As a science writer and nanotechnology consultant, I am actively seeking writing assignments related to science and technology topics. I have more depth in nanotechnology and biotechnology, but I am eager to research and write about anything related to the opportunities and challenges offered by the technologies that are converging to transform existence. In addition to following current developments in depth, I write about scientific background and context to facilitate understanding of what is happening now, and will happen in the foreseeable future. Making these topics accessible to more people will ultimately encourage the development and application of these technologies. Working together, we can launch our civilization and intelligence into a future without limits.
A widespread understanding of the development and current state of science and technology is the basis for understanding where the technological opportunities of the present are coming from and how we can be confident of our expectations about what will be possible in the future.
The accelerating progress in biotechnology during the past half century has provided us with the molecular blueprints for enough lifeforms that we can begin to see just what genes produce what molecules, which molecules cooperate in what fashions to perform what functions in cells, and how cells grow, move, differentiate, and organize themselves into organisms as complex as humans. Increasingly detailed knowledge gives us ever more clues to the origins of human diseases and provides new tools for therapies.
For example, the symbiotic process that led to the formation of eukaryotes some two billion years ago left some vital mitochondrial functions still encoded by genes on the small mitochondrial DNA molecule, and thus very vulnerable to damage from the toxic chemicals generated by the oxidative functions of the mitochondria. The resulting accumulation of damaged mitochondria compromises energy production in cells, leading to a variety of pathologies that worsen with age.
The fact that human bodies are composed of more than 200 different cell types arises from a very intricate program of changes in gene expression that occur as a fertilized egg develops into an embryo and then finally into differentiated adult cells. Each cell type has a different pattern of which genes are expressed and which are not. When this program becomes deranged cells fail to function properly or become cancerous and a threat to the entire organism. As we learn more about these "epigenetic" changes in cells we will be able to control them to—among other things—prevent or cure cancer, control aging, or to generate stem cells from normal adult cells and then culture these stem cells to produce whatever cells are needed to repair injured and diseases tissues and organs.
As knowledge of genes and cells becomes more precise, we will increasingly be able to manipulate those genes and cells to preserve and restore health. Some of the tools that we will need for these manipulations come from biotechnology (for example, microRNAs and RNA interference), and some will come from the increasing powerful arsenal of nanotechnology (for example, nanoparticles for the targeted delivery of microRNAs and RNA interference).
Nanotechnology has been aptly described as the ultimate technological revolution. On the other hand, there is a great deal of confusion about what nanotechnology really means since different people use the term to mean very different things—all with some justification.
Soon after the fundamental facts of atomic and molecular structure became clear JD Bernal briefly proposed that this knowledge could be used to manufacture materials far superior to those found in nature through technological control of molecular architecture, and he considered some implications of such an ability. Thirty years later Richard Feynman gave a famous talk in which he explored in more depth what could be gained by manipulating and controlling things on the scale of atoms, and he proposed one way this might be achieved. The term nanotechnology was first coined by Norio Taniguchi to denote semiconductor and machining processes involving characteristic control to nanometer precision. A decade later Eric Drexler adopted the term to mean a general ability to control the structure of matter to atomic precision in designing and manufacturing a wide range of materials, devices, and machine systems, from those small enough to do surgery inside cells to space vehicles and large space habitats. After Drexler had popularized the term, a variety of practical advances appeared that allowed increasing control over the structure of matter on a scale of one to a 100 nanometers, opening up new areas of scientific endeavor and immediate or near-term technological application, but without endeavoring to achieve the long-term goal of atomically precise fabrication discussed by Drexler. Nanotechnology in this less ambitious meaning became a focus of intense interest and greatly increased funding.
Nanoscale science has produced a wide range of nanostructures and nanomaterials that are being rapidly developed for near-term applications. By one authoritative inventory [accessed Jan. 18, 2009] of nanotechnology-based consumer products currently on the market, "there are currently 807 products, produced by 420 companies, located in 21 countries." None of these products are likely to revolutionize our lives. However, current nanoscience and nanotechnology are areas of intense and fruitful activity. Scientists are getting closer to major advances in several application sectors—in particular medicine, nanoscale electronics, and energy. Beyond near-term applications, there are also important advances in methods of fabricating complex structures to atomic precision, so there is reason to hope that the next few decades will see the development of practical methods of building atomically precise nanosystems that will be able to manufacture a wide range of other atomically precise nanosystems, including duplicates of themselves. This sample of a few dozen recent significant accomplishments includes a number of advances in using DNA to built complex nanostructures, designing novel catalysts, forming and breaking individual chemical bonds between atoms on surfaces, building molecular machines, preparing chemically uniform carbon nanotubes and using them to build electronic circuits, making cheaper, more efficient solar cells, and several different types of nanoparticles that offer the hope of improved drug delivery methods that will target cancer cells and spare normal cells. There is also a link to an update on the idea that nanotechnology will eventually provide radical life extension through networks of medical nanobots—each of which would be a microscopic computer-controlled robot built to atomic precision.
Progress in one area of science and technology often impacts and accelerates progress in other areas. Progress in artificial intelligence and information science will provide the tools to understand how complex webs of interactions among genes, proteins, and cells control the state of our health, and to design complex molecular machine systems composed of numerous machines each designed so that each atom is placed to optimize the function of the machine. Among the most complex synergies that we can now imagine is the confluence of biotechnology, nanotechnology, information science, and cognitive science that may lead several decades from now to vast networks of trillions of microscopic medical nanobots patrolling the human body and mind, monitoring the intricate web of communications within and between the nearly 100 trillion cells of the body, adjusting parameters and interactions as necessary, repairing or removing and replacing damaged cells, reporting the functioning to the outside (the user or her doctor), executing instructions from the outside, and directly linking the user's mind to her chosen virtual computer worlds.
With so much so important happening in so many fields, the world needs more people tracking and communicating these developments, and trying to put together a roadmap for how we get from where we are now to a future a few decades from now in which revolutionary advances have been successfully harnessed to solve age-old human problems, and to launch our civilization on a never-ending expansion through the stars. I eagerly anticipate helping in this task.
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