Nano/Bioengineering

 

Lecture topic:

Nanotech/Nanoscience: the age of the immaterial and the need for trans-disciplinary endeavor

 

http://vv.arts.ucla.edu/publications/publications/02-03/JV_nano/JV_nano_artF5VG_files/image010.jpg

Floating in an aliquot of laboratory test fluid, these hypothetical early medical nanorobots are testing their ability to find and grasp passing virus particles. Courtesy of Jeff Johnson, 2001. Copyright 2003 Hybrid Medical Animation.

 

BackStory: What is Nanotechnology? What is Nanoscience?

 

(Excerpts from The Nanomeme Syndrome: Blurring of fact & fiction in the construction of a new science  by Jim Gimzewski and Victoria Vesna and other research )

Two terms often used interdependently are nanoscience and nanotechnology. Surprisingly, the term nanotechnology predates nanoscience. This is because the dreams of a new technology were proposed before the actual scientific research specifically aimed at producing the technology existed. The term nanotechnology, in its short lifetime, has attracted a variety of interpretation, and there is little agreement, even among those who are engaged in it, as to what it actually is.

Historically, the word nanotechnology was first proposed in the early seventies by a Japanese engineer, Norio Taniguchi, implying a new technology that went beyond controlling materials and engineering on the micrometer scale that dominated the 20th Century.

 

 

Nanotechnology typically, is described as a science that is concerned with control of matter at the scale of atoms and molecules.

 

Nano is Greek for dwarf and a nanometer (nm) is one billionth of a meter, written in scientific notation as:

 1 x 10-9 m.

 

The impetus for nanotechnology has stemmed from a renewed interest in colloidal science, coupled with a new generation of analytical tools such as the atomic force microscope (AFM) and the scanning tunneling microscope (STM). Combined with refined processes such as electron beam lithography, these instruments allow the deliberate manipulation of nanostructures. These new materials and structures have in turn led to the observation of novel phenomena such as the “quantum size effect” where the electronic properties of solids are altered with great reductions in particle size.


The Scanning Tunneling Microscope [8] represents a paradigm shift from seeing in the sense of viewing, to tactile sensing -- recording shape by feeling, much like a blind man reading Braille. The operation of a STM is based on a quantum electron tunneling current, felt by a sharp tip in proximity to a surface at a distance of approximately one nanometer. The tip is mounted on a three dimensional actuator like a finger as shown schematically in Figure. 1. This sensing is recorded as the tip is mechanically rastered across the surface producing contours of constant sensing (in the case of STM this requires maintaining a constant tunneling current). The resulting information acquired is then displayed as an image of the surface topography.

 

http://vv.arts.ucla.edu/publications/publications/02-03/JV_nano/JV_nano_artF5VG_files/image002.jpg   http://vv.arts.ucla.edu/publications/publications/02-03/JV_nano/JV_nano_artF5VG_files/image004.jpg

Figure 1. Principle of a scanning tunneling microscope uses a local probe: The gentle touch of a nanofinger is shown in (a) where if the human finger was shrunk by about ten millions times it would be able to feel atoms represented here by spheres 1 cm in diameter. If the interaction between tip and sample decays sufficiently rapidly on the atomic scale, only the two atoms that are closest to each other are able to ‘‘feel’’ each other as shown in (b) where the human finger is replaced by an atomically sharp tip. Binnig and Rohrer (1999) inspired this explanation of the STM.

 

 

http://vv.arts.ucla.edu/publications/publications/02-03/JV_nano/JV_nano_artF5VG_files/image008.jpg

Figure 3. View of a Scanning Tunneling Microscope (STM) at the PICO lab of one of the authors (Gimzewski) at UCLA.

 

In 1981, Heinrich Rohrer and Gerd Binning, at IBM Zurich research laboratories, invented the Scanning Tunneling Microscope (STM), which for the first time “looked” at the topography of atoms that cannot be seen. (Binning) With this invention, the age of the immaterial was truly inaugurated.

 

 

Not coincidentally, the IBM PC was taking center stage and causing a true revolution in arts and sciences alike. In a short period of history, many new things appeared, creating a perfect environment for a natural symbiosis between science, technology and art.

 

Another decade would pass before people occupying these creative worlds would expand their perceptual field to include each other’s points of views. Indeed, the surge of this expansion happened from a genuine need to embrace and cross-pollinate research and development between science, technology and art.

 

 

Both nanotechnology and media arts, by their very nature, have a common ground in addressing the issues of manipulation, particularly sensory perception, questioning our reaction, changing the way we think. They are complementary, and the issues that are raised start to spill over into fundamental problems of the limits of psychology, anthropology, biology and so on. It is as if the doors of perception have suddenly opened and the microscope’s imperfection of truly representing object form forces us to question our traditional (Western) values of reality.

 

Nanotechnology is also used as an umbrella term to describe emerging or novel technological developments associated with microscopic dimensions. Despite the great promise of numerous nanotechnologies such as quantum dots and nanotubes, real applications that have moved out of the lab and into the marketplace have mainly utilized the advantages of colloidal nanoparticles, such as suntan lotion, cosmetics, protective coatings and stain resistant textiles.

see concerns for sunscreen and cosmetics: http://action.foe.org/dia/organizationsORG/foe/content.jsp?content_KEY=3060

 

 

See research being done:
Building Molecular Machine Systems K. Eric Drexler, PhD.
http://www.imm.org/Reports/Rep008.html
http://www.imm.org/Parts/index.html
http://www.imm.org/Parts/Parts3.html
http://www.imm.org/Parts/diffGearStereo.jpg

Nanotechnology at Rensselaer:
http://www.googlesyndicatedsearch.com/u/rpi?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&domains=rpi.edu&q=nanotechnology&btnG=Search&sitesearch=rpi.edu
http://www.rpi.edu/research/nanotechnology.html
http://www.alumni.rpi.edu/nanotech2006.html


Carbon  Nanotubes:
Kohlenstoffnanoroehre_Animation
This animation of a rotating Carbon nanotube shows its 3D structure.
Source: German Wikipedia, original upload 29. Dez 2004 by APPER

http://www.googlesyndicatedsearch.com/u/rpi?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&domains=rpi.edu&q=carbon+nanotubes&btnG=Search&sitesearch=rpi.edu

 

Nano technology is used in the fabrication techniques of nanowires, semiconductor fabrication such as deep ultraviolet lithography, electron beam lithography, focused ion beam machining, nanoimprint lithography, atomic layer deposition, and molecular vapor deposition, and further including molecular self-assembly techniques such as those employing di-block copolymers.

Although nanotechnology is used widely to refer to something very tiny, this new science will eventually revolutionize and impact every single aspect of our lives. It will do this on all scales all the way up from the atom to the planet earth and beyond. The very modus operandi of science is already changing under its influence.

 

Nanotechnology at NASA http://ipt.arc.nasa.gov/nanotechnology.html

Nanoscience not only requires input from practically every scientific discipline, but it also needs direct and intense collaboration with the humanities and the arts. It is highly probable that this new technology will turn the world, as we know it, upside down, from the bottom up.

 

Nano images form The Institute for Molecular Manufacturing:

http://www.imm.org/

 

Venture capitalists, the military, governments around the world as well as educational institutions seduced by this syndrome are portraying nanotech as the savior of our rapidly declining economies and outdated military systems. Dovetailing on the recent frenzied exponential rise and fall of information technologies, and also to a degree by biotechnology, the need for a new cure-all has been identified.

 

 (From Wiki)
Potential risks

Potential risks of nanotechnology can broadly be grouped into three areas:

* the risk to health and environment from nanoparticles and nanomaterials;

* the risk posed by molecular manufacturing (or advanced nanotechnology);

* societal risks.

Risks from nanoparticles

The mere presence of nanomaterials (materials that contain nanoparticles) is not in itself a threat. It is only certain aspects that can make them risky, in particular their mobility and their increased reactivity. Only if certain properties of certain nanoparticles were harmful to living beings or the environment would we be faced with a genuine hazard.

In addressing the health and environmental impact of nanomaterials we need to differentiate two types of nanostructures: (1) Nanocomposites, nanostructured surfaces and nanocomponents (electronic, optical, sensors etc.), where nanoscale particles are incorporated into a substance, material or device (“fixed” nano-particles); and (2) “free” nanoparticles, where at some stage in production or use individual nanoparticles of a substance are present. These free nanoparticles could be nanoscale species of elements, or simple compounds, but also complex compounds where for instance a nanoparticle of a particular element is coated with another substance (“coated” nanoparticle or “core-shell” nanoparticle).

There seems to be consensus that, although one should be aware of materials containing fixed nanoparticles, the immediate concern is with free nanoparticles.

Because nanoparticles are very different from their everyday counterparts, their adverse effects cannot be derived from the known toxicity of the macro-sized material. This poses significant issues for addressing the health and environmental impact of free nanoparticles.

To complicate things further, in talking about nanoparticles it is important that a powder or liquid containing nanoparticles is almost never monodisperse, but will contain a range of particle sizes. This complicates the experimental analysis as larger nanoparticles might have different properties than smaller ones. Also, nanoparticles show a tendency to aggregate and such aggregates often behave differently from individual nanoparticles.

Health issues

There are four entry routes for nanoparticles into the body: they can be inhaled, swallowed, absorbed through skin or be deliberately injected during medical procedures (or released from implants). Once within the body they are highly mobile and in some instances can even cross the blood-brain barrier.

How these nanoparticles behave inside the organism is one of the big issues that needs to be resolved. Basically, the behavior of nanoparticles is a function of their size, shape and surface reactivity with the surrounding tissue. They could cause “overload” on phagocytes, cells that ingest and destroy foreign matter, thereby triggering stress reactions that lead to inflammation and weaken the body’s defense against other pathogens. Apart from what happens if non- or slowly degradable nanoparticles accumulate in organs, another concern is their potential interaction with biological processes inside the body: because of their large surface, nanoparticles on exposure to tissue and fluids will immediately absorb onto their surface some of the macromolecules they encounter. Can this, for instance, affect the regulatory mechanisms of enzymes and other proteins?

Environmental issues

Not enough data exists to know for sure if nanoparticles could have undesirable effects on the environment. Two areas are relevant here: (1) In free form nanoparticles can be released in the air or water during production (or production accidents) or as waste byproduct of production, and ultimately accumulate in the soil, water or plant life. (2) In fixed form, where they are part of a manufactured substance or product, they will ultimately have to be recycled or disposed of as waste. We don’t know yet if certain nanoparticles will constitute a completely new class of non-biodegradable pollutant. In case they do, we also don’t know yet how such pollutants could be removed from air or water because most traditional filters are not suitable for such tasks (their pores are too big to catch nanoparticles).

Health and environmental issues combine in the workplace of companies engaged in producing or using nanomaterials and in the laboratories engaged in nanoscience and nanotechnology research. It is safe to say that current workplace exposure standards for dusts cannot be applied directly to nanoparticle dusts.

To properly assess the health hazards of engineered nanoparticles the whole life cycle of these particles needs to be evaluated, including their fabrication, storage and distribution, application and potential abuse, and disposal. The impact on humans or the environment may vary at different stages of the life cycle.

Regarding to the risks from molecular manufacturing, an often cited worst-case scenario is "grey goo", a hypothetical substance into which the surface of the earth might be transformed by self-replicating nanobots running amok. This concept has been analyzed by Freitas in "Some Limits to Global Ecophagy by Biovorous Nanoreplicators, with Public Policy Recommendations" [1] With the advent of nan-biotech, a different scenario called green goo has been forwarded. Here, the malignant substance is not nanobots but rather self-replicating organisms engineered through nanotechnology.

Societal risks

Societal risks from the use of nanotechnology have also been raised. On the instrumental level, these include the possibility of military applications of nanotechnology (for instance, as in implants and other means for soldier enhancement like those being developed at the Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies at MIT [2]) as well as enhanced surveillance capabilities through nano-sensors.

On the structural level, critics of nanotechnology point to a new world of ownership and corporate control opened up by nanotechnology. The claim is that, just as biotechnology's ability to manipulate genes went hand in hand with the patenting of life, so too nanotechnology's ability to manipulate molecules has led to the patenting of matter. The last few years has seen a gold rush to claim patents at the nanoscale. Over 800 nano-related patents were granted in 2003, and the numbers are increasing year to year. Corporations are already taking out broad ranging monopoly patents on nanoscale discoveries and inventions. For example, two corporations, NEC and IBM, hold the basic patents on carbon nanotubes, one of the current cornerstones of nanotechnology. Carbon nanotubes have a wide range of uses, and look set to become crucial to several industries from electronics and computers, to strengthened materials to drug delivery and diagnostics. Carbon nanotubes are poised to become a major traded commodity with the potential to replace major conventional raw materials. However, as their use expands, anyone seeking to manufacture or sell carbon nanotubes, no matter what the application, must first buy a license from NEC or IBM.

Nanotechnology risks and regulators

Regulatory bodies such as the Environmental Protection Agency and the Food and Drug Administration in the U.S. or the Health & Consumer Protection Directorate of the European Commission have started dealing with the potential risks posed by nanoparticles. So far, neither engineered nanoparticles nor the products and materials that contain them are subject to any special regulation regarding production, handling or labeling. The Material Safety Data Sheet that must be issued for certain materials often do not differentiate between bulk and nanoscale size of the material in question.

Studies of the health impact of airborne particles are the closest thing we have to a tool for assessing potential health risks from free nanoparticles. These studies have generally shown that the smaller the particles get, the more toxic they become. This is due in part to the fact that, given the same mass per volume, the dose in terms of particle numbers increases as particle size decreases.

Looking at all available data, it must be concluded that current risk assessment methodologies are not suited to the hazards associated with nanoparticles; in particular, existing toxicological and eco-toxicological methods are not up to the task; exposure evaluation (dose) needs to be expressed as quantity of nanoparticles and/or surface area rather than simply mass; equipment for routine detecting and measuring nanoparticles in air, water or soil is inadequate; and very little is known about the physiological responses to nanoparticles.

Regulatory bodies in the U.S. as well as in the EU have concluded that nanoparticles form the potential for an entirely new risk and that it is necessary to carry out an extensive analysis of the risk. The outcome of these studies can then form the basis for government and international regulations.

 

http://www.zyvex.com/nano/

 

NANOTECHNOLOGY_essential big problems.doc

 

http://www.foresight.org/roadmaps/index.html

grey goo
The term was first used by molecular nanotechnology pioneer Eric Drexler in his book Engines of Creation (1986). In Chapter 4, Engines Of Abundance, Drexler explores a scary scenario of exponential growth with such assemblers:

"Thus the first replicator assembles a copy in one thousand seconds, the two replicators then build two more in the next thousand seconds, the four build another four, and the eight build another eight. At the end of ten hours, there are not thirty-six new replicators, but over 68 billion. In less than a day, they would weigh a ton; in less than two days, they would outweigh the Earth; in another four hours, they would exceed the mass of the Sun and all the planets combined - if the bottle of chemicals hadn't run dry long before."

Drexler describes grey goo in Chapter 11 Engines Of Destruction:

"...early assembler-based replicators could beat the most advanced modern organisms. "Plants" with "leaves" no more efficient than today's solar cells could out-compete real plants, crowding the biosphere with an inedible foliage. Tough, omnivorous "bacteria" could out-compete real bacteria: they could spread like blowing pollen, replicate swiftly, and reduce the biosphere to dust in a matter of days. Dangerous replicators could easily be too tough, small, and rapidly spreading to stop - at least if we made no preparation. We have trouble enough controlling viruses and fruit flies."

It is thus worth noting that grey goo need not be grey or gooey. They could be like, for all purposes, a plant or bacteria. It is only the result of their ecophagy that would resemble grey goo.

 

Potentials in New Cancer Research:

gold covered nanoshells

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sciencenow/3209/03-nanoshells.html

 

 

 

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Readings:

http://www.ciac.ca/magazine/archives/no_23/en/entrevue.htm

and

The Nanomeme Syndrome.doc

and

NANOTECHNOLOGY_essential big problems.doc

 

Samples of visual explanations:

http://www.dynamicdiagrams.com/all_pdfs/DSpace_letter.pdf

 

http://www.dynamicdiagrams.com/all_pdfs/dD_visual_explanation.pdf#search=%22visual%20explanations%22

 

http://www.acrstudio.com/projects/teaching/design3_11visexp2.htm

http://www.acrstudio.com/projects/teaching/design3_05infoheir1.htm

http://www.visualexplanations.net/

http://www.ineedcpr.com/products_services/visual_explanations/visual_explanations.html

 

http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/

http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/fineart

 

Project: Bio/Nao Art Net Project
Create a short website which explains your ideas for an original bio/nano art piece. Your visual explanation should describe and show your ideas in text, visuals and elements of interaction. Explore the technological, ethical and social questions which your project poses.

Task:
Using the ideas covered in lecture discussions, studio, your own personal research and intuition, create an original idea for a hypothetical bioart or nanotec project and present your concept in an original web art project which uses images, text and information architecture in expressive ways to communicate your ideas.

Deliverables: 
Submit one folder to your drop box (named with your name) which contains all the elements of your Bio/Nano Art Net Project. This should include at least:
* index .html
* 3 to 12 original web ready images envisioning your project
* at least linked 6 pages which contain your images/text/etc

Additionally: Also upload your site to your rcs public html and ensure that your BioArt Net Project works. Use the following to upload it: (pc)
ftp.rpi.edu
right click
login
public html
drag your folder into your public html folder
check it then at:
www.rpi.edu/~yourrcsusername/yourfoldername/index.html

Grading Criteria:

1. Assignment completed on-time

2. Adherence to the size and file format specifications

3. Exploration and application of creative tools in Dreamweaver, html, or xml

4. Quality and clarity of class presentation

5. Quality, originality, relevance and relation to issues in Biotech/Nanotech expressed in your artistic project, and the technological, ethical and social questions which your project poses.

6. Ability to create a well designed and workable web project which expands your existing skill levels.