6th Foresight Conference on Molecular Nanotechnology

Citation

Hutton, D.M. (1999), "6th Foresight Conference on Molecular Nanotechnology", Kybernetes, Vol. 28 No. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/k.1999.06728eab.006

6th Foresight Conference on Molecular Nanotechnology

12-15 November 1998, Westin Hotel, Santa Clara, California, USA

Keywords Nanotechnology, Cybernetics, Biocybernetics

Biological motors became the main theme. The 6th Foresight Conference on Molecular Nanotechnology was told by Shahid Khan and Renate Lux of the New York Albert Einstein College of Medicine that they have found the blueprint for the motor which drives the tail of the E.coli bacterium in just four of the bacterium's genes. We are told that the E.coli's helical tail works like a screw propeller, rotating from the base. The researchers say that they have cloned a copy of the tail using these four genes. This is confirmed by their use of an electron microscope in the base which has shown that the protein structure in the base is the same as in the original. This means that it should work normally.

The conference was also told by Foresight's founder Eric Drexler, that molecular manufacturing technology, where chemicals and materials are constructed using individual atoms and molecules as building blocks will produce sweeping changes in computation, transportation, energy supply, biological instrumentation and medicine.

He also predicted that the cost of producing such devices would be very low. He gave an example by saying that a square metre of stick-on solar panel material would be produced for a few pence.

An address was given by the chosen keynote speaker for the conference, Professor Steven Chu, of Stanford University, California, USA. Dr Chu was in 1997 awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics. He is regarded as the pioneer of laser trapping techniques, which can slow atoms in vaporised metals from 2,500 miles an hour to near standstill. It was recalled that the "bottom-up" construction dream of nanotechnology relies on developing ways to manipulate and control atoms. The aim is to use them like Meccano pieces, placing atoms on to specific bonds in a material and developing the exact structure required.

The conference was held in conjunction with a forum sponsored by the US National Science Foundation. Sun Microsystems and the Ford Motor Company were also sponsors.

Details of the Foresight organisation are on: www.foresight.org