WEBVTT - TechStuff Classic: How Nanotechnology Works 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.760 Welcome to text Stuff, a production from my Heart Radio. 0:00:12.000 --> 0:00:14.680 Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host 0:00:14.800 --> 0:00:17.680 Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio 0:00:17.720 --> 0:00:21.400 and I love all things tech. And today we're going 0:00:21.440 --> 0:00:23.480 to look at a classic episode of tech Stuff and 0:00:23.520 --> 0:00:27.760 originally published on May two, thirteen, and it is titled 0:00:28.080 --> 0:00:32.159 The Big Deal About Little Generators. This is all about 0:00:32.200 --> 0:00:38.680 a hypothetical sort of technology, nano generators. Uh. Nanotechnology is 0:00:38.720 --> 0:00:42.400 a fascinating one. It's also pretty complicated to talk about, 0:00:42.440 --> 0:00:45.000 but Lauren Voge Obama and I try to break it 0:00:45.040 --> 0:00:48.879 down in this classic episode, So enjoy. So I got 0:00:48.920 --> 0:00:52.320 a little topic I want to talk about today, very little, tiny. 0:00:52.360 --> 0:00:55.400 In fact, you might call it nano. Yes, in fact, 0:00:55.440 --> 0:00:59.920 we would, because that's the topic technology. Everybody. Everybody's doing nano. Yeah, 0:01:00.320 --> 0:01:03.000 everyone is, and depending on who you talk to, it's 0:01:03.040 --> 0:01:08.480 either gonna destroy the world or rescue it. Yeah. So, um, 0:01:08.520 --> 0:01:11.400 what's the big deal, so to speak, A small thing? 0:01:11.520 --> 0:01:13.560 The big deal is that it's a very very little deal. 0:01:13.680 --> 0:01:18.600 In fact, one billionth of a deal or a nanometer 0:01:18.760 --> 0:01:22.000 is one billionth of a meter and uh, to give 0:01:22.040 --> 0:01:25.720 you an idea of how tiny this is the average 0:01:25.760 --> 0:01:31.440 human hair is one hundred micrometers in diameter. Now, a 0:01:31.480 --> 0:01:34.360 micrometer is a thousand nanometers, so that means that the 0:01:34.400 --> 0:01:38.600 average human hair is one hundred thousand nanometers in diameter. 0:01:39.200 --> 0:01:41.520 I should point out that that's average. I've seen a 0:01:41.680 --> 0:01:45.000 number of numbers. Yeah, it's usually between sixty and one twenty. 0:01:45.440 --> 0:01:48.360 That's normally, that's the average I normally see. But one hundred, 0:01:48.400 --> 0:01:50.960 it's fair enough to say. So, yes, some people have 0:01:51.080 --> 0:01:53.560 very fine hair. But we're kind of splitting hairs now, 0:01:53.560 --> 0:01:58.840 aren't we. You've walked right into that one. So we're 0:01:58.840 --> 0:02:01.280 talking about things on the tiny, tiny scale. Now, we're 0:02:01.320 --> 0:02:04.600 not talking about the atomic scale, because that's actually smaller 0:02:04.640 --> 0:02:08.080 than the nano scale. Yeah, because an atom is about 0:02:08.760 --> 0:02:11.280 an atom. When you take the entire atom into account, 0:02:11.280 --> 0:02:14.960 the average atom is about point one nanometers in diameter. 0:02:15.160 --> 0:02:17.120 That's pretty teeny. So it's one tenth of a of 0:02:17.160 --> 0:02:19.560 a nanometer. That's the atomic scale. We're getting pretty close 0:02:19.560 --> 0:02:21.919 to the atomic scale. Yeah. Yeah, Now, if you want 0:02:21.960 --> 0:02:24.040 to talk about the nucleus of an atom, do you 0:02:24.040 --> 0:02:26.840 want to how big that is? Yes? How big? Of course, 0:02:26.880 --> 0:02:28.959 you want to know how big it is? A pleat cheese. 0:02:28.960 --> 0:02:34.320 I thought I had you. It is point zero zero 0:02:34.520 --> 0:02:40.040 zero zero one nanometers wide. Good grief, that's just the nucleus. 0:02:40.080 --> 0:02:42.120 So when you when you strip away the electron shell, 0:02:42.240 --> 0:02:46.919 it's tiny indeed. But anyway, nanoscale, we're talking about things 0:02:47.000 --> 0:02:50.440 on this really tiny scale. Building machines that are on 0:02:50.520 --> 0:02:54.480 this scale. Usually people say between one and one nanometers 0:02:54.560 --> 0:02:59.000 is kind of within the nanoscale range. Um, building not 0:02:59.120 --> 0:03:03.519 just machines, but but really specific machines that can actually 0:03:03.960 --> 0:03:08.280 potentially change the world, and um, it's it's pretty phenomenal 0:03:08.600 --> 0:03:11.440 to think of building anything on that smaller scale. You 0:03:11.440 --> 0:03:14.880 can't even look at these things with a light microscope 0:03:14.880 --> 0:03:18.840 because they're so tiny because the the wavelength for visible 0:03:18.919 --> 0:03:21.919 light on the small scale of it over on the 0:03:22.000 --> 0:03:25.560 violet spectrum, that's about four hundred nanometers for a wavelength. 0:03:26.160 --> 0:03:28.440 So we're talking about having to use things like scanning 0:03:28.880 --> 0:03:33.120 telling microscopes to look at the nano scale. Now, these 0:03:33.120 --> 0:03:37.480 are special microscopes that emit a small charge electric charge 0:03:37.560 --> 0:03:40.920 and then it interprets the data, sends it to a computer, 0:03:41.040 --> 0:03:43.280 and you look at an image on a computer screen, 0:03:43.360 --> 0:03:45.560 so you're not even really looking at the physical thing. 0:03:45.600 --> 0:03:51.800 You're looking at a computer image representation of that thing. Right, So, 0:03:52.280 --> 0:03:56.880 if if nanotechnology is that small, how do you make it? 0:03:56.960 --> 0:03:58.320 Because you know, there are a lot of people who 0:03:58.320 --> 0:04:01.280 talk about things on the nano scale, like, uh, you 0:04:01.280 --> 0:04:06.880 know computer processor chips using nanotechnology, Uh, nano robots, which 0:04:06.920 --> 0:04:09.119 I'm told you might know something about a little bit. 0:04:09.160 --> 0:04:12.680 You know, you know all kinds of things. How are 0:04:12.680 --> 0:04:16.760 you building these tiny, tiny things if you can't even 0:04:16.960 --> 0:04:18.920 really see them, if you were depending on a machine 0:04:18.960 --> 0:04:20.560 to do it, for you to be able to look 0:04:20.600 --> 0:04:23.480 at them, that's a tricky question. I'll there are two 0:04:23.560 --> 0:04:27.520 different ways, right. There's the the top down approach, which 0:04:27.560 --> 0:04:30.279 is where you actually drop stuff on it from above. 0:04:30.600 --> 0:04:34.960 Not quite, but you build each component and you then 0:04:35.000 --> 0:04:37.359 put everything together. It's it's kind of like the classic 0:04:37.360 --> 0:04:39.760 way you build anything, right, Like you would use a 0:04:39.800 --> 0:04:42.680 top down approach to build say a car. You know, 0:04:42.680 --> 0:04:45.440 you build the frame and then you attach various things 0:04:45.440 --> 0:04:48.120 to the frame. I'm talking like I know anything about cars. Um, 0:04:48.240 --> 0:04:51.919 so different podcasts, different podcast Scott is way better at 0:04:51.920 --> 0:04:54.640 it than I am. So the other way is the 0:04:54.680 --> 0:04:57.560 bottom up approach. This is interesting, This is where you're 0:04:57.600 --> 0:05:01.760 actually building things kind kind of um, like you're growing 0:05:01.800 --> 0:05:06.920 them almost like you're growing machines UM, and you're doing 0:05:06.960 --> 0:05:11.760 it adom by atom, molecule by molecule, and uh, I'm 0:05:11.800 --> 0:05:13.440 not really sure which way it's gonna go. This is 0:05:13.480 --> 0:05:16.840 an early early silent science. Even though it's been around 0:05:16.839 --> 0:05:18.800 for a couple of decades, we're still, you know, just 0:05:18.920 --> 0:05:22.159 barely in the beginning of it. So we'll see which 0:05:22.520 --> 0:05:25.839 method ends up being the the prevalent one. UM. But 0:05:25.880 --> 0:05:28.960 there are people working on it on either end, so 0:05:29.040 --> 0:05:31.520 to speak, and to give you an idea of how 0:05:32.120 --> 0:05:36.120 possible this is. In so we're talking about almost twenty 0:05:36.200 --> 0:05:40.200 years ago. Uh, there was an IBM scientist named Don 0:05:40.240 --> 0:05:44.400 Eisler who led a team who demonstrated that they can 0:05:44.520 --> 0:05:50.880 manipulate individual atoms and they used a scanning tunneling microscope 0:05:51.360 --> 0:05:57.719 to move atoms to spell I B M, I am 0:05:57.760 --> 0:06:00.120 so not shot. Yeah, So you can actually there are 0:06:00.160 --> 0:06:02.400 pictures of this on the internet. If you google you 0:06:02.400 --> 0:06:07.040 know IBM scanning tunneling microscope. Uh, you can find pictures 0:06:07.040 --> 0:06:10.000 of this where you see the image where each dot 0:06:10.560 --> 0:06:14.839 represents a separate atom. So they actually use the atoms 0:06:14.880 --> 0:06:17.480 to spell the word. Well, and in two thousand four, 0:06:18.560 --> 0:06:22.760 again IBM scientists are kind of leading the research in this. Uh, 0:06:22.760 --> 0:06:25.680 they were in Zerich and they they showed that they 0:06:25.680 --> 0:06:29.520 were able to change the charge state of individual atoms 0:06:30.040 --> 0:06:35.520 by adding or removing electrons from an individual atom. Yeah. 0:06:35.720 --> 0:06:39.400 So again they used a scanning telling microscope and they 0:06:39.480 --> 0:06:42.800 had a charged point on the tip of that microscope, 0:06:43.200 --> 0:06:45.919 which comes to such an incredibly fine point that they 0:06:45.960 --> 0:06:48.520 can do these things that can remove an electron from 0:06:48.560 --> 0:06:53.159 one atom and and put it onto another. So we 0:06:53.279 --> 0:06:56.960 have the technology to manipulate individual atoms. Now we have 0:06:57.040 --> 0:06:59.840 to get to the point where we can build my 0:07:00.040 --> 0:07:04.560 lecular structures that work as tiny machines. All right, And 0:07:04.640 --> 0:07:06.680 there are a couple different ways we can look into that. 0:07:07.520 --> 0:07:09.800 One of the really popular things that people have been 0:07:09.800 --> 0:07:14.520 talking about recently are carbon nanotubes. Have you heard of these? Yeah? Yeah, 0:07:14.560 --> 0:07:18.520 it's the stuff that's supposed to, you know, do everything 0:07:18.640 --> 0:07:21.960 everything you've ever heard of. Essentially, carbon nanotubes can apparently 0:07:22.000 --> 0:07:25.600 do well. There there's such a versatile structure. Yeah, and uh, 0:07:25.720 --> 0:07:29.040 you know, I'm very resilient. Yep. Yeah. It actually all 0:07:29.080 --> 0:07:32.120 depends on how you how you roll the Yeah, how 0:07:32.120 --> 0:07:35.280 you roll the tube. So, carbon nanotubes, the way you 0:07:35.480 --> 0:07:39.680 create a carbon nanotube in general them I'm way oversimplifying here, 0:07:39.720 --> 0:07:43.760 but you take a sheet of carbon atoms, all right, 0:07:43.800 --> 0:07:47.240 they form molecular structure where it looks very like it 0:07:47.280 --> 0:07:50.440 looks like a series of hexagons. And what you then 0:07:50.520 --> 0:07:53.320 do is you roll this into a tube. You roll 0:07:53.360 --> 0:07:55.440 the sheet into a tube, and depending on the angle 0:07:55.520 --> 0:07:57.920 you use when you roll it into a tube, that 0:07:58.960 --> 0:08:05.200 dictates them the properties the carbon nanotube will have. So 0:08:06.200 --> 0:08:08.880 you know that, of course graphite is composed of carbon, 0:08:09.520 --> 0:08:13.600 as are diamonds. Yes, but these two materials are have 0:08:13.760 --> 0:08:18.320 very different properties. Graphites very soft, it's opaque. Uh, diamonds 0:08:18.680 --> 0:08:23.240 not so soft, usually pretty clear. But the reason why 0:08:23.360 --> 0:08:26.640 they're different is because of the way these molecules are arranged. 0:08:26.680 --> 0:08:29.200 The same thing with carbon nanotubes. So if you arrange 0:08:29.240 --> 0:08:31.840 them as specific way by rolling the sheet in a 0:08:31.920 --> 0:08:35.720 specific direction, you can create a material that's hundreds of 0:08:35.760 --> 0:08:39.680 times stronger than steel and six times is light. Well 0:08:39.960 --> 0:08:44.360 what could what could possibly be a problem with Well, yeah, 0:08:44.480 --> 0:08:46.720 the problem, as you pointed out, as it's very expensive. 0:08:46.760 --> 0:08:49.040 It's there's no easy way to do it. It's no 0:08:49.160 --> 0:08:52.760 easy efficient way right now that we can do it 0:08:52.800 --> 0:08:55.600 on a mass scale. So it can be done. It's 0:08:55.640 --> 0:08:58.480 just gonna be done in very small amounts, like on 0:08:58.520 --> 0:09:02.760 the nano scale amounts, and it's being done in laboratories 0:09:02.840 --> 0:09:05.040 and it's gonna take several years for that to move 0:09:05.080 --> 0:09:08.240 from the laboratory to the production room. And um, when 0:09:08.280 --> 0:09:10.600 it does, then we're gonna start seeing lots and lots 0:09:10.600 --> 0:09:13.200 of stuff with carbon nanotubes and it we we see 0:09:13.240 --> 0:09:17.559 some already. There's some products that use carbon nanotube technology already, 0:09:17.600 --> 0:09:20.839 but it's not on the scale that the you know, 0:09:20.920 --> 0:09:24.079 the future of nanotechnology kind of promises us. But I've 0:09:24.080 --> 0:09:27.320 seen things like everything from a Spider Man type suit 0:09:27.520 --> 0:09:29.600 made out of carbon nanotubes because if you roll them 0:09:29.600 --> 0:09:32.760 a certain way, they work very like a Gecks skin. 0:09:33.040 --> 0:09:36.199 You could climb walls and things with this stuff, which 0:09:36.320 --> 0:09:38.920 is pretty neat. Yeah, yeah, I've got one on back order. 0:09:39.040 --> 0:09:42.480 So anyway, Um, so that's kind of giving you the 0:09:42.840 --> 0:09:45.960 lowdown on on where we are now and and you 0:09:46.000 --> 0:09:48.839 can find technology that does incorporate things on the nano scale. 0:09:48.880 --> 0:09:52.839 In fact, you're probably using one right now to listen 0:09:52.880 --> 0:09:56.839 to us. Yeah, because if you're using any sort of 0:09:56.880 --> 0:10:00.920 device that has a microchip, chances are you've gotta transistors 0:10:00.920 --> 0:10:03.480 on that microchip that are on somewhere in the nano scale. 0:10:03.520 --> 0:10:07.520 I mean, if you have a recent computer, then it's definite, 0:10:07.840 --> 0:10:10.480 you know, as long as it's not I guess a netbook. 0:10:11.240 --> 0:10:13.920 You know, if you have one that has a powerful microprocessor, 0:10:14.800 --> 0:10:19.120 you're talking about transistors that are only a few dozen 0:10:19.800 --> 0:10:25.240 nanometers wide. So for example, Intel's uh I cors seven 0:10:25.600 --> 0:10:29.480 I believe are what fortnomes wide? I think, yes, except 0:10:29.520 --> 0:10:33.920 it's Core I seven. Thank Yeah, I should have said 0:10:34.000 --> 0:10:37.800 to Haleem, I wrote about it as the Nehalem. But yes, 0:10:38.000 --> 0:10:42.240 uh those are um, those are like like forty five 0:10:42.360 --> 0:10:45.240 nanometers wide. I mean you're talking about stuff that's already 0:10:45.280 --> 0:10:48.560 out on the market that's at this scale. Hey guys, 0:10:48.720 --> 0:10:52.920 before we continue this discussion about nanotechnology, let's take a 0:10:52.960 --> 0:11:04.240 tiny little break to thank our sponsors. It was looking 0:11:04.280 --> 0:11:08.720 at applications of nanotechnology and I found an article on 0:11:08.720 --> 0:11:11.720 on c net that in which they were talking about 0:11:11.960 --> 0:11:15.520 using your voice to charge your cell phone. And uh, 0:11:15.800 --> 0:11:18.320 apparently in order to do this they use they would 0:11:18.360 --> 0:11:20.560 they would use they should say, would they would use? 0:11:21.000 --> 0:11:25.520 Barry Um tight nate crystals which are twenty three nanometers wide, 0:11:26.120 --> 0:11:31.480 and to do that, it actually creates piezo electricity. It transfers, transfers, 0:11:32.040 --> 0:11:39.560 it transfers of physical energy into electrical energy. Yes, exactly, Karma. Yeah, 0:11:39.760 --> 0:11:42.000 so you know that's that's pretty neat to imagine that. 0:11:42.120 --> 0:11:44.480 You know, these crystals that are are you know, in 0:11:44.520 --> 0:11:47.640 the teens are not teens, but in the dual digit 0:11:47.800 --> 0:11:54.480 nanometers size. You know, that's wow, so um so piezzo 0:11:54.520 --> 0:11:59.120 electric that that essentially means that you're converting kinetic energy 0:11:59.120 --> 0:12:02.839 into elect to see or vice versa. And then no, 0:12:03.160 --> 0:12:04.760 I was just gonna say, this is the same sort 0:12:04.800 --> 0:12:08.000 of stuff you you've have in things like microphones and speakers, 0:12:08.000 --> 0:12:12.480 that kind of thing where it's converting uh, one form 0:12:12.520 --> 0:12:15.800 of energy into another. And crystal there's certain crystals that 0:12:15.840 --> 0:12:19.559 can do this, like quartz that that have this property 0:12:19.600 --> 0:12:24.720 innately athium, tillium anyway. Um. And then they're the nano robots, 0:12:24.760 --> 0:12:27.719 which are great for you know everything. I read this 0:12:27.960 --> 0:12:31.880 article written by you know this Jonathan Strickling guy. Yeah, 0:12:32.200 --> 0:12:35.360 and vaguely remember writing that it's been it's been more 0:12:35.360 --> 0:12:39.439 than a year now. Yeah, but yeah, so nano robots, um, 0:12:39.480 --> 0:12:44.080 all kinds of medical applications for those. Yeah, here's the 0:12:44.200 --> 0:12:49.400 here's the interesting thing about nano robots. Um, they don't exist. Well, yeah, 0:12:49.440 --> 0:12:51.559 we're pretty much in the micro stage right now to 0:12:51.640 --> 0:12:56.240 be to be really fair, But assuming that we ever 0:12:56.360 --> 0:12:58.400 get down to the nano size and are able to 0:12:58.400 --> 0:13:03.480 build nano size robots, the applications are pretty amazing from 0:13:03.480 --> 0:13:07.160 a medical standpoint. Um. For example, let's say that you 0:13:07.320 --> 0:13:10.120 have a disease that's affecting a very specific part of 0:13:10.120 --> 0:13:12.920 your body. And let's say the normal way to treat 0:13:12.960 --> 0:13:14.920 this disease would be that you would have you would 0:13:14.960 --> 0:13:19.240 take you know, medication. Well, I'm thinking medication really, but 0:13:19.440 --> 0:13:22.319 we can get to surgery to in a minute. Um. 0:13:22.400 --> 0:13:23.800 So let's say that it would normally do that you 0:13:23.800 --> 0:13:26.880 would either get a shot or take some medicine orally 0:13:26.960 --> 0:13:29.280 or whatever. You would have to wait for that medicine 0:13:29.320 --> 0:13:32.520 to make its way through your system, uh and to 0:13:32.679 --> 0:13:38.439 eventually affect the infected area. Okay, so the medicine is 0:13:38.440 --> 0:13:42.200 already getting diluted through your bloodstream, it's taking time for 0:13:42.240 --> 0:13:44.640 it to reach the infected area. Takes time for it 0:13:44.720 --> 0:13:48.679 to to uh take effect at the area and so 0:13:48.760 --> 0:13:53.360 the whole recovery rate is slower than it would ideally be. 0:13:54.040 --> 0:13:58.880 Now with a nano robot, theoretically you could direct it, 0:13:59.080 --> 0:14:01.559 or if you could find a way of making it autonomous, 0:14:01.559 --> 0:14:05.480 it could direct itself to the infected area and deliver 0:14:05.600 --> 0:14:10.360 a much smaller payload of medication directly to the infected area. So, 0:14:10.520 --> 0:14:12.960 for one thing, you're not going to have the side 0:14:12.960 --> 0:14:15.760 effects that you might have experienced through a larger dose 0:14:15.800 --> 0:14:19.840 of medication because the dose is much much smaller. For another, 0:14:20.000 --> 0:14:24.240 the application is immediate to the infected area, so you're 0:14:24.280 --> 0:14:27.640 talking about it being much more efficient and having a 0:14:27.760 --> 0:14:33.840 smaller impact on the patient's overall health. So that's that's 0:14:33.920 --> 0:14:37.720 an ideal situation. Now for surgery, as you were pointing out, 0:14:37.800 --> 0:14:41.320 that's also a possibility you could create nano robots that 0:14:41.360 --> 0:14:45.040 would have things like laser cutters that would essentially act 0:14:45.040 --> 0:14:48.560 like a little scalpel, but they would be the incredibly precise, 0:14:48.680 --> 0:14:52.200 far more precise than any human would be with a scalpel, 0:14:52.280 --> 0:14:55.480 because they're on the nanoscale. You're talking about something so 0:14:55.520 --> 0:14:59.800 small that it's blood cells are dwarfing it. So for 0:14:59.840 --> 0:15:03.560 the could be an incredibly precise tool. I'm granted. Do 0:15:03.560 --> 0:15:06.280 you think, well, with advice that's small, how could it 0:15:06.360 --> 0:15:10.240 really be useful? A lot of these future projections suggests 0:15:10.240 --> 0:15:12.960 that you would not have just one of these little 0:15:13.040 --> 0:15:18.160 nano robots working. They would there'd be thousands, perhaps millions 0:15:18.160 --> 0:15:21.600 of them working together at the same time, and uh, 0:15:21.840 --> 0:15:23.120 then you don't have to find a way of getting 0:15:23.160 --> 0:15:27.520 them out. Or potentially you would have nano robots in 0:15:27.560 --> 0:15:30.040 you all the time, and they could even act as 0:15:30.080 --> 0:15:34.120 a preventive measure and keep you healthy and head off 0:15:34.120 --> 0:15:38.240 any problems before they could really start, even uh bringing 0:15:38.320 --> 0:15:41.840 up symptoms. Yeah, you were saying in the article that 0:15:42.440 --> 0:15:44.080 they can be used to do things like break up 0:15:44.120 --> 0:15:49.400 blood clots or you know, kidney stones. Oh man, and 0:15:49.440 --> 0:15:50.960 they say breaking up is hard to do. You know 0:15:51.400 --> 0:15:53.520 someone who has suffered from kidney stones. I gotta tell 0:15:53.520 --> 0:15:57.440 you I would love to have had some. Yeah, if 0:15:57.480 --> 0:16:00.160 nothing else then just to start have someone specific I 0:16:00.160 --> 0:16:05.120 could scream at um instead of just the the the 0:16:05.160 --> 0:16:09.400 directionless screaming that I did while I actually had them. 0:16:09.520 --> 0:16:12.720 We'll be right back with some more big ideas about 0:16:12.800 --> 0:16:15.880 tiny technology in just a moment after this quick break. 0:16:23.360 --> 0:16:25.840 Now there's some big problems that we have to overcome. First, 0:16:25.880 --> 0:16:29.840 we have to be able to create UM power systems 0:16:29.880 --> 0:16:33.320 on that scale, something to power these robots. So we're 0:16:33.320 --> 0:16:35.880 talking about batteries and capacitors that are have to be 0:16:36.040 --> 0:16:40.680 incredibly tiny UM and that's that's a big challenge. Now, 0:16:40.960 --> 0:16:44.160 some doctors have and engineers have got around that by 0:16:44.640 --> 0:16:49.280 creating robots that that propelled themselves, or actually they don't 0:16:49.320 --> 0:16:53.280 really propel themselves, they are propelled externally. UM. There's one 0:16:53.520 --> 0:16:56.600 that used m r I machine and you would use 0:16:56.800 --> 0:17:00.240 the magnets in the m R I really to act 0:17:00.320 --> 0:17:03.840 the robot, so you could actually, you know, kind of 0:17:03.920 --> 0:17:07.679 the robot really was more passive, but you could direct 0:17:07.680 --> 0:17:10.920 it to specific spot within an artery system. Now, I 0:17:10.920 --> 0:17:13.880 should point out that the scientists who did this did 0:17:13.880 --> 0:17:16.760 it with a pig. Um they were not doing human testing, 0:17:16.920 --> 0:17:21.639 but it worked went through the pig's arteries, so you know, 0:17:22.680 --> 0:17:26.960 that's ah, it's nothing to sneeze at. Actually, I was 0:17:27.000 --> 0:17:30.600 reading about a completely different application of nanotechnology. There was 0:17:30.960 --> 0:17:35.000 sort of fascinating UM. Jennifer Lowell was blogging about it 0:17:35.040 --> 0:17:38.119 for uh for seen it, and she was talking about 0:17:38.160 --> 0:17:41.960 the possibility that you could use nanotech to alter food 0:17:42.000 --> 0:17:46.280 on the microscopic scale. UM. She actually was quoting Steve 0:17:46.359 --> 0:17:50.160 Bogan and the Guardian. UM. They were talking about essentially 0:17:50.240 --> 0:17:52.560 how you could if you had a food that to 0:17:52.640 --> 0:17:56.919 which you were allergic, you could maybe make alterations to 0:17:57.000 --> 0:17:59.160 it so that it would pass from your body without 0:17:59.440 --> 0:18:02.520 being a problem. That would be interesting trick is you 0:18:02.560 --> 0:18:05.840 know you could, uh, you could have problems with people 0:18:05.880 --> 0:18:08.840 who don't particularly genetically modified food. You know, there's a 0:18:08.880 --> 0:18:11.080 lot of people that are kind of creeped out by 0:18:11.080 --> 0:18:15.240 the frank and food. UM. And you're talking about messing 0:18:15.320 --> 0:18:18.359 with things down again on a very very tiny level. 0:18:19.000 --> 0:18:22.280 So that's pretty that's pretty significant. Um. But Bogan also 0:18:22.320 --> 0:18:25.399 mentioned the possibility that packaging could be made um to 0:18:25.480 --> 0:18:29.280 where the nanotechnology inside the food packaging could sniff out 0:18:29.280 --> 0:18:32.160 when you know, the food started to give off gassing 0:18:32.160 --> 0:18:35.440 as it was decomposing and would change color to go, oh, well, 0:18:35.440 --> 0:18:37.280 you know this thing, it's started to turn brown. We 0:18:37.280 --> 0:18:39.400 need to toss it out without even you know, sniffing 0:18:39.400 --> 0:18:42.359 it or you know, sticking your finger on it and 0:18:42.400 --> 0:18:45.080 going it feels kind of weird. Yeah, that would have 0:18:45.119 --> 0:18:48.680 prevented many, many memorable nights that I've had in my past. Yeah, 0:18:48.840 --> 0:18:52.879 I'm sure anyway, So, uh and and to talk a 0:18:52.920 --> 0:18:55.480 little bit more about building these robots. One of the 0:18:55.680 --> 0:18:58.000 one of the things that scientists are working on is 0:18:58.040 --> 0:19:01.200 to try and create specific can of nano robots called 0:19:01.240 --> 0:19:05.000 assemblers assemblers. Yet, now, assemblers do what you would think 0:19:05.000 --> 0:19:10.000 they do. They assemble other nano machines. So they could 0:19:10.119 --> 0:19:13.280 assemble other assemblers, So then you have a self replicating 0:19:13.440 --> 0:19:16.359 nano robot. Do you see where there might be a 0:19:16.359 --> 0:19:20.680 problem with this? I feel its edging gradually towards the singularity. Right, 0:19:21.160 --> 0:19:24.760 So we're talking about the potential for nano robots to 0:19:24.880 --> 0:19:28.080 replicate themselves at such an incredible rate. And remember, as 0:19:28.119 --> 0:19:31.040 soon as one gets replicated, it can start replicating, and 0:19:31.080 --> 0:19:33.760 then the ones that replicates can start replicating, so it's 0:19:33.800 --> 0:19:39.159 exponential growth. Right. Um, there's a scenario called gray goo. 0:19:39.920 --> 0:19:44.000 Gray goo is this this doomsday scenario where nano robots 0:19:44.359 --> 0:19:46.439 in order to build more nano robots, they have to 0:19:46.480 --> 0:19:48.760 create it out of something. You know, they're not building 0:19:48.800 --> 0:19:50.480 it out of nothing. So what they're doing is they're 0:19:50.520 --> 0:19:53.760 they're in this scenario anyway, it is taking carbon out 0:19:53.800 --> 0:19:57.800 of the environment and then building robots with them, so 0:19:57.880 --> 0:20:01.840 that we're right. Everything a lot of stuff is made 0:20:01.840 --> 0:20:04.840 out of carbon on on our planet, turns out, So 0:20:05.040 --> 0:20:07.360 the idea here would be that the robots would start 0:20:07.359 --> 0:20:09.960 to consume all the carbon in an effort to build 0:20:10.040 --> 0:20:12.680 more robots. And of course, since it's exponential, it gets 0:20:12.680 --> 0:20:17.719 faster and faster every passing second. So this Tuesday scenario 0:20:17.760 --> 0:20:20.160 has the entire world just turning into this writhing mass 0:20:20.200 --> 0:20:24.440 of gray goo as nano robots take over everything. I'm 0:20:24.480 --> 0:20:28.880 totally seeing the Sorcerer's Apprentice in my head. Sleep well tonight. Yeah, 0:20:29.200 --> 0:20:31.320 I'm glad that we were able to take such a 0:20:31.440 --> 0:20:35.000 rosy idea and go there with it. Well, I mean, 0:20:35.280 --> 0:20:39.959 it's it's obviously a worst case scenario, but uh, there 0:20:39.960 --> 0:20:42.960 are a lot of First of all, we're decades away 0:20:42.960 --> 0:20:46.360 from getting there. Second of all, there's no guarantee that 0:20:46.359 --> 0:20:48.639 that's what would happen if we even were able to 0:20:48.640 --> 0:20:52.679 create the nanotech assemblers. So I think we don't have 0:20:52.720 --> 0:20:55.640 to worry just yet. When the Singularity comes, then we'll 0:20:55.680 --> 0:20:58.160 start worrying, all right, So we got about twenty years 0:20:58.960 --> 0:21:01.360 al right, guys, I hope you enjoyed this classic episode 0:21:01.359 --> 0:21:04.240 of text Stuff. It was a lot of fun to research. 0:21:04.480 --> 0:21:07.440 I always love the sort of science fiction ee kind 0:21:07.440 --> 0:21:10.080 of topics that we can look into. If you guys 0:21:10.119 --> 0:21:13.560 have any suggestions for future tech stuff topics, let me know. 0:21:13.760 --> 0:21:16.760 Reach out on Twitter or on Facebook. We use the 0:21:16.800 --> 0:21:20.560 handle text stuff HSW for both, and I'll talk to 0:21:20.560 --> 0:21:28.840 you again really soon. Text Stuff is an I Heart 0:21:28.920 --> 0:21:32.680 Radio production. For more podcasts from I Heart Radio, visit 0:21:32.680 --> 0:21:35.800 the i Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you 0:21:35.840 --> 0:21:37.199 listen to your favorite shows.