Nanorobotics & Nanotechnology

Once upon a time, two hosts were discussing nanorobotics on their podcast. One of the hosts, Joe, was excited about the idea of a robot the size of Godzilla, but his co-host, Jane, reminded him that they were there to talk about nanorobotics. The science of nanorobotics involved engineering and technology, chemistry, and biology at the nanoscale, which was one to one hundred nanometers long. To give an idea of how small that was, a nanometer was one billionth of a meter, and the ratio of a meter to a nanometer was the same as the ratio of the earth to a marble.

Joe and Jane discussed how nanorobotics could manipulate things, including the building blocks of life, because it operated on such a small scale. Joe pointed out that this technology had the potential to change the world as we knew it, but Jane warned that new technology always came with new dangers.

They traced the history of nanorobotics to a speech given by American theoretical physicist Richard Feynman in 1959, which imagined machines that could be miniaturized and store masses of information in tiny structures. In 1986, engineer Kay Eric Drexler cited Feynman's speech in his book Engines of Creation: The Coming Era of Nanotechnology, where he introduced universal assemblers or microscopic machines. These nanobots could do external things, like cleaning up environmental pollutants, but they could also do internal things, like fighting diseases or clearing blockages in the human body.

Joe warned that since these nanobots worked at an atomic level, they could build and manipulate pretty much anything from scratch, but Jane pointed out that this could lead to a nightmare scenario where the nanobots would begin duplicating themselves to the point of mass environmental extinction. Nevertheless, nanorobotics had come a long way since Drexler's time, and the field was now dominated by biological technology rather than mechanical assemblers.

Joe and Jane discussed some of the biological micromachines in development around the world. Researchers at the University of Mines in Germany built the smallest engine ever from just a single atom. Meanwhile, engineers at Ohio State designed and constructed complex nanoscale mechanical parts using a process known as DNA origami. Researchers at Zurich, along with Technion researchers, developed an elastic nano swimmer that could move through biological fluid environments, and researchers at the University of Cambridge had developed Antz A.S. actuating nano transducers, tiny engines capable of a force per unit weight ratio nearly 100 times higher than any motor or muscle.

Joe and Jane discussed the medical applications of nanorobotics, including drug delivery at the cellular level. This could limit the side effects and other unexpected reactions that came from new pharmaceuticals or vaccines. They could also use nanotech to spot illnesses very early on. Joe and Jane discussed how nanorobotics could change the world, but they acknowledged that new technology always came with new dangers.

In the end, Joe and Jane agreed that nanorobotics was an exciting field of study with many potential applications, but it was important to proceed with caution. As Jane pointed out, the world was changing quickly, and we needed to make sure we were ready for what was to come.