Hubert's Interesting Nanoassembler

SEWilco writes: "In the Nando/AP article announcing the winner of the Lemelson-MIT Student Prize, I noticed that he's built a machine which is assembling a few thousand atoms of almost any material into various shapes. The pictures show 2D shapes, but he mentions 3D as a goal." Congratulations to Brian Hubert -- what a cool device.

Comments

A bet

[Fervent]

Ten bucks says someone figures out a way to draw nanoporn in the next five years.

Not the First

[NatePWIII]

While I was working at IBM's Almaden Center this sort of thing was getting lots of attention. Arranging atoms on copper plates to be exact. Take a look at:
http://www.almaden.ibm.com/vis/stm/corral.html

Nathaniel P. Wilkerson
Domain Names for $13

Re:Not the First

[NatePWIII]

Or better yet take a look at this link:

http://www.almaden.ibm.com/vis/stm/atomo.html

Nathaniel P. Wilkerson
Domain Names for $13

Mr. Hubert

[Tim]

Didja read the press release about Mr. Hubert?

Apparently, Mr. Hubert is a brilliant engineer, a brilliant computer scientist, a brilliant concert pianist, and a brilliant inventor. Oh yeah, and a brilliant architect too. I bet he even cleans the floors in the mathematics wing at MIT, and lives in southie with his brilliant med student girlfriend...

I know these press releases are designed to talk people up, but MIT's have to be the worst of all. Yeah, Mr. Hubert's a smart guy. No matter how smart he is, he's probably only brilliant at one of the above. There just isn't enough time in the day to be brilliant at everything.

Sheesh...

Naaahhhh...

[lintux]

No, I think I prefer a good old bash-assembler, don't you think? :)

Super espionage

[bug_hunter]

I write the entire government secret files that I stole onto the back of a 5 cent piece. Use it to pay for a pencil that my contact is selling.

The FBI going to be able to electro-microscope everything? I think not. Yet I think nano-printers will be a bit percuiliar and expensive for your local crime syndicate so this is in the realms of cross nation spying.

Oh I suppose this technology could be used for powers of good but that's not really as interesting.

Ahead of schedule

[charlie]

If I remember my reading of Drexler correctly, this puts us about five to ten years ahead of his most optimistic projections for when molecular nanotechnology based assemblers should be emerging. Yes, there's a way to go yet before this becomes a useable technology rather than a lab curiosity, but it's still earth-shaking in its implications.

If you haven't read the book linked to above (or one like it), go read it now. Otherwise you're not going to understand what happens to us over the next decade.

(As a bonus question, students may want to prepare a paper on how open source methodologies can be used to circumvent the Grey Goop problem, in place of the top-down regulation that Drexler seems to be advocating :)

Open Source Nanotechnology

[BryanBruns]

Last year I wrote a paper on "Open Sourcing Nanotechnology Research and Development: Issues and Opportunities" which was included in the poster session at the Molecular Nanotechnology Conference last November. The paper includes a section on how open source approaches could help improve safety. A draft of the paper was discussed on Slashdot last October as Open Source Nanotechnology

www.Nanodot.org

[BryanBruns]

As the AC notes above, this may be nanoscale assembly, but it is not the molecular engineering with precise placement of individual atoms that Drexler talks about.

BTW if you look at Eric Drexler's Engines of Creation cited above you'll see that he actually argues not for top-down regulation but for a synthesis of strategies to deal with dangers from nanotech.

If you are interested in issues related to molecular nanotechnology, come on over and join us at www.Nanodot.org. Among other things we're currently having a discussion about regulation and nanotech.

Re:let me repeat that:

[cybercuzco]

it's the unrestrained braniacs of the world that have given us nukes and filthy mfctring methods.

He said as he typed at his computer. It took an unrestricted Braniac, Steve Wozniac to come up with the first personal computer, not unlike the one you use to post this drivel. Another Unrestricted braniac Linus Torvalds, probably came up with the operating system youre using. An unrestricted Braniac, Thomas Edison, came up with the light bulb thats lighting your room, the basis for the cds you listen to, and the movies that you watch in the theatre. Science can be used for good or evil. Nuclear bombs can be used to blow things up, or they can be used as a threat that kept peace in europe for over 50 years, a real accomplishment if you look at the history. Technology is not evil, the people who come up with technology are not evil, How we decide to use the technology is what is evil or not. I can use a computer to run Seti at home and search for life on other planets, or i can use it to write a virus that causes billions in damage. Its not the computers fault that its used either way, its my fault. Technology gives us power, and with power comes responsibility. Maybe you should start taking some instead of whining and playing the victim

Those aren't single atoms

[Animats]

Don't get too excited. Those aren't single atoms. Compare Hubert's work with the 1990 result of IBM spelled out with xenon atoms. They look similar, but the dots in "IBM" are single atoms. The dots in Hubert's work are a few hundred atoms. Look at the scale on his images. He's drawing lines around 0.1 micron wide, which is almost reachable with current photolithography techniques used in IC fabrication. His real advance is that his system can handle a broad range of materials.

STMs are so neat. It's one of those ideas you look at and think "no way could that work". It's just several piezoelectric actuators, like those in cheap high-pitched buzzers, glued together at right angles, with a pointed needle on the end. The business end is brought close to a surface until there's some leakage current across the gap, and then it's raster-scanned in 2D while servoing the height to keep the leakage current constant. The height servo value is the output. It's simple, small, and cheap, compared to, say, an electron microscope. A STM could have been built with 1950s technology, but nobody thought to try it. It just didn't seem reasonable that you could sense individual atoms with a pointed needle moved around by a mechanical actuator.

This has already been done in 1999 by NWU

[YoYofella]

This is almost exactly the same thing as what Dr. Chad Mirkin has been doing for the past 2-3 years at Northwestern University. Already published in Science magazine:

D. Piner, J. Zhu, F. Xu, and S. Hong, C. A. Mirkin, "Dip-Pen Nanolithography", Science, 1999, 283, 661-63.

Go here for their web page. The are able to write the word 'NU' 50% smaller than what Mr. Hubert was able to accomplish. In addition, they are also trying to do this in parallel, using individually addressable AFM probes.

BTW: the probe tips that was used, can simply be bought here. It's a very established technology dating back more than a decade ago. It is also quite irresponsible that the MSNBC story here and Mr. Hubert's web site gave absolutely NO credit to the work by Northwestern. I guess to the media and the un-knowning public, an invention from MIT sounds a lot sexier than one done by Northwestern. By the way, I'm someone doing research in Micromachining, but I'm not affliated with Northwestern University. In case someone want's to flame me.

Re:Big deal

[British]

I would someday like to be able to create Lego pieces from scratch.

I didn't know Feynman was the one

[localroger]

...who had that dumb idea.

Even if you build a self-replicating machine, and even if you make it small, you cannot make it replicate itself smaller and repeat the process ad infitum. The square-cube law will stop you even before your assembly processes break down.

He's using the Explorer AFM, but what else?

[Morgaine]

From the MPEGs it's easy to see that he's using the ThermoMicroscopes Explorer AFM for this work, as it has a very distinguished shape.

Also, he mentions using ordinary cantilevers and tips, which are totally ubiquitous these days --- you can even buy them on the web (this is the above manufacturer's retail outlet for the Explorer's cantilever supplies).

But this leaves me with a big question. I think this is great work for an MIT postgrad, and a very nicely presented set of results, but if he's using ordinary equipment and ordinary AFM techniques, then what is there new in this work?