Nanotechnology in AM - TV Program next week

[john2004]

Hi, guys. It's been a while. 8 month project and not yet over. I've worked with Dr. Eric Drexler to design and animate a nanotechnology device of the future. We are not just making science fiction pictures. This is as real a design as we can make it even though it will be ten years or more before we can build it. Dr. Drexler has three published books in nano and is considered by many to be the father of this industry. He co-founded the Foresight Institute, www.foresight.org The device of this animation is a desktop factory which can take in acetylene, tear it apart and create product from the atoms.

 

I have always been interested in nanotechnology since I read "Engines of Creation" by Drexler. Never thought I'd have a chance to contribute to the field. The Foresight Institute ran their annual fund drive and I asked if they needed any graphics work. You never know what will come of something that starts small.

 

Dr Drexler did all the molecular design using quantum chemistry software. I did all the mechanical design in AM with a lot of input from Dr. Drexler. A few times he would redesign my first draft since he certainly knows a lot more about how things work down at the bottom. The whole thing has been a very wonderful experience of collaboration.

 

Mark Sims, CEO of Nanorex Inc. www.nanorex.com is designing a new generation of molecular design tools specifically for nanotechnology. He has provided financial support to complete this animation from version 0.8 to version 1.0 . His software is able to export AM models of atoms and molecules so that I can add accurate models to AM animations. This is another wonderful collaboration. IMHO, by combining forces, we are going to cut the development time of this project in half.

 

Next week, the History Channel has a 2 hour program on Modern Marvels: Doomsday Technology. They interviewed Christine Peterson from the Foresight Institute and they will use part of my animation on the program to illustrate where we are going. I have no idea how much of it they will use, but I expect it to be used with a positive spin. See below for details on the program the 28th of this month.

 

We have finished a version 0.8 of the animation ( almost 4 minutes) and it was used in October at the "12th Foresight Conference on Molecular Nanotechnology" in Washington DC. The animation was a real hit. No one has seen such a machine in detail before. Dr. Drexler used it in his talk and it was shown each day after that at lunch due to high interest. It's cool to see your own work on a 30 foot screen in a large auditorium. We had 340 people at the conference.

 

If you have broadband, you can see the 0.8 version which was presented at the conference at

http://lizardfire.com/nano/Nanofac_cont_320x240.mov 32 megs.

 

For slower connections or for more detail, you can see a slide show at

http://www.foresight.org/lizardfire/nanofactorySS.html Hit the button in upper left.

 

The 0.8 version has a very rudimentary final sage that has been redesigned. You can see the new final stage of the machine at

<http://lizardfire.com/nano/ExtruderTourFinalwithfade_huff_30fps_2200k.mov > 34 megs 400x300

 

I'm very proud of this thing and very glad to give AM credit for a good design environment. I was able to prototype quickly, get feedback from Dr Drexler and make changes so all these parts would actually work rather than simply look like they would work. Heck, some mechanical parts can't even be seen, but they are there because they need to be there in the final machine. My AM project is up to version 175 on my hard drive. Used AM 10.5 for most of it, only recently switched to AM 11.

 

We intend to continue this development in the years to come. As improvements come along or bright ideas change our pathway, we will attempt to keep this animation updated. Our next plans are to design and animate the steps between here and the first assembler that will build the fundamental parts of this machine you see in the animation. In other words, to show how we build the tools that are used to build this machine.

 

I am blessed by the connections and resources that have come about by this project. You never know what is going to come back to you when you give away something of value. In my experience, it will be more than you gave away.

 

John Burch

Lizard Fire Studios

 

 

the program details:

 

We invite you to tune in for a unique two-hour episode of the History Channel's Modern Marvels series.

 

Modern Marvels: Doomsday Tech will air on the History Channel, Tuesday, December 28, 2004.

 

Hour I airs at 9:00 PM Eastern and Pacific, 8:00 PM Central.

Hour II follows immediately thereafter: 10:00 PM Eastern and Pacific, 9:00 PM Central.

 

Both hours look at the technological threats to human civilization, as well as the technology that may one day save us.

 

In Hour I, the doomsday threats include the world's nuclear arsenals, the gathering storm of global warming, the end of the age of oil, and the potential abuses from emerging fields of nanotechnology and robotics. We will also highlight the efforts to safeguard and dismantle our nuclear warheads.... to develop non-polluting, renewable energy sources... and to derive valuable benefits from nanotechnology. From the crumbling Russian nuclear infrastructure... to the latest breakthroughs in fusion energy research, this hour will take the pulse of our high-tech civilization.

 

In Hour II, we begin with the ultimate "natural" doomsday threat: the impact of a large asteroid or comet. We talk to leading astronomers as they describe how technology might be used to help us avoid the fate of the dinosaurs. We will also examine the age of bioterrorism: how the legacy of biological warfare might come back to haunt us in the form of a deadly epidemic launched by terrorists... but also the extraordinary strategies being developed to defuse such a scenario. Then, one of the most important new technologies of the 21st Century: genetic engineering, as we examine its potential to solve world hunger... or threaten the world's food supplies. Lastly, we look at our own utter dependence on computers, and watch the hidden strategies being played out on both sides of cyber war.

 

 

 

Thanks for your help on the show, and happy holidays!

 

Scott Goldie and Anthony Lacques

Producers

[Rodney]

Wow... that sounds fantastic.

 

...and I'm scheduled to be off on the 28th too!

 

Keep reminding us because this sounds like something not to be missed.

That's a very interesting project you are working .

 

-Rodney

[starwarsguy]

Normally I wouldn't be too interested in watching that kind of thing, but I sat through the entire thing completely absorbed. GREAT JOB! Good modeling and animation, and good job getting across the message!

[ZachBG]

This is incredible. Never again will it be said that mechanical modeling can't be done in AM...

 

...okay, that was a straw man, I don't know if anyone has ever said that, but the point remains...

[heyvern]

WooHoo!

 

It's like a cross between the discovery channel and the airport luggage scene from Toy Story 2!

(Pitch it that way to hollywood, maybe you could get Thom Hanks to do a voice over in the feature length version)

 

I didn't understand any of it but I really liked it!

 

Will notebook computers really float around like that in the future? That could could come in handy.... JUST KIDDING!

 

Seriously though, positively amazing job. Congratulations. Extremely impressive.

 

Man! if stuff like this keeps coming out... we won't be special anymore.

 

Now when my brother visits for the holidays, and wants to see A:M can do... I'll just turn on the TV...

 

Vernon "Nano-Nano" Zehr

[wwoelbel]

Wowsers! Your actually working with Drexler?!? He a seriously visionary man. Very cool indeed.

 

I will make sure that I see the special.

 

Bill

[john2004]

hey, glad you all liked it ! The finished version will be a LOT better.

 

Vern, I'm gonna have a woman hold up the computer - so it doesn't have to fly. She may be the hardest part of this project :-)

 

I'll send a short note to the list before the broadcast. Hope it turns out to be worth watching.

 

Thanks guys,

John

[johnl3d]

nicely done!

[Julian]

Does the raw material consist of molecules of ethyne gas? Did you use flocking to create the Brownian motion or something else? If the computer has 1 billion CPUs, does that mean each of the cubical units being assembled at the end is a transistor?

[.:shortdog:.]

wow, that's really nice. I wish I had a floating computer... *thinks of possibilities*

[john2004]

Julian,

The raw stock is acetylene , C2H2. it does have a shorter chemical name, not sure if it is ethyne or not . the movie needs a voice over. Maybe in the final version. It would sort of go like this for the molecular mill (where the atoms are shown bouncing around).

 

Acetylene is processed by the two top wheels to select only acetylene and reject other larger molecules. The third wheel traps molecules in a narrow grove that binds the molecule very lightly. The chain links on the central wheels, swings a silicon atom into the grove and grabs a molecule and binds to one carbon. The tool tip swings the bound molecule down past the first side chain and one hydrogen is removed and carried away. The central chain carries the C2H1 below and a tin atom on the far side chain binds to the carbon that is most free to move around. That stabilizes the two carbons and the near side chain swings a silicon atom past to remove the last hydrogen. Now the two carbons are still stuck to the central chain and are carried to the far end. There both carbons are pushed into a half assembled block of diamond. The two carbons add to the growing crystal. Down the tunnel, you can see the next few stations adding more carbons to the long moving chain of blocks. Each stage is offset to put the next two carbons in a different place on the cube. After 50 stages, you have anew layer of diamond deposited on the cuble. The long chain goes around wheels (not shown) and returns the row of blocks for another pass. But this time the two wedges built into each link on the chain have been pulled further apart to lower the blocks by one atom depth. The next time they go by, the new layer is added and the cube gets taller. When all cubes are fully built, 10x10x10 atoms, they get plucked off and put onto the chain links you see in the next section. :-) John

[Julian]

Are you using 8-patch spheres or something denser to make the atoms? I'm not trying to toot my own horn here, but I once tried making a spacefilling model of a DNA molecule using 8-patch spheres for the atoms, and you can see looking at the hydrogens that the spheres aren't perfectly round:

[john2004]

Julian,

I tried an 8 patch sphere and got the same results. So i kept the dense ones I have

32 patches. Probably too many. but what the hey. They work.

 

That DNA is pretty. I did not notice the shape until I looked real close. Guess if you get close, it is a bigger problem.

 

John

[john2004]

>Did you use flocking to create the Brownian motion or something else? If the computer has 1 billion CPUs, does that mean each of the cubical units being assembled at the end is a transistor?

 

Sorry, missed your other questions. I tried flocks, but the motion was worthless. Had no control. Finally just animated 20 atoms by hand in an action and added the action to the chor ten times or more. Rotated and flipped them to make it seem more random. could use some more atoms around the edges.

 

No transistors, we are only building diamond in this example. Diamond is a great structural material and will be used for almost everything. To build the tool tips of this machine will require a more complex assembler to build a complex object that is really smaller than the 10x10x10 cube of carbon. A real machine will have many different assemblers to build many different small building blocks. Then the transport system moves and mixes them so that eveything gets to where it is needed.

 

In fact, Dr. Drexler thinks a computer at this level may be a mechanical computer made of rods and gears rather than electronic materials. Things move so fast down here that a rod computer can compete with an electronic computer.

[Drakkheim]

whoa that was really cool!

 

will the final version by any chance have a voice over explaining what's going on (aside from looking really cool) ?

 

how long was the render time on those complex shots?