I've been asked a number of times about my sig line, whether it's true, could I provide links, etc.
Well, it's a pipe dream, an idea that struck me one night--couldn't nanotech be a quick, easy solution to the looming disasters our world faces due to the alarming buildup of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere ("quick" and "easy" being relative terms)?
I have no links, no papers, no prior art. The idea of removing atmospheric carbon with nanotech, to my knowledge, hasn't been explored by the companies noodling with molecular construction. My question: Why the hell not?
Nanotechnology exploded onto the scientific world in 1986, when Eric Drexler released the seminal book "Engines of Creation: The Coming Era of Nanotechnology ", postulating that we could construct, atom by atom, machines so small (100 nanometers or less) that they could accomplish tasks heretofore undreamt of.
"Cleaner" nanos could race through your body, repairing damaged and mutated cells, adding telomeres to your DNA strings, tossing the Hayflick limit out the window and making you essentially immortal. "Assembler" nanos could gather materials from the environment to make useful goods out of "thin air" (my favorite example being Drexler's "steak box," with a hopper for hay and water at one end and an endless supply of T-bones popping out the other).
In twenty years, the concept has gone from dream to gold mine, with new applications being conceived and tested daily. The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, Subcommitte on Trade, Tourism and Economic Development reported in May of this year that there are currently over 230 nanoproducts already on the market. The National Science Foundation estimates that by 2015, the global market for nanomaterials and processes will top $1 trillion, making the field one of the fastest growing economic phenomena in history. According to the Foresight Nanotech Institute website, there are 2714 outstanding nanotech patent applications right now, with the Patent and Trademark Office unable to keep up with the avalanche of applications.
With all this research under way, why has no one addressed the simple concept in my sig line? We all know, hell, even Junior Bush admits, that excessive carbon dioxide in our air is raising temperatures on the planet, melting ice caps and glaciers, changing habitat and threatening modern technological civilization. Why not cook up some of them little critters to suck it out and turn that carbon into something useful?
Well, folks, here's the challenge: Make it so, Number One! I can't do it. I haven't the knowledge of chemistry, physics or biology to even begin to design such a critter. Hell, I don't have a single college credit to my name!
But people here do. And they know other people who do. This community is so smart, so varied, so diverse and so curious that I just know the answer to making my sig line come true will come from DailyKos.
Just one request: if you do it, can I have one of those diamonds? I'd even repierce my old lobe hole if I could wear in it the solution to global warming.
Some links you may like:
The Foresight.org site mentioned above is a great clearinghouse of all things nano.
Lots of fresh nanonews can be had at Nanotech Now and nanotechweb.org.
The Wikipedia entry on nanotechnology is surprisingly exhaustive and informative, and has some good visuals, like the rotating model of a carbon nanotube and this way cool micrograph of a dust mite towering over six nanogears.
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) holds a lot of conferences and symposia on nanostuff. Search their site for "nanotechnology."