Silicon electronics providing early versions of nanomedicine expectations

Nanowerk has a review of nanomedicine. In particular the EU view from the 7th FWP which refers to the European Union's Seventh Framework Program


this shows the many different aspects and capabilities related to nanomedicine

The expected change in the understanding of disease that they discuss in this quote:

Future nanomedical diagnostics with an ultimate level of sensitivity will enable doctors to discover the slightest abnormality in our bodies – raising the question if and what clinical relevance such information will have.

"Diagnostic nanotechnologies eventually will provide the ability to detect and characterize individual cells, subtle molecular changes in DNA, or even minor changes in blood chemistry - scenarios that will likely cause pause and reconsideration of what it means to be a 'healthy person' versus a 'person who has a disease'" says Bawa. "In a 'nanoworld,' we might have to reconsider how to diagnose someone who has, say, cancer. Is the presence of a genetic mutation known to have a predisposition for causing cancer in a single cell a diagnosis? Or is it simply a risk factor? How many cells from the body must be of a cancerous nature for it to be defined as cancer? 1? 50? 1000?"

Once diagnostic technologies have reached this stage it will require reconceptualizing understanding of disease

Is already arriving with labs on a chip that can accurately count cancer cells and find 99.1% of metastatic cancer in the blood.

Silicon biosensors are being implanted into the body with a gel to prevent rejection.

There are bloodstream robots that are millimeter sized or smaller from Korea and Japan and and Israel.


Israel bloodstream robot

With the rejection suppression gel, rice grain size or larger computers could be placed into the body which would be an earlier cruder but possibly very functional version of what nanomedicine could accomplish. MEMS and NEMS will get very good over the next 5-10 years and the conservative expectations that we will need to wait for full blown nanotechnology for what are considered nanomedicine applications are wrong. Molecular nanotechnology will make what we can place into the body a millions times higher performance or more. However, even advanced silicon and polymer and pre-molecular nanotechnology will provide capabilities far beyond what those who ridicule "submarines in the body" expect.

Do not underestimate clever and creative use of existing and near term technology. It can deliver what some people think we need to wait for full blown molecular nanotechnology to get. It also means clever use of molecular nanotechnology will blow away all the unimaginitive scenarios.

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Millimeter Korean bloodstream robot

A robot, smaller than one millimeter, has been built by Korean scientists to travel through blood vessels

Once inside a blocked artery, it is able to release drugs to dissolve blood clots, which are often the cause of heart attacks.

The robot has three short front legs and three longer back legs which are attached to a central rectangular body.

By attaching grafted heart muscle to the legs, the scientists found the legs would bend as the muscle cells contracted. The cells get their energy from sugar in the patient's blood.

That means the robot does not need an external power supply, which are often heavy and cumbersome, if not impractical.

Because the robot's three front legs are shorter than the back legs, they bend inwards as the heart muscles contract, creating a difference in friction that pushes the robot forward.

Using cells from the patient's own body – perhaps grown from stem cells – would also reduce the likelihood of the body producing an immune reaction, which might destroy the tiny robot before it could clear a blockage.

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Engines of Creation predictions are not fanciful

An updated version of Engines of Creation is online

The Center for Responsible Nanotechnology (CRN), has an article that points out that the term "molecular nanotechnology" has been associated almost invariably with fantastic notions

like bloodstream nanobots, true universal assemblers (“meat machines”), and theoretically ubiquitous “utility fog.” Such concepts admittedly are fascinating to consider and someday may become reality, but they seem to be further in the future than are the middle-period developments that concern CRN.

I believe those who think of those things as fantastic notions are not aware of developments using current technology that are bringing them about.

From New Scientist, diodes could power bloodstream microbots

A new form of propulsion that could allow microrobots to explore human bodies has been discovered. Velev's diodes are millimetre-sized but any robot designed to work within the human body would have to be an order of magnitude smaller. In the past, attempts to shrink propulsive mechanisms have run up against a fundamental barrier in fluid dynamics: fluids become progressively more viscous on smaller scales. "It's like moving through honey," says Velev. But extrapolations of the team's measurements indicate the propulsive force will work just as well at smaller scales. "The propulsive force scales in exactly the same way as the drag. That's quite significant," says McKinley.

The first surgical microbot could be ready by 2009


A capsule insertable robot has been made in Japan


Nanoparticles have been used as drug delivery systems. They are more crude than the nanobot vision but they can be remotely guided to the tumor and then triggered from the outside to release material. So they are simple machines.

Similarly mini-bacteria cells are performing similar functions

Cellular repair is becoming possible as well. Magnetically assembled nanotube tips are being added to devices that can inject or remove organelles from cells

These things are not as capable as the Chromallocyte recently designed by Robert Freitas but it shows that such things are clearly not fanciful.

Meat Factories can be made using stem cells. There is existing work with test tube meat.

Step towards utility fog are being made by Intel with work on claytronics


Current claytronics components which are planned to be shrunk to about one millimeter

Projecting rapid manufacturing capabilities from current rapid prototyping, rapid manufacturing and fabbing could be not that far from the Engines of creation view of universal assemblers.

Combining the ovonic quantum control device with PRAM and other polymer components could enable more fabbable all flat (reel to reel) printing of computers and solar power cells.

Lasers, combined with metamaterials, nanoparticles and superlens could enable additive rapid manufacturing with 2 nanometer precision.

Non-molecular nanotechnology (microelectronics), pre-molecular nanotechnology (nanoparticles, nanomaterials), DNA nanotechnology, synthetic biology, graphene, fullerene nanotechnology, advanced chemistry, robotics, rapid manufacturing are making possible what was believed would require molecular nanotechnology. When full-blown diamondoid arrives what will actually be possible will be confounding to those who have not been paying attention or who are in denial.

We only will need molecular nanotechnology because we are not being creative enough with what we can already do or on the way to doing very soon. If we were not flushing money on the Shuttle and the Iraq War we could have mastery of space. If we were not confused about nuclear power we could have clean energy.

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