanted facial and body hair. Such would be converted into CO2, H2O
and sulfur crystals at the source.<

>Enjoy wrinkle repair, full body tight skin well before the assembler.
Later, with cell repair machines working at the molecular level, full
body makeover.
Look completely different every month. Shock your
friends by morphing into a Klingon.

Alas, there is a bleak, dark side, the sleazy underbelly of this
nanotechnology utilization: Inevitably, there will be people who dont
know how to leave well enough alone.
Many who never liked their own
youthful appearance will opt instead to copy some popular model or
other sex symbol.
It could become very confusing, with dozens of
pop-idol look-alikes crowding the parks and boulevards of our future
metropolis.
Some may relish the prospect, but we may never see the
last of the Elvis clones.
(Oh.. My... God..! What did I do in a past life to be sent to this
Universe?)

4. Diamond Teeth

Famed nano D.D.S. Edward M. Reifman also has a B.S. in mechanical
engineering, magna cum laude, and an M.S. in biomedical engineering.
After graduation and before obtaining his D.D.S., Reifman went to work
for Hughes Aircraft designing communications satellites. (Makes
sense.)

As a warm up for early, then sophisticated nanotechnology, the
Dr. offers some really advanced dental tech like a CAD-CAM system with
a fiber optic wand to quickly take 3D measurements of a tooth to be
capped and a portable milling machine to make perfect caps on the
spot.
On to early nano and a hand held (Tricorder like) PET scanner that not only sees in 3D, but detects abnormal bone and gum densities, all
vessels, and specific sites where further tooth or jawbone loss will
likely occur. Then early nanites are introduced to rebuild problem
areas.

Nanotechnology will deliver the holy grail of dentistry:
long-lasting, cavity-free teeth. Advanced nanotechnology will deliver
another coup: arresting or neutralizing the genetics behind a
degenerating, aging jawline.
We could eventually see the replacement
of the entire jaw and teeth with diamondoid matrix.
But why stop
there? We can expand this approach to improve or replace the bodys
entire skeletal structure.

5. Early Applications

Harry Chesley is a senior software architect at Macromedia, formally
with Apple Computer and SRI International.
He has designed code for
25 years.
Chesley presents a nuts and bolts presentation on building
nanomachines.
Scale, shape, and energy needs are included.
You can
get a real physical grasp of how these hypothetical mechanical marvels
come together. Like all machines, they are built from components.
Each machine needs storage and computing facilities. It seems that it
will be possible to build a 1,000 MIPS (million instructions per
second) molecular computer that fits inside a cube 0.4 microns
(millionths of a meter) on a side.
This is roughly 1,000 times the
computing power of todays personal computers.

But now on to the fun stuff. In his An Opening Selection, Chesley
offers a long delightful list of early applications, some of which I
present for your enjoyment:

-Board games with billions of moving parts, allowing economic,
logistical, and military games with incredible depth of simulation.
-Full-wall speakers for people

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining, sometimes thought-provoking, futurist essays, February 17, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Nanotechnology: Molecular Speculations on Global Abundance (Paperback)

The opening chapter, written by editor Crandall, is a good, necessarily cursory, summation of nanotechnology at the time of publication. The inclusion of a long list of web sites with up-to-date information is a welcome way to keep the material fresh.

If you're looking to get serious and read a discussion of recent research, look elsewhere. The remaining chapters fall into the realm of pure speculation, where futurists practice the fine art of making guesses to which no one will hold them.

Ultimately, it is exactly this light-heartedness and high-level thought experimentation that makes the book a good weekend's read. Enjoy it the way you would enjoy a work of science fiction with its technology premise solidly rooted in today's understanding of the universe.

If you enjoy this kind of reading, I would strongly encourage you to read _The Diamond Age_ by Neal Stephenson.

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Read this one first!, December 16, 2000

By 

Eamon O. Dowling (Silver Spring, MD USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Nanotechnology: Molecular Speculations on Global Abundance (Paperback)

Most nanotechnolgy books and articles start out with lots of hype to excite the reader, and then follow it up with a meandering discussion of how this might really be possible. This book was no exception. It did a good job of building up themes and exploring them in detail. The treatment of "utility fog" was extremely well done, as was the discussion of a "holodeck" type image technology.

The language and style is easily accessible to those with a basic science education, and it was refreshing that this book avoided the doomsday predictions of nanotechnology and kept the unbounded prediction for when this will all happen to a minimum.

Published in 1996, the content of this book is a good introduction, but is in danger of becoming dated due to the fast moving nature of this field. This might be the first nanotechnology book to read, but not the last for a true fan of the topic. This book might not be for you, if you've been able to read Nanosystems by K. Eric Drexler, but if you want an entertaining walk through visions of future technology, check this one out.