WEBVTT - How Nanotechnology Works 0:00:00.320 --> 0:00:02.880 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. 0:00:03.240 --> 0:00:08.800 It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology? With 0:00:08.960 --> 0:00:14.600 tech Stuff from how stuff Works dot com. Hi there, everybody, 0:00:14.600 --> 0:00:17.000 welcome to tech Stuff. My name is Chris Pollett. I'm 0:00:17.000 --> 0:00:19.040 an editor here at how Stuff Works, and with me 0:00:19.120 --> 0:00:22.920 as usual is senior writer Jonathan Strickland. Hey there, So 0:00:23.320 --> 0:00:25.400 I got a little topic I want to talk about today, 0:00:25.680 --> 0:00:29.600 very little, tiny. In fact, you might call it nano. Yes, 0:00:29.800 --> 0:00:33.159 in fact, we would, because that's the topic technology. Everybody. 0:00:33.159 --> 0:00:37.040 Everybody's doing nano. Yeah, everyone is, and depending on who 0:00:37.080 --> 0:00:40.080 you talked to, it's either gonna destroy the world or 0:00:40.400 --> 0:00:44.640 rescue it. Yeah. So, um, what's the big deal? So 0:00:44.680 --> 0:00:47.559 to speak? The big deal is that it's a very 0:00:47.640 --> 0:00:50.920 very little deal. In fact, one billionth of a deal, 0:00:51.680 --> 0:00:56.280 or a nanometer is one billionth of a meter. And uh, 0:00:56.480 --> 0:00:59.280 to give you an idea of how tiny this is, 0:01:00.040 --> 0:01:06.080 the average human hair is one hundred micrometers in diameter. Now, 0:01:06.120 --> 0:01:09.000 a micrometer is a thousand nanometers, so that means that 0:01:09.040 --> 0:01:13.360 the average human hair is one hundred thousand nanometers in diameter. 0:01:13.959 --> 0:01:16.280 I should point out that that's average. I've seen a 0:01:16.440 --> 0:01:19.360 number of numbers. Yeah, it is usually between sixty and one. 0:01:20.200 --> 0:01:23.120 That's normally that's the average I normally see, but one hundred, 0:01:23.160 --> 0:01:25.720 it's fair enough to say. So, yeah, some people have 0:01:25.800 --> 0:01:28.319 very fine hair. But we're kind of splitting hairs now, 0:01:28.319 --> 0:01:33.600 aren't we. You've walked right into that one. So we're 0:01:33.600 --> 0:01:36.039 talking about things on this tiny, tiny scale. Now, we're 0:01:36.080 --> 0:01:39.360 not talking about the atomic scale, because that's actually smaller 0:01:39.400 --> 0:01:42.839 than the nano scale. Yeah, because an atom is about 0:01:43.480 --> 0:01:46.039 an atom. When you take the entire atom into account, 0:01:46.040 --> 0:01:49.720 the average atom is about point one nanometers in diameter. 0:01:49.920 --> 0:01:51.880 That's pretty teeny. So it's one tenth of a of 0:01:51.920 --> 0:01:54.280 a nanometer. That's the atomic scale. We're getting pretty close 0:01:54.320 --> 0:01:56.680 to the atomic scale. Yeah. Yeah, Now if you want 0:01:56.720 --> 0:01:58.720 to talk about the nucleus of an atom, do you 0:01:58.760 --> 0:02:01.240 want to how big that is? I mean, yes, how many? 0:02:01.280 --> 0:02:02.720 Of course you want to know how big it is? 0:02:02.720 --> 0:02:06.600 It Tollett Cheese, I thought I had you. It is 0:02:06.920 --> 0:02:14.120 point zero zero zero zero one nanometers wide. That's just 0:02:14.160 --> 0:02:16.120 the nucleus. So when you when you strip away the 0:02:16.200 --> 0:02:21.119 electron shell, it's tiny indeed, But anyway, nanoscale, we're talking 0:02:21.120 --> 0:02:24.440 about things on this really tiny scale. Building machines that 0:02:24.480 --> 0:02:28.000 are on this scale. Usually people say between one and 0:02:28.040 --> 0:02:31.960 one d nanometers is kind of within the nanoscale range. 0:02:32.280 --> 0:02:37.480 Um building not just machines, but but really specific machines 0:02:37.520 --> 0:02:41.839 that can actually potentially change the world. And um, it's 0:02:41.960 --> 0:02:45.080 it's pretty phenomenal to think of building anything on that 0:02:45.240 --> 0:02:48.480 smaller scale. You can't even look at these things with 0:02:48.560 --> 0:02:52.480 a light microscope because they're so tiny because the the 0:02:52.480 --> 0:02:56.200 wavelength for visible light on the small scale of it 0:02:56.320 --> 0:02:59.440 over on the violet spectrum, that's about four hundred nanometers 0:02:59.520 --> 0:03:01.959 for a wave length. So we're talking about having to 0:03:02.040 --> 0:03:05.959 use things like scanning telling microscopes to look at the 0:03:06.040 --> 0:03:09.880 nano scale. Now, these are special microscopes that emit a 0:03:10.000 --> 0:03:14.560 small charge electric charge, and then it interprets the data, 0:03:14.639 --> 0:03:16.680 sends it to a computer, and you look at an 0:03:16.720 --> 0:03:19.120 image on a computer screen. So you're not even really 0:03:19.120 --> 0:03:21.720 looking at the physical thing. You're looking at a computer 0:03:22.200 --> 0:03:29.400 image representation of that thing. Right, if if nanotechnology is 0:03:29.440 --> 0:03:32.240 that small, how do you make it? Because you know, 0:03:32.240 --> 0:03:34.079 there are a lot of people who talk about things 0:03:34.120 --> 0:03:37.200 on the nano scale, like, uh, you know, computer processor 0:03:37.280 --> 0:03:42.240 chips using nanotechnology, Uh, nano robots, which I'm told you 0:03:42.280 --> 0:03:46.120 might know something about a little bit. You know, you 0:03:46.160 --> 0:03:49.080 know all kinds of things. How are you building these tiny, 0:03:49.200 --> 0:03:52.560 tiny things if you can't even really see them, if 0:03:52.560 --> 0:03:54.560 you're depending on a machine to do it for you 0:03:54.680 --> 0:03:57.120 to be able to look at them, that's a tricky question. 0:03:57.160 --> 0:04:00.800 I'll there are two different ways, right. There's the top 0:04:00.880 --> 0:04:04.400 down approach, which is where you actually drop stuff on 0:04:04.440 --> 0:04:08.200 it from above, not quite, but you you build each 0:04:08.240 --> 0:04:11.400 component and you then put everything together. It's it's kind 0:04:11.400 --> 0:04:13.640 of like the classic way you build anything, right, Like 0:04:13.960 --> 0:04:16.080 you would use a top down approach to build say 0:04:16.120 --> 0:04:18.680 a car. You know, you build the frame and then 0:04:18.720 --> 0:04:21.120 you attach various things to the frame. I'm talking like 0:04:21.160 --> 0:04:24.479 I know anything about cars. Um. So it's a different 0:04:24.480 --> 0:04:27.600 podcasts and Scott is way better at it than I am. 0:04:27.760 --> 0:04:31.000 So the other way is the bottom up approach. This 0:04:31.040 --> 0:04:34.880 is interesting. This is where you're actually building things kind 0:04:34.880 --> 0:04:41.120 of um like you're growing them almost like you're growing machines. Um. 0:04:41.200 --> 0:04:43.919 And you're doing it adam by adam, molecule by molecule, 0:04:44.640 --> 0:04:47.880 and uh, I'm not really sure which way it's gonna go. 0:04:47.960 --> 0:04:51.200 This is an early early silent science, even though it's 0:04:51.240 --> 0:04:53.279 been around for a couple of decades. We're still, you know, 0:04:53.400 --> 0:04:56.600 just barely in the beginning of it. So we'll see 0:04:56.640 --> 0:05:00.480 which method ends up being the the prevalent one. Um, 0:05:00.520 --> 0:05:03.440 but there are people working on it on either end, 0:05:03.560 --> 0:05:05.960 so to speak, and to give you an idea of 0:05:06.000 --> 0:05:10.600 how possible this is. In so we're talking about almost 0:05:10.600 --> 0:05:14.640 twenty years ago. Uh, there was an IBM scientist named 0:05:14.720 --> 0:05:19.000 Don Eidler who led a team who demonstrated that they 0:05:19.040 --> 0:05:25.040 can manipulate individual atoms and they used a scanning tunneling 0:05:25.080 --> 0:05:31.760 microscope to move atoms to spell I B M, I 0:05:31.839 --> 0:05:34.720 AM so not shock. Yeah. So you can actually there 0:05:34.720 --> 0:05:36.640 are pictures of this on the internet if you google 0:05:37.080 --> 0:05:41.400 you know IBM scanning tunneling microscope. Uh, you can find 0:05:41.440 --> 0:05:44.279 pictures of this where you see the image where each 0:05:44.480 --> 0:05:49.240 dot represents a separate atom. So they actually use the 0:05:49.279 --> 0:05:52.240 atoms to spell the word. Well. And in two thousand four, 0:05:53.320 --> 0:05:57.480 again IBM scientists are kind of leading the research in this. Uh. 0:05:57.520 --> 0:06:00.440 They were in Zurich and they they show that they 0:06:00.480 --> 0:06:04.280 were able to change the charge state of individual atoms 0:06:04.800 --> 0:06:10.400 by adding or removing electrons from an individual atom. Yeah. 0:06:10.480 --> 0:06:14.160 So again they used a scanning telling microscope, and they 0:06:14.240 --> 0:06:17.560 had a charged point on the tip of that microscope 0:06:17.960 --> 0:06:20.640 which comes to such an incredibly fine point that it 0:06:20.720 --> 0:06:23.279 can do these things that can remove an electron from 0:06:23.320 --> 0:06:27.919 one atom and and put it onto another. So we 0:06:28.040 --> 0:06:31.680 have the technology to manipulate individual atoms. Now we have 0:06:31.800 --> 0:06:35.200 to get to the point where we can build molecular 0:06:35.279 --> 0:06:39.520 structures that work as tiny machines, all right, and there 0:06:39.520 --> 0:06:41.440 are a couple different ways we can look into that. 0:06:42.279 --> 0:06:44.560 One of the really popular things that people have been 0:06:44.560 --> 0:06:48.840 talking about recently are carbon nanotubes. Have you heard of these? Yeah, 0:06:49.320 --> 0:06:53.279 it's the stuff that's supposed to, you know, do everything 0:06:53.400 --> 0:06:56.719 everything you've ever heard of. Essentially, carbon danotubes can apparently 0:06:56.760 --> 0:07:00.120 do well. There there's such a versatile structure, yeah, and 0:07:00.520 --> 0:07:04.200 you know, very resilient yep. Yeah. It actually all depends 0:07:04.320 --> 0:07:06.960 on how you how you roll the yeah, how you 0:07:07.080 --> 0:07:10.560 roll the tube. So carbon nanotubes, the way you create 0:07:10.600 --> 0:07:14.440 a carbon nanotube in general them I'm way oversimplifying here, 0:07:14.480 --> 0:07:18.480 but you take a sheet of carbon atoms, all right, 0:07:18.560 --> 0:07:22.000 they form molecular structure where it looks very like it 0:07:22.040 --> 0:07:25.240 looks like a series of hexagons, and what you then 0:07:25.280 --> 0:07:28.080 do is you roll this into a tube. You roll 0:07:28.120 --> 0:07:30.200 the sheet into a tube, and depending on the angle 0:07:30.280 --> 0:07:32.680 you use when you roll it into a tube, that 0:07:33.720 --> 0:07:38.560 dictates the the the properties the carbon nanotube will have. 0:07:39.760 --> 0:07:43.640 So you know that. Of course graphite is composed of carbon, 0:07:44.280 --> 0:07:48.680 as are diamonds, but these two materials are have very 0:07:48.680 --> 0:07:53.600 different properties. Graphites very soft, it's opaque, uh, diamonds not 0:07:53.720 --> 0:07:58.400 so soft, usually pretty clear. But the reason why they're 0:07:58.480 --> 0:08:01.400 different is because of the way these molecules are arranged. 0:08:01.440 --> 0:08:03.960 The same thing with carbon nanotubes. So if you arrange 0:08:04.000 --> 0:08:06.640 them as specific way by rolling the sheet in a 0:08:06.680 --> 0:08:10.480 specific direction, you can create a material that's hundreds of 0:08:10.520 --> 0:08:14.440 times stronger than steel and six times is light. Well 0:08:14.720 --> 0:08:19.119 what could what could possibly be a problem with Well, yeah, 0:08:19.240 --> 0:08:21.480 the problem, as you pointed out, is it's very expensive. 0:08:21.520 --> 0:08:24.280 It's there's no easy way to do it. It's no easy, 0:08:24.480 --> 0:08:27.640 efficient way right now that we can do it on 0:08:27.640 --> 0:08:30.480 a mass scale. So we can be done. It's just 0:08:30.520 --> 0:08:33.360 gonna be done in very small amounts, like on the 0:08:33.440 --> 0:08:37.680 nano scale amounts, and it's being done in laboratories and 0:08:37.760 --> 0:08:40.000 it's gonna take several years for that to move from 0:08:40.000 --> 0:08:43.400 the laboratory to the production room. And um, when it does, 0:08:43.640 --> 0:08:45.760 then we're gonna start seeing lots and lots of stuff 0:08:45.800 --> 0:08:48.680 with carbon nanotubes and it we we see some already. 0:08:49.320 --> 0:08:52.440 There's some products that use carbon nanotube technology already, but 0:08:52.480 --> 0:08:55.760 it's not on the scale that the you know, the 0:08:55.760 --> 0:08:59.040 future of nanotechnology kind of promises us. But I've seen 0:08:59.080 --> 0:09:02.480 things like everything from a Spider Man type suit made 0:09:02.480 --> 0:09:04.440 out of carbon nanotubes because if you roll them a 0:09:04.440 --> 0:09:07.840 certain way, they work very like a Gecks skin. You 0:09:07.880 --> 0:09:12.680 could climb walls and things with this stuff, which pretty neat. Yeah. Yeah, 0:09:12.679 --> 0:09:15.920 I've got one on back order. So anyway, Um, so 0:09:15.960 --> 0:09:19.400 that's kind of giving you the lowdown on on where 0:09:19.440 --> 0:09:21.960 we are now and and you can find technology that 0:09:22.000 --> 0:09:24.079 does incorporate things on the nano scale. In fact, you're 0:09:24.120 --> 0:09:29.640 probably using one right now to listen to us. Yeah, 0:09:29.800 --> 0:09:32.160 because if you're using any sort of device that has 0:09:32.160 --> 0:09:35.840 a microchip, chances are you've got a transistors on that 0:09:35.880 --> 0:09:38.520 microchip that are on somewhere in the nanoscale. I mean, 0:09:39.200 --> 0:09:42.800 if you have a recent computer, then it's definite, you know, 0:09:42.840 --> 0:09:46.160 as long as it's not I guess a netbook. You know, 0:09:46.200 --> 0:09:49.720 if you have one that has a powerful microprocessor. You're 0:09:49.720 --> 0:09:55.560 talking about transistors that are only a few dozen nanometers wide. 0:09:56.200 --> 0:10:00.880 So for example, Intel's uh I CORPS seven I believe, 0:10:00.880 --> 0:10:04.800 are what forty wide? I think, yes, except it's Core 0:10:04.880 --> 0:10:09.200 I seven. Just remember, yeah, I show have said nehalem. 0:10:10.280 --> 0:10:13.280 I wrote about it as the nehalem. But yes, uh, 0:10:13.880 --> 0:10:17.880 those are um, those are like like forty five nanometers wide. 0:10:17.920 --> 0:10:20.280 I mean, you're talking about stuff that's already out on 0:10:20.320 --> 0:10:24.240 the market that's at this scale. I was looking at 0:10:24.720 --> 0:10:28.640 applications of nanotechnology and I found an article on on 0:10:28.760 --> 0:10:32.160 c net that in which they were talking about using 0:10:32.400 --> 0:10:36.120 your voice to charge your cell phone. And uh, apparently 0:10:36.400 --> 0:10:38.240 in order to do this they use they would they 0:10:38.280 --> 0:10:41.040 would use they should say, would they would use barry 0:10:41.120 --> 0:10:45.360 Um Tighten eight crystals, which are twenty three nanometers wide, 0:10:45.920 --> 0:10:49.640 And to do that, it actually creates piezo electricity. It 0:10:49.679 --> 0:10:59.360 transfers transfers, it transfers of physical energy into electrical energy. Yes, exactly, Karma. Yeah, 0:10:59.559 --> 0:11:01.760 so you know, that's that's pretty neat to imagine that. 0:11:01.920 --> 0:11:04.240 You know, these crystals that are are you know, in 0:11:04.320 --> 0:11:07.480 the teens are not teens, but in the dual digit 0:11:07.600 --> 0:11:14.280 nanometers size. You know that's wow, so um so piazzo 0:11:14.360 --> 0:11:18.920 electric that that essentially means that you're converting kinetic energy 0:11:18.920 --> 0:11:23.120 into electricity or vice versa. And then oh no, I 0:11:23.120 --> 0:11:24.640 was just gonna say, this is the same sort of 0:11:24.679 --> 0:11:27.800 stuff you you've have in things like microphones and speakers, 0:11:27.800 --> 0:11:32.280 that kind of thing where it's converting uh, one form 0:11:32.320 --> 0:11:35.640 of energy into another. And crystal there's certain crystals that 0:11:35.679 --> 0:11:39.400 can do this, like quartz that that have this property 0:11:39.440 --> 0:11:43.760 innately di lithium, tillium anyway. Um. And then they're the 0:11:43.840 --> 0:11:47.360 nano robots, which are great for you know everything. Read 0:11:47.360 --> 0:11:51.559 this article written by you know this Jonathan Strickling guy 0:11:52.040 --> 0:11:55.120 and vaguely remember writing that it's been it's been more 0:11:55.160 --> 0:11:58.520 than a year now. Yeah, but yeah, so nano robots 0:11:58.960 --> 0:12:03.319 um all kinds of metal cool applications for those. Yeah, 0:12:03.480 --> 0:12:07.240 here's the here's the interesting thing about nano robots. UM, 0:12:07.320 --> 0:12:10.040 they don't exist. Well, yeah, we're pretty much in the 0:12:10.080 --> 0:12:13.120 micro stage right now to be to be really fair, 0:12:14.280 --> 0:12:17.199 but assuming that we ever get down to the nano 0:12:17.320 --> 0:12:20.040 size and are able to build nano sized robots, the 0:12:20.760 --> 0:12:26.000 applications are pretty amazing from the medical standpoint. Um. For example, 0:12:26.080 --> 0:12:28.920 let's say that you have a disease that's affecting a 0:12:29.000 --> 0:12:31.560 very specific part of your body. And let's say the 0:12:31.640 --> 0:12:33.760 normal way to treat this disease would be that you 0:12:33.760 --> 0:12:37.520 would have you would take you know, medication. Well I'm 0:12:37.520 --> 0:12:40.199 thinking medication really, but we can get the surgery to 0:12:40.280 --> 0:12:43.080 in a minute. Um, So let's say that it would 0:12:43.120 --> 0:12:44.760 normally be that you would either get a shot or 0:12:44.800 --> 0:12:48.040 take some medicine orally or whatever. You would have to 0:12:48.080 --> 0:12:51.400 wait for that medicine to make its way through your system, 0:12:51.520 --> 0:12:56.920 uh and to eventually affect the infected area. Right, Okay, 0:12:57.000 --> 0:13:01.080 so the medicine is already getting diluted through bloodstream, it's 0:13:01.240 --> 0:13:03.920 taking time for it to reach the infected area, takes 0:13:03.920 --> 0:13:07.960 time for it to to uh take effect at the area, 0:13:08.160 --> 0:13:11.880 and so the whole recovery rate is slower than it 0:13:12.080 --> 0:13:17.920 would ideally be. Now with a nano robot, theoretically you 0:13:17.960 --> 0:13:20.319 could direct it, or if you could find a way 0:13:20.360 --> 0:13:23.520 of making it autonomous, it can direct itself to the 0:13:23.559 --> 0:13:27.480 infected area and deliver a much smaller payload of medication 0:13:27.640 --> 0:13:31.040 directly to the infected area. So, for one thing, you're 0:13:31.040 --> 0:13:33.680 not gonna have the side effects that you might have 0:13:33.960 --> 0:13:37.280 experienced through a larger dose of medication because the dose 0:13:37.440 --> 0:13:41.280 is much much smaller. For another, the application is immediate 0:13:41.440 --> 0:13:45.360 to the infected area, so you're talking about it being 0:13:45.600 --> 0:13:49.040 much more efficient and having a smaller impact on the 0:13:49.040 --> 0:13:54.880 patient's overall health. So that's that's an ideal situation now 0:13:54.920 --> 0:13:58.240 for surgery. As you were pointing out, that's also a 0:13:58.280 --> 0:14:02.200 possibility you could create nano robots that would have things 0:14:02.240 --> 0:14:05.920 like laser cutters that would essentially act like a little scalpel, 0:14:06.040 --> 0:14:09.360 but they would be the incredibly precise, far more precise 0:14:09.400 --> 0:14:13.040 than any human would be with a scalpel, because they're 0:14:13.080 --> 0:14:15.640 on the nano scale. You're talking about something so small 0:14:15.720 --> 0:14:18.720 that it's you know, blood cells are dwarfing it. So 0:14:19.520 --> 0:14:22.560 but it could be an incredibly precise tool. And granted, 0:14:23.280 --> 0:14:25.760 do you think, well, with a device that's small, how 0:14:25.760 --> 0:14:29.000 could it really be useful? A lot of these future 0:14:29.000 --> 0:14:32.280 projections suggests that you would not have just one of 0:14:32.320 --> 0:14:36.760 these little nano robots working. They would there would be thousands, 0:14:37.080 --> 0:14:40.120 perhaps millions of them working together at the same time, 0:14:40.840 --> 0:14:42.640 and uh, then you don't have to find a way 0:14:42.640 --> 0:14:46.680 of getting them out, or potentially you would have nano 0:14:46.800 --> 0:14:49.320 robots in you all the time, and they could even 0:14:49.360 --> 0:14:53.360 act as a preventive measure and keep you healthy and 0:14:53.480 --> 0:14:56.840 head off any problems before they could really start even 0:14:56.960 --> 0:15:00.960 uh bringing up symptoms. Yeah, you were saying in the 0:15:01.080 --> 0:15:03.400 article that they could be used to do things like 0:15:03.480 --> 0:15:07.760 breakup blood clots or you know, kidney stones. Oh man, 0:15:09.120 --> 0:15:10.600 And they say breaking up is hard to do. You 0:15:10.720 --> 0:15:13.160 know someone who has suffered from kidney stones. I gotta 0:15:13.200 --> 0:15:16.960 tell you, I would love to have had some robots. Yeah, 0:15:17.080 --> 0:15:19.840 if nothing else, then just to start have someone specific 0:15:19.840 --> 0:15:24.560 I could scream at UM instead of just the the 0:15:24.560 --> 0:15:27.480 the directionless screaming that I did while I actually had 0:15:27.520 --> 0:15:31.360 them UM. But yeah, yeah, there are lots of different 0:15:32.200 --> 0:15:34.720 cool applications. Now, there's some big problems that we have 0:15:34.800 --> 0:15:37.400 to overcome. First, we have to be able to create 0:15:38.160 --> 0:15:42.480 UM power systems on that scale something to power these robots. 0:15:42.840 --> 0:15:45.200 So we're talking about batteries and capacitors that are have 0:15:45.280 --> 0:15:50.520 to be incredibly tiny UM and that's that's a big challenge. Now, 0:15:50.760 --> 0:15:54.920 some doctors have engineers have got around that by creating 0:15:55.160 --> 0:15:59.320 robots that that propelled themselves, or actually they don't really 0:15:59.320 --> 0:16:03.480 propel themselves. They are propelled externally. UM. There's one that 0:16:03.800 --> 0:16:06.640 used m r I machine and you would use the 0:16:07.960 --> 0:16:10.680 magnets in the m R I really to direct the robot, 0:16:11.160 --> 0:16:13.760 so you could actually you know, you're kind of the 0:16:14.240 --> 0:16:17.560 robot really was more passive, but you could direct it 0:16:17.560 --> 0:16:20.960 to specific spot within an artery system. Now I should 0:16:21.000 --> 0:16:23.760 point out that the scientists who did this did it 0:16:23.800 --> 0:16:26.560 with a pig. Um. They were not doing human testing, 0:16:26.720 --> 0:16:31.440 but it worked, went through the pig's arteries, so you know, 0:16:32.480 --> 0:16:36.760 that's a it's nothing to sneeze at. Actually, I was 0:16:36.800 --> 0:16:40.400 reading about a completely different application of nanotechnology. There was 0:16:40.760 --> 0:16:44.800 sort of fascinating. UM. Jennifer Lowell was blogging about it 0:16:44.840 --> 0:16:48.040 for for Seen It and she was talking about the 0:16:48.120 --> 0:16:51.880 possibility that you could use nanotech to alter food on 0:16:51.880 --> 0:16:56.520 the microscopic scale. UM. She actually was quoting Steve Bogan 0:16:56.560 --> 0:17:00.200 and the Guardian. UM. They were talking about essentially how 0:17:00.240 --> 0:17:02.640 you could if you had a food that to which 0:17:02.640 --> 0:17:06.760 you were allergic, Uh, you could maybe make alterations to 0:17:06.800 --> 0:17:08.960 it so that it would pass from your body without 0:17:09.280 --> 0:17:13.879 being a problem. Trick is you know you could uh 0:17:14.119 --> 0:17:17.119 you could have problems with people who don't particularly genetically 0:17:17.119 --> 0:17:19.320 modified food, you know, so a lot of people that 0:17:19.760 --> 0:17:22.720 are kind of creeped out by the frank and food. Um, 0:17:22.960 --> 0:17:26.840 and you're talking about messing with things down again on 0:17:26.880 --> 0:17:29.560 a very very tiny level. Uh So that's pretty that's 0:17:29.560 --> 0:17:33.119 pretty significant. Um. But Bogan also mentioned the possibility that 0:17:33.160 --> 0:17:36.840 packaging could be made um to where the nanotechnology inside 0:17:36.840 --> 0:17:40.320 the food packaging could sniff out when you know, the 0:17:40.359 --> 0:17:42.959 food started to give off gassing as it was decomposing, 0:17:43.000 --> 0:17:45.439 it would change color to go, oh, well, you know 0:17:45.480 --> 0:17:47.359 this thing, it's started to turn brown. We need to 0:17:47.359 --> 0:17:49.560 toss it out without even you know, sniffing it or 0:17:50.000 --> 0:17:53.040 you know, sticking your finger on it and going, I know, 0:17:53.080 --> 0:17:55.360 it feels kind of weird. Yeah, that would have prevented 0:17:55.480 --> 0:17:58.480 many many memorable nights that I've had in my past. Yeah, 0:17:58.640 --> 0:18:02.680 I'm sure anyway, So uh and and to talk a 0:18:02.720 --> 0:18:05.280 little bit more about building these robots, one of the 0:18:05.440 --> 0:18:07.800 one of the things that scientists are working on is 0:18:07.840 --> 0:18:13.080 to try and create specific kinds of nano robots called assemblers. Yeah. Now, 0:18:13.080 --> 0:18:15.879 assemblers do what you would think they do. They assemble 0:18:16.040 --> 0:18:21.600 other nano machines. So they could assemble other assemblers, so 0:18:21.640 --> 0:18:25.119 then you have a self replicating nano robot. Do you 0:18:25.160 --> 0:18:27.159 see where there might be a problem with this? I 0:18:27.200 --> 0:18:31.520 feel its edging gradually towards the singularity. Right, So we're 0:18:31.560 --> 0:18:35.800 talking about the potential for nano robots to replicate themselves 0:18:35.840 --> 0:18:38.240 at such an incredible rate. And remember as soon as 0:18:38.240 --> 0:18:41.199 one gets replicated, it can start replicating, and then the 0:18:41.240 --> 0:18:46.000 ones that replicates can start replicating. So it's exponential growth. Right. Um, 0:18:46.000 --> 0:18:51.200 there's a scenario called gray Goo. Gray Goo is this 0:18:51.200 --> 0:18:54.960 this doomsday scenario where nano robots in order to build 0:18:54.960 --> 0:18:57.719 more nano robots, they have to create it out of something. 0:18:57.800 --> 0:18:59.280 You know, they're not building it out of nothing. So 0:18:59.320 --> 0:19:02.040 what they're doing is they're they're in this scenario anyway, 0:19:02.240 --> 0:19:05.119 it's taking carbon out of the environment and then building 0:19:05.200 --> 0:19:10.520 robots with them that were of carbon. Right, Well, everything 0:19:10.680 --> 0:19:12.480 a lot of stuff is made out of carbon on 0:19:12.480 --> 0:19:15.640 on our planet, turns out, So the idea here would 0:19:15.640 --> 0:19:18.040 be that the robots would start to consume all the 0:19:18.080 --> 0:19:21.080 carbon in an effort to build more robots. And of course, 0:19:21.080 --> 0:19:24.800 since it's exponential, it gets faster and faster every passing second. 0:19:25.720 --> 0:19:28.760 So this Tudnsday scenario has the entire world just turning 0:19:28.800 --> 0:19:31.639 into this writhing mass of gray goo as nano robots 0:19:31.720 --> 0:19:36.879 take over everything. I'm totally singing The Sorcerer's Apprentice in 0:19:36.960 --> 0:19:40.000 my head. Sleep well tonight. Yeah, I'm glad that we 0:19:40.000 --> 0:19:43.440 were able to take such a rosy idea and go 0:19:43.760 --> 0:19:46.639 there with it. Well, I mean, it's it's obviously a 0:19:46.760 --> 0:19:50.800 worst case scenario, but there are a lot of First 0:19:50.800 --> 0:19:54.720 of all, we're decades away from getting there. Second of all, 0:19:55.040 --> 0:19:57.560 there's no guarantee that that's what would happen if we 0:19:57.600 --> 0:20:01.760 even were able to create the nanotech simblars. So I 0:20:01.800 --> 0:20:04.000 think we don't have to worry just yet. When the 0:20:04.080 --> 0:20:06.879 singularity comes, then we'll start worrying. All right, So we 0:20:06.960 --> 0:20:11.880 got about twenty years. You got anything to add to nanotechnology? No, 0:20:12.000 --> 0:20:14.240 just get your living in while it's good? Okay, well 0:20:14.280 --> 0:20:18.920 you know what do you know what's also good? Yeah? 0:20:19.080 --> 0:20:25.520 This is not good. It's listener mail. Seriously, where's the 0:20:25.560 --> 0:20:30.359 volume that element? So anyway, Rory writes in, Hi, Rory, 0:20:30.720 --> 0:20:32.840 Rory writes in and says, have either of you guys 0:20:32.960 --> 0:20:36.359 ever used Linux or bs D? Os ten does not 0:20:36.520 --> 0:20:39.280 count as BSD in this case, then does a little 0:20:39.520 --> 0:20:43.600 uh smiley emoticon that has its tongue sticking out at you. Also, 0:20:44.119 --> 0:20:47.359 do either of you program, even on just a hobby level. 0:20:47.480 --> 0:20:50.440 Excuse the questions. I'm just curious that we fit exercise 0:20:50.520 --> 0:20:54.639 room sounds awesome. Thank you, It is awesome. So let's 0:20:54.920 --> 0:20:57.480 let's tackle these questions. Have you ever used Linux or 0:20:57.520 --> 0:21:01.280 BSD and remember O S ten doesn't count. Yes, actually have, UM, 0:21:01.320 --> 0:21:05.480 although admittedly on sort of a as you know, you 0:21:05.560 --> 0:21:09.639 might put it hobby scale. UM, I've dabbled with trying 0:21:09.680 --> 0:21:12.720 to install UM. I'm build of a bunch of on 0:21:12.800 --> 0:21:16.120 my old beat up PC at home and uh, probably 0:21:16.119 --> 0:21:18.400 should not have because it did not like it very much. 0:21:19.040 --> 0:21:21.800 Although I have a spare hard drive and um I'm 0:21:21.840 --> 0:21:24.800 thinking about trying it again, so maybe I can report 0:21:24.840 --> 0:21:28.080 back on that later. But UM, I've I've used a 0:21:28.119 --> 0:21:30.960 boot disc and uh, you know, just dabbled with it 0:21:31.000 --> 0:21:33.399 that way, and I really like it. I've used it 0:21:33.440 --> 0:21:36.159 on friends machines. I do not have a Linux machine 0:21:36.240 --> 0:21:40.000 other than my HTCG one which runs on Android, which 0:21:40.040 --> 0:21:42.480 has a Linux kernel that it's very core. Well, I 0:21:42.480 --> 0:21:46.840 do have a t VO, so technically yes, we have 0:21:47.040 --> 0:21:51.200 used it, though not as a chief operating system um uh. 0:21:51.200 --> 0:21:54.280 And it's not like we have a bias against Linux 0:21:54.320 --> 0:21:58.160 at all, or BSD for that matter. It's really part 0:21:58.200 --> 0:22:01.200 of it's just the fact that all of our computers here, 0:22:01.200 --> 0:22:03.560 pretty much most of our computers here, I should say, 0:22:03.680 --> 0:22:07.320 run on Windows, so it's just easier to stay on 0:22:07.359 --> 0:22:09.439 the same operating system. And in case you want to 0:22:09.520 --> 0:22:12.600 work on anything, that's true. Now, I do have an 0:22:12.600 --> 0:22:15.560 Intel powered Mac at home, and you know, I could 0:22:15.600 --> 0:22:17.679 partition the hard drive and install Linux on it, but 0:22:17.960 --> 0:22:21.040 you know, and I really haven't. I'd really rather try 0:22:21.080 --> 0:22:23.320 it on something else first, especially since the problem I 0:22:23.320 --> 0:22:25.520 did have on it was partitioning the hard drive. Yeah, 0:22:25.880 --> 0:22:28.080 let's let me get a little bit more comfortable with 0:22:28.080 --> 0:22:31.480 that before I started. Sounds good. And uh so the 0:22:31.600 --> 0:22:36.280 question do you program? Do you program? Um? Not anymore? Yeah, 0:22:36.359 --> 0:22:39.679 I used to program using a Mega Basic. Yeah, I 0:22:39.760 --> 0:22:45.720 used to program. So, yeah, we programmed back when, uh 0:22:47.040 --> 0:22:50.520 back when personal computers were pretty new. We were not 0:22:51.000 --> 0:22:53.119 now granted we were not. Uh we're not going to 0:22:53.200 --> 0:22:55.479 give you any of the harder stories of programming for 0:22:56.040 --> 0:22:59.240 a computer using punch cards. That's a little before our time. Um, 0:22:59.280 --> 0:23:01.800 although I, uh my older brother went to a punch 0:23:01.880 --> 0:23:05.840 card class. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, And you know, I realized 0:23:05.840 --> 0:23:09.520 that h GML is not technically programming, but you know 0:23:09.680 --> 0:23:11.600 it is a little coding. Yeah. I used to do 0:23:11.600 --> 0:23:14.520 it's us, you know, just to mess with the back end, 0:23:14.520 --> 0:23:20.239 not even you know, no wisywig editors end. Okay, I 0:23:20.240 --> 0:23:22.560 think I'm done now. Okay, So anyway, yeah, I've done 0:23:22.560 --> 0:23:25.760 some h MIL coding as well. Back when the web 0:23:25.840 --> 0:23:29.040 was was pretty much new, I did. I built websites. 0:23:29.320 --> 0:23:30.760 And that was back in the day when you would 0:23:30.840 --> 0:23:33.880 you would code in HTML, save it, open up a browser. 0:23:34.000 --> 0:23:35.960 Look at what you did. Say, Oh my god, that 0:23:36.000 --> 0:23:40.200 looks terrible. Close the browser, open up the editor, makes 0:23:40.240 --> 0:23:42.720