London, UK - 26 June 2006, 09:20 GMT - ATCA: Nanotechnology 2006: A Femto-Glimpse into Our Future or Nano-Hegemony Coming of Age? Dr Bent Segal

We are grateful to Dr Brent Segal from Boston, USA, for his submission to ATCA, "Nanotechnology 2006: A Femto-Glimpse into Our Future or Nano-Hegemony Coming of Age?"

Dr Brent M Segal is a Co-founder and part-time Chief Operating Officer of Nantero, a leading Nanotechnology company where he oversees operations roles focusing on partnerships, involving companies such as LSI Logic, BAE Systems and ASML. He continues to assist Nantero with intellectual property management and government programmes involving the US Navy and various agencies. He is also a General Partner at Atomic Venture Partners where he focuses on investments involving early stage technology with explosive growth potential. Some of his primary areas of expertise include Chemistry, Biochemistry, Biology, Semiconductors and Nanotechnology. He was previously a member of Echelon Ventures of Burlington, Massachusetts. Dr Segal received his PhD in Chemistry from Harvard University in 2000 and has published more than 20 articles in journals including Journal of the American Chemical Society, Inorganic Chemistry, and various IEEE publications, including one in which Nantero was named one of the top ten companies for the next ten years. He is a graduate of Reed College, with a degree in Biochemistry.

Dr Segal is frequently invited to speak at conferences and seminars such as COMDEX, NANOTECH 2005 and the annual National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) meeting on the topic of nanotechnology intellectual property creation and management to move Nanotechnology from the laboratory to fabrication. He is an active member of the steering committee of the Massachusetts Nanotechnology Initiative (MNI), executive member of the Massachusetts NanoExchange (MNE) and a member of the New England Nanomanufacturing Centre for Enabling Tools (NENCET) Industrial Advisory Board and a member of the planning board for Nanotech 2006. He sits on the Board of Directors of Coretomic, of Burlington, Vermont and ENS Biopolymer, Inc of Cambridge, Massachusetts. He was a Research Associate at Nycomed Salutar, Inc where he secured several new patents involving novel X-ray contrast agents for medical imaging. He is co-author of over 80 patents and applications and has worked extensively on intellectual property creation and protection issues at both Nycomed and Metaprobe. In his spare time he enjoys theatre, ballet, NFL football, specifically monitoring the 49ers which stems from his Bay Area roots and Menlo Park education, and wine sampling. He writes:

Dear DK and Colleagues

Re: Nanotechnology 2006: A Femto-Glimpse into Our Future or Nano-Hegemony Coming of Age?

The contribution of technological innovation to the world economy is well documented with estimates that it may be responsible for as much as 50% of economic growth over the past 50 years. As the silicon age reaches maturity, Moore’s law coming to an end as documented by Gordon Moore himself, what will be the next game-changing technology to emerge? With populations aging worldwide and healthcare costs spiralling literally out of control, is there a saviour on the horizon? Which technology segment has the US government been investing more than USD 1 billion per year and the EU, Japan, China and other countries are globally investing over USD 6 billion per year? What will become the next paradigm shift to impact the technology component of a growing economy? Could it be Nanotechnology?

Perhaps the first vision of nanotechnology was first described in a lecture titled, 'There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom' in 1959 by Richard P Feynman. Feynman theorized that with the proper toolset, individual atoms or molecules could be manipulated. The reality of such tools from companies like FEI and Veeco are now commonplace amongst scientists and engineers alike signalling the beginning of the nanotechnology era.

Introduction to Nanotechnology

The US government has defined Nanotechnology as the understanding and control of matter at dimensions of roughly 1 to 100 nanometres, where unique phenomena enable novel applications. Encompassing nanoscale science, engineering and technology, nanotechnology involves imaging, measuring, modelling, and manipulating matter at this length scale. What does this really mean?

An easier way to understand nanotechnology is to consider the three categories which may include nanotechnology defined by dimension; nanotechnology defined by properties and effects; and nanotechnology defined by fabrication.

To companies such as Intel which state that they entered the Nanotechnology era in 2000 “when [we] began volume production of chips with sub-100nm length transistors” one can easily understand the meaning of nanotechnology by dimension. Simply taking advantage of lithographic patterning via scaling of transistors from micron-sized (microtechnology) to less than 100 nanometres yields faster, more powerful computer chips with more features per unit area.

Other companies such as Nantero also in the semiconductor space, making non-volatile memory using Carbon Nano Tubes (CNT) that promise to replace all other forms of memory in what is over a USD 100 billion market utilize new materials but most importantly take advantage of properties such as van der Waal’s interactions. The Dutch physicist and chemist, Johannes Diderik van der Waals was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1910 for his work to describe intermolecular forces later named after him.

The last definition of nanotechnology by fabrication which involves molecular-scale generation of nanotechnological machines described by Eric Drexler in his 1986 book Engines of Creation: The Coming Era of Nanotechnology. Most chemists, physicists and nanotechnologists would generally describe this concept as nanotechnology by fantasy especially surrounding the term "gray goo" which describes hypothetical self-replicating molecular machines reproducing out of control. For example the late Professor Richard Smalley, Nobel Prize winner and discoverer of “buckyballs”, one of the most important discoveries of a new chemical entity in many decades, debated Drexler in a series of letters in the American Chemical Society journal Chemical and Engineering News delineating the improbability of generating nanoscopic robots of the form Drexler envisioned.

History of Nanotechnology

While Nanotechnology may seem mysterious and accessible solely by rocket scientists, chemists and physicists, the first reported human nanotechnologists may have been the lustre ceramics encapsulated within Abbasid tiles imported from Syria and placed in the mihrab of the Sidi Oqba Mosque in Kairouan, Tunisia. The tiny gratings generated within the pottery cause colour changes from blue to red upon illumination with white light at various angles. To understand the size of nanotechnological materials some context would be helpful. For example CNTs are best described as a rolled up sheet of graphite with a diameter of 1 nanometre or 1 X 10-9 meters (about 100,000 times smaller than a human hair) with a macroscopic length up to several millimetres by some accounts. To put this in context another nanotechnological material with a 2.5 nanometre diameter and a macroscopic length of at least many microns called DNA might be more familiar to most people.

Challenges in Nanotechnology

Accessing new products utilizing nanotechnology such as implantable devices that automatically administer drugs, real time diagnostics for physicians, cooling chips to replace compressors in cars, refrigerators, air conditioners, sensors for airborne chemicals or other toxins, photovoltaics (solar cells), fuel cells and portable power to provide inexpensive, clean energy, and new high-performance materials and coatings presents challenges which are significant. While the internet era involved relatively small amounts of capital to enter the field, the nanotechnology era involves large amounts of capital mostly in the form of tools and fabrication facilities. Some of the first implementations of nanotechnology have come in the materials space where neither expensive chip fabrication nor FDA approval, for example are required.

Another limiting factor in nanotechnology involves the workforce and its mindset. Most of the workforce in modern society is collected into silos via specialization. In fact specialization and “the assembly line” are credited with the efficiencies that have led to modern capitalism which can no doubt lead to a significant discussion about Democracy, Nationalism and even religion. Nanotechnology, however, represents a significant deviation from the status quo, and the requirement for specific combinations of disciplines in order to achieve developmental success. No longer can a physicist or chemist study in isolation. The new era of nanotechnology is already bringing biologists, chemists, physicists, engineers, medical doctors and many other technical specialists together to exchange thoughts and ideas whose combination will yield the discoveries characterized as nanotechnology. In a society where we value being the “expert” at one thing only, will we produce a workforce capable of such thinking? The country that is most quickly able to create this new breed of “specialized generalists” will likely enjoy tremendous economic success.

So now we move to the concept of “nano-hegemony” in a world which has recognized the benefits of a future with nanotechnology and a fear of a future without it! CNTs, for example, were discovered not in the United States but rather in Japan by Professor Sumio Iijima at NEC in 1991. Many of the nanotechnology discoveries using measurements such as scientific papers and patent applications are occurring in Asia, Europe and the Unites States in nearly equal numbers. Nearly every major industrialized nation is now working on some form of nanotechnology program and no fewer than 100 well-recognized major companies have significant development programs.

Potential threats from Nanotechnology

Now we turn to the potential threats that nanotechnology could pose. Indeed the threats to society from “gray goo” are overstated, bordering on absurd but real threats could exist. One concern in particular has to do with environmental health and safety from the introduction of new materials into so many new products. Certainly new regulations and requirements will emerge as we begin to understand the risks involved in nanotechnology. Some information exists already which should not be ignored. For example iron oxide nanoparticles of various sizes tend to show up as part of what is commonly termed “rust” while titanium oxide nanoparticles are quite safely used in many forms of sunscreens with significant data on their safety.

One of the greatest threats posed by nanotechnology emanates from fear and ignorance which lead to irrational behaviour. Movies and books which encourage paranoia cannot be overestimated as sources. The experience of the EU with biotechnology in the 1990s represents one potential outcome should proper education and awareness of nanotechnology not proceed with alacrity.

Conclusions

The promise of nanotechnology represents perhaps one of the most significant paradigm shifts that the world can expect to see this century. This shift will be different from others in that its entrance will be pervasive in nearly every industry yet without the obvious fanfare experienced by other technologies that have come before because many of the first entrants will be in the form of significant improvements to existing products. Nanotechnology will spawn a debate about world power, capitalism, specialization and democracy as it increases in prominence. Will you be ready?

Best regards

Brent

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We look forward to your further thoughts, observations and views. Thank you.

Best wishes

For and on behalf of DK Matai, Chairman, Asymmetric Threats Contingency Alliance (ATCA)

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ATCA: The Asymmetric Threats Contingency Alliance is a philanthropic expert initiative founded in 2001 to understand and to address complex global challenges. ATCA conducts collective Socratic dialogue on opportunities and threats arising from climate chaos, radical poverty, organised crime, extremism, informatics, nanotechnology, robotics, genetics, artificial intelligence and financial systems.

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