Nanotechnology Now

Matter as Software: "Autonomous, motile microdevices clearly are on the horizon. They may be regarded as the first step in the evolution of a technology for "programming" the structure and properties of material objects at the microscopic and the submicroscopic levels. As this evolution progresses, the physical and economic properties of such programmable matter are likely to become much like those of present day software." [MITRE Corporation]

Meat Machine: AKA Cabinet Beast. A box containing assemblers and raw material, within which is formed meat [or whatever else it was programmed to make]. [FS]

Mechanosynthesis: (where) molecular tools with chemically specific tip structures can be used, sequentially, to modify a work piece and build a wide range of molecular structures. [FS] See Technical Bibliography for Research on Positional Mechanosynthesis

Mechatronics: the study of the melding of AI and electromechanical machines to make machines that are greater than the sum of their parts. [FR]

Meme: An idea that replicates through a society as it is propagated through person-to-person interaction, both direct and indirect. Memetics is a field of study that focuses on memes' role in the evolution of a culture. [ZY]

MEMS--MicroelectroMechanical Systems: generic term to describe micron scale electrical/mechanical devices. [ZY] See The beauty of MEMS: Simpler, more reliable, cheaper, and cool - Small Times for a great description and examples of use.

Mesoscale: A device or structure larger than the nanoscale (10^-9 m) and smaller than the megascale; the exact size depends heavily on the context and usually ranges between very large nanodevices (10^-7 m) and the human scale (1 m). [AS]

Microencapsulation: Individually encapsulated small particles. see Journal of Microencapsulation

MIMIC: [micromoulding in capillaries] one-step rapid prototyping technique.

Molecular Assembler: Also known as an assembler, a molecular assembler is a molecular machine that can build a molecular structure from its component building blocks. [ZY]

Molecular Beam Epitaxy: [MBE] Process used to make compound (multi-layer) semiconductors. Consists of depositing alternating layers of materials, layer by layer, one type after another (such as the semiconductors gallium arsenide and aluminum gallium arsenide).

Molecular Biology: [AKA: wet nano]

Molecular Integrated Microsystems (MIMS): microsystems in which functions found in biological and nanoscale systems are combined with manufacturable materials. See Molecular Integrated Microsystems

Molecular Electronics (ME) [moletronics] Any system with atomically precise electronic devices of nanometer dimensions, especially if made of discrete molecular parts rather than the continuous materials found in today's semiconductor devices. [FS] Also: Using molecule-based materials for electronics, sensing, and optoelectronics .... ME is the set of electronic behaviors in molecule-containing structures that are dependent upon the characteristic molecular organization of space .... ME behavior is fixed at the scale of the individual molecule, which is effectively the nanoscale. [Mark Ratner & MT 5(2) p. 20

Molecular Manipulator: A device combining a proximal probe mechanism for atomically precise positioning with a molecule binding site on the tip; can serve as the basis for building complex structures by positional synthesis. [NTN]

Molecular Manufacturing: Manufacturing using molecular machinery, giving molecule-by-molecule control of products and by-products via positional chemical synthesis. [FS]

Molecular Nanotechnology (MNT): Thorough, inexpensive control of the structure of matter based on molecule-by-molecule control of products and byproducts; the products and processes of molecular manufacturing, including molecular machinery. [FS]

Molecular Recognition: A chemical term referring to processes in which molecules adhere in a highly specific way, forming a larger structure; an enabling technology for nanotechnology. [FS]

Molecular Systems Engineering: Design, analysis, and construction of systems of molecular parts working together to carry out a useful purpose. [FS]

Molecular Wire: A molecular wire - the simplest electronic component - is a quasi-one-dimensional molecule that can transport charge carriers (electrons or holes) between its ends. [Michael D Ward]

Monomolecular Computing: the implantation inside a single molecule of ALL the functional groups or circuits to realize a calculation, without any help from external artifices such as re-configuration, calculation sharing between the user and the machine, or selection of the operational devices. [C. Joachim]

Moore's Law -- Coined in 1965 by Gordon Moore, future chairman and chief executive of Intel, it stated at the time that the of number transistors packed into an integrated circuit had doubled every year since the technology's inception four years earlier. In 1975 he revised this to every two years, and most people quote 18 months. The trend cannot continue indefinitely with current lithographic techniques, and a limit is seen in ten to fifteen years. However, the baton could be passed to nanoelectronics, to continue the trend (though the smoothness of the curve will very likely be disrupted if a completely new technology is introduced). [CMP]

Nanites [AKA: nanobots] -- machines with atomic sized components. [Popularized by the Star Trek episode "Evolution"] As to their weight, a popular question: "Do you 'feel' heavier after you drink a mouthful of water? A mouthful of water, roughly 5 cm^3, would have the same mass as a ~2 terabot [2 trillion nanite] dose of 1 micron^3 nanorobots. You'll never feel it." Robert A. Freitas Jr.

Nanoarray: an ultra-sensitve, ultra-miniaturized array for biomolecular analysis. BioForce Nanosciences' Nanoarrays utilize approximately 1/10,000th of the surface area occupied by a conventional microarray, and over 1,500 nanoarray spots can be placed in the area occupied by a single microarray domain. [BioForce Nanosciences] See The NanoPro™ System

Nanoassembler: the Holy Grail of nanotechnology; once a perfected nanoassembler is availble, building anything becomes possible, with physics and the imagination the only limitation (of course each item would have to be designed first, which is another small hurdle).

Nanobarcode: SurroMed's Nanobarcode™ technology uses cylindrically-shaped colloidal metal nanoparticles, in which the metal composition can be alternated along the length and the size of each metal segment can be controlled. Intrinsic differences in reflectivity between the metal segments allow individual particles to be identified by conventional optical microscopy. See SurroMed and Penn State Publish Pioneering Work in the Journal Science Describing Nanobarcode™ Particles

Nanobiotechnology: applying the tools and processes of MNT to build devices for studying biosystems, in order to learn from biology how to create better nanoscale devices. Should hasten the creation of useful micro devices that mimic living biological systems.

Nanobubbles: tiny air bubbles on colloid surfaces. Thought to reduce drag, such as would be of benefit to swimmers wearing a suit coverd in them. See FIRST IMAGES OF NANOBUBBLES

Nanocatalysis See LBL-UCB Scientists Demonstrate Nanocatalysis and Nanocluster arrays refine the catalytic process

Nanochips: we are approaching the limits of standard microchip technology; thus, the "nanochip" -- a next-smaller microchip. [ed] They are also a next-gen device for mass storage, of significantly higher density, with greater speed, and much lower cost. [Tod Maffin (p)] See Getting a Line on Nanochips

Nanochondria: Nanomachines existing inside living cells, participating in their biochemistry (like mitochondria) and/or assembling various structures. See also nanosome. [Ken Clements 1996]

Nanocones: Nonplanar graphitic structures. Carbon-based structures with five-fold symmetry that form due to disclination defects in two-dimensional graphene sheets. They have been observed as nanotube caps and as freestanding structures. [North Carolina State University] see Nanostructures Fabrication from Carbon Nanocones

Nanocrystals: also known as nanoscale semiconductor crystals. "Nanocrystals are aggregates of anywhere from a few hundred to tens of thousands of atoms that combine into a crystalline form of matter known as a "cluster." Typically around ten nanometers in diameter, nanocrystals are larger than molecules but smaller than bulk solids and therefore frequently exhibit physical and chemical properties somewhere in between. Given that a nanocrystal is virtually all surface and no interior, its properties can vary considerably as the crystal grows in size." [LBL] See Nanocrystals: The shapes of things to come

Nano Cubic Technology: an ultra-thin layer coating that results in higher resolution for recording digital data, ultra-low noise and high signal-to-noise ratios that are ideal for magneto-resistive (MR) heads. It is capable of catapulting data cartridge and digital videotape to one-terabyte native (uncompressed) capacities and floppy disk capacities to three gigabytes. To help visualize the potential, 1TB can store up to 200 two-hour movies. [Fuji Photo Film U.S.A., Inc.]

Nanoelectronics: Electronics on a nanometer scale, whether made by current techniques or nanotechnology; includes both molecular electronics and nanoscale devices resembling today's semiconductor devices. [NTN]

Nanogate: A device that precisely meters the flow of tiny amounts of fluid. Precise control of the flow restriction is accomplished by deflecting a highly polished cantilevered plate. The opening is adjustable on a sub-nanometer scale, limited by the roughness of the polished plates. Thus, the Nanogate is an Ultra Surface Finish Effect Mechanism (USFEM). The Nanogate can be fabricated on a macro-, meso- or micro- (MEMs) scale. [James R. White]
See Nanogate: A Fundamental New Device for Nanofluidics

Nanogypsy: someone who travels form place to place, spreading the "nano" word. Usually a person who takes the most optimistic viewpoint, and is enthusitic. [uhf]

Nanoimprinting: Sometimes called soft lithography. A technique that is very simple in concept, and totally analogous to traditional mould- or form-based printing technology, but that uses moulds (masters) with nanoscale features. As with the printing press, the potential for mass production is clear. There are two forms of nanoimprinting, one that uses pressure to make indentations in the form of the mould on a surface, the other, more akin to the printing press, that relies on the application of "ink" applied to the mould to stamp a pattern on a surface. Other techniques such as etching may then follow. [CMP]

Nanoindentation: Nanoindentation is similar to conventional hardness testing performed on a much smaller scale. The force required to press a sharp diamond indenter into a material is measured as a function of indentation depth. As depth resolution is on the scale of nanometers (hence the name of the instrument), it is possible to conduct indentation experiments even on thin films. Two quantities which can be readily extracted from nanoindentation experiments are the material's modulus, or stiffness, and its hardness, which can be correlated to yield strength. Investegators have also used nanoindentation to study creep, plastic flow, and fracture of materials. [Nix Research Group, Materials Science & Engineering, Stanford University]

Nanolithography: Writing on the nanoscale. From the Greek words Nanos - Dwarf, Lithos - rock, and grapho - to write, this word literally means "small writing on rocks." [NTN] See definition in Wikipedia.

Nanomachining: like traditional machining, where portions of the structure are removed or modified, nanomachining involves changing the structure of nano-scale materials or molecules.

nanoManipulator: uses virtual reality (VR) goggles and a force feedback probe as an interface to a scanning probe microscope, providing researchers with a new way to interact with the atomic world. Researchers can travel over genes, tickle viruses, push bacteria around, and tap on molecules - the nanoManipulator simplifies the process and allows researchers to play with their atoms. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH) The Nanomanipulator from the Center for Computer Integrated Systems for Microscopy and Manipulation (CISMM) at UNC Chapel Hill. Part of the Nanoscale Science Research Group (NSRG). Images & Movies

Nanomanipulation: The process of manipulating items at an atomic or molecular scale in order to produce precise structures. [ZY See Zyvex SEM manipulator]

Nanomaterials: can be subdivided into nanoparticles, nanofilms and nanocomposites. The focus of nanomaterials is a bottom up approach to structures and functional effects whereby the building blocks of materials are designed and assembled in controlled ways. [Oxonica]

NanoPGM - nanometer-scale patterned granular motion: The goal of NanoPGM is to generate millions of “nanofingers,” finger-like structures each only a few nanometers long, that might someday perform precise, massively parallel manipulation of molecules and directed assembly of other nanometer-scale objects. This ability answers one of the biggest technical challenges facing builders of nanocomputers: how to arrange as many as a trillion molecular computing components in an area only a few millimeters square. [MITRE / Alex Wissner-Gross]

Nanopharmaceuticals: nanoscale particles used to modulate drug transport for drug uptake and delivery applications.

Nanophase Carbon Materials (carbon nanotubes, nanodiamond, nanocomposite]--A form of matter in which small clusters of atoms form the building blocks of a larger structure. These structures differ from those of naturally occurring crystals, in which individual atoms arrange themselves into a lattice.

Nanopore: involves squeezing a DNA sequence between two oppositely charged fluid reservoirs, separated by an extremely small channel.

Nanoprobe: Nanoscale machines used to diagnose, image, report on, and treat disease within the body. See "Cell Repair Machine", "Nanites", "Nanobots", and "Nanomachine". Also: tips for scanning probe microscopes.

Courtesy of, and Copyright 1999 by Time Inc. Reprinted by Permission.
"Anatomy of a Nanoprobe" by Joe Lertola. 11/08/99 issue of Time.
Reproduction strictly prohibited without permission of Time.
Click for larger image

Nanosome: Nanodevices existing symbiotically inside biological cells, doing mechanosynthesis and disassembly for it and replicating with the cell. Similar to nanochondria. [AS January 1998]

Nanotechnology: a manufacturing technology able to inexpensively fabricate most structures consistent with natural law, and to do so with molecular precision. [FS]

Copyright Prof. Vincent H. Crespi Department of Physics Pennsylvania State University.
And an excellent description of Nanotubes

A one dimensional fullerene (a convex cage of atoms with only hexagonal and/or pentagonal faces) with a cylindrical shape. Carbon nanotubes discovered in 1991 by Sumio Iijima resemble rolled up graphite, although they can not really be made that way. Depending on the direction that the tubes appear to have been rolled (quantified by the 'chiral vector'), they are known to act as conductors or semiconductors. Nanotubes are a proving to be useful as molecular components for nanotechnology. [Encyclopedia Nanotech]

Strictly speaking, any tube with nanoscale dimensions, but generally used to refer to carbon nanotubes (a commonly mentioned non-carbon variety is made of boron nitride), which are sheets of graphite rolled up to make a tube. The dimensions are variable (down to 0.4 nm in diameter) and you can also get nanotubes within nanotubes, leading to a distinction between multi-walled and single-walled nanotubes. Apart from remarkable tensile strength, nanotubes exhibit varying electrical properties (depending on the way the graphite structure spirals around the tube, and other factors), and can be insulating, semiconducting or conducting (metallic). [CMP]

See Nanobeam Mechanics: Elasticity, Strength, and Toughness of Nanorods and Nanotubes and
Fullerene Nanotubes: C_1,000,000 and Beyond. Boris I. Yakobson and Richard E. Smalley.

and here Carbon Nanotubes in Space

"Maybe the most significant spin-off product of fullerene research....are nanotubes based on carbon or other elements. These systems consist of graphitic sheets seamlessly wrapped to cylinders. With only a few nanometers in diameter, yet (presently) up to a millimeter long, the length-to-width aspect ratio is extremely high. A truly molecular nature is unprecedented for macroscopic devices of this size. Accordingly, the number of both specialized and large-scale applications is growing constantly."
See [The Nanotube Site]

OLED or Organic LED is not made of semiconductors. It's made from carbon-based molecules. That is the key science factor that leads to potentially eliminating LEDs' biggest drawback – size. The carbon-based molecules are much smaller. And according to a paper written by Dr. Uwe Hoffmann, Dr. Jutta Trube and Andreas Klöppel, entitled OLED - A bright new idea for flat panel displays "OLED is brighter, thinner, lighter, and faster than the normal liquid crystal (LCD) display in use today. They also need less power to run, offer higher contrast, look just as bright from all viewing angles and are - potentially - a lot cheaper to produce than LCD screens." See also LCD and LED. LCD, LED, and OLED definitions courtesy The San Francisco Consulting Group (SFCG)

OMEGA POINT: Also called the Quantum Omega Point Theory. A possible future state when intelligence controls the Universe totally, and the amount of information processed and stored goes asymptotically towards infinity. See Terminology From The Omega Point Theory List . [Origin: Teilhard de Chardin, The Phenomenon of Man. See also Barrow and Tipler, The Cosmological Anthropic Principle or Tipler's The Physics of Immortality for a more modern definition.] [AS]

Orbital Tower: also known as a "space tether", "beanstalk" or "heavenly funicular". A cable in synchronous orbit, with one end anchored to the surface of the Earth, often with a small asteroid at the outer end to provide some extra tension and stability. Picture also a "space elevator". In theory, constructed of a diamondoid material, approximately 22,000 miles long, with one end in a stable orbit, and the other somewhere [probably] around the equator. Used frequently in science-fiction yarns, and may become a reality with the advent of mature MNT. Such an elevator would move freight and passengers into orbit at a cost per pound orders of magnitude less than current launches, with passenger safety comparable to train, plane, or subway trips. Becomes possible when we can mass-produce nanotubes, and make their length to fit.

Key to Abbreviations for Original Authors

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