How Small is Small?

“Seen from the moon we are all the same size.”

-Eduard Douwer Dekker

This week continues with a basic primer to concepts in nanotechnology. To discuss nanotechnology is sometimes akin to discussing the origins of one’s belief in God. There are ardent evangelists that will take any of the numerous sides to the nano-theology debate. For some, nanotechnology is just the continuation of one’s ongoing dedication to science & discovery. One shining example is Richard Smalley who completed his post-doctoral work at the University of Chicago in 1976. Two decades later, he shared the 1996 Nobel Prize for chemistry for the discovery of fullerenes (a form of highly structured carbon). This was the first Nobel Prize granted for a discovery clearly within the realm of nanotechnology. One would think that this means that nanotechnology is a relatively recent development in the annals of science. One would be dead wrong.

The word nano is derived from the Greek word nannos, which roughly translated means “little old man” or “dwarf.” In today’s English usage, nano is a technical term for measurement meaning 1 billionth of something. It is usually compounded with the word meter and as a nanometer, is a measure of distance of 1 billionth of a meter— approximately the distance occupied by 5 to 10 atoms stacked in a straight line. The word technology has a common meaning, also derived from Greek, which can be generally defined as the application of scientific method to commercial objectives. So nanotechnology very generally means of the manipulation of exceptionally small things, approximately at the atomic or molecular scale, towards some commercial objective. In a nutshell, nanotechnology is the manipulation of very small things to make a profit.

Sumerian texts from 6 millennia ago document mankind’s first venture with assembly of small things to make a profit. Carefully preserved cuneiform tablets recount how early technologists performed the transformation of glucose (C₆H₁₂O₆) into ethanol (CH₃-CH₂-OH). These early technologists, also known as brewers, created the magical concoction called beer by employing a primitive molecular assembly process using a molecular assembly device called yeast. Today, the annual global consumption of this molecularly engineered product is approximately 34,333,000,000 gallons, which represents a significant percentage of the world’s GDP.

While the Sumerian’s may not have known exactly what they were doing, they set the stage for global demand of nanotechnology-derived products. For millennia, brewers and vintners quietly plied their trade assembling molecules one loving atom at a time without a care in the world about how nature had granted them the ability to create bulk products from the mass assembly of individual molecules.

It wasn’t until 1959 that Richard Feynman, who later would share a Nobel Prize for his work in quantum electrodynamics, got around to suggesting that it was not only possible, but also desirable to think about assembling commercially viable products, one atom at a time. Most nanotechnologists claim that Feynman’s 1959 “There’s Plenty of Room at the Bottom,” speech created the foundation for what would become nanotechnology in its various incarnations. While Feynman was perhaps 6,000 years late in seeking commercial opportunity with nanotechnology, his significant contribution was to make the quest for atomic assembly of products respectable. In short, any credentialed scientist could now claim to be working in a direction suggested by Feynman, and not be denied tenure for being a crackpot.

Science and technology tend to take a generation to achieve success with new paradigms. Thus, it comes as no surprise that it took nearly a quarter century before the realities caught up with Feynman’s conjectures. In 1985, three significant events occurred:

1. Richard Smalley, et al, discovered fullerenes.

2. Eric Drexler published the seminal book “Engines of Creation.”

3. IBM published a photograph of xenon atoms, which had been moved into a pattern that spelled out the letters “IBM.”

From a marketing point of view we now had, respectively:

1. Acceptance by the international community of something novel that had nanometer scale structure.

2. A popular book talking about what nanotechnology could do for you and your kin.

3. A rather remarkable photograph showing that atoms could be moved one at a time.

Thus, while science may derive from generations of dedicated attention to detail and the growth of ideas pyramided on the ideas of others, for nanotechnology, the birth in the public’s eye came in one moment in time, in 1985. From that time forward, there would be no lack of scripts for science fiction episodes, and no dearth of funding for those seeking to build the inscrutable.

In future blogs, we’ll see exactly what is so important about a fullerene and why a former University of Chicago post-doc achieved acclaim for finding something so small.