Nanotechnologies are the latest product of quantum mechanics: structures so small, a few billionth of a meter, to manifest properties totally different from those of larger bodies. In a nanometric material the relationship between surface and volume becomes greater the more we go down in size.
This is the title of a famous lecture given by physicist Richard Feynman in 1959. Feynman considered the possibility of direct manipulation of individual atoms like a more relevant form of chemical synthesis than those used in its time.
He was particularly interested in the possibilities of denser computer circuitry, and microscopes that could see things much smaller than is possible with scanning electron microscopes.
This translates into a larger specific surface, and it is important in applications such as sensors or treatment of pollutants. Furthermore, the electronic and optical properties of the material change in a drastic but also very complex way.
These ideas were later realized by the use of the scanning tunneling microscope, the atomic force microscope and other examples of scanning probe microscopy and storage systems such as Millipede, created by researchers at IBM.
Feynman also suggested that it should be possible, in principle, to make nanoscale machines that "arrange the atoms the way we want", and do chemical synthesis by mechanical manipulation.
He also presented the possibility of "swallowing the doctor", an idea that he credited in the essay to his friend and graduate student Albert Hibbs. This concept involved building a tiny, swallowable surgical robot.
Feynman predicted that tiny, swallowable surgical robots could one day be invented. In his future, these robots could then be manipulated accordingly from outside the body to achieve various surgical procedures.
The accompanying article is condensed from a speech (addressed to an American Physical Society meeting, not the Pasadena Rotary luncheon). The full transcript appeared in “Engineering and Science Magazine,” published at the California Institute of Technology.
Author: Roberto Denti
There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom
Richard Feynman