Monday, March 31, 2008

bionano

Bionanotechnology






Bionanotech - Data Panel

Definition:
[1] neogenic micro- and nano-organisms and organelles that function as nanites
[2] organic / biological devices capable of modifying their environment with molecular or atomic scale precision
[3] nanites constructed of organic molecules, using the same chemistry and metabolic pathways as life itself (also Sytech)

A few alternative terms: Bionano, Wet nano, Soft nano, Soft bots

Level: Hi Tech to Ultratech

Scale/Density: Microtech to Nanotech

Substrate: Organic - CHON

Application: almost any use, allowing for environmental limitations

Distribution and Availability: found in all The Sephirotics, almost all Deeper Covenant polities, among most xenosophont empires, as well as in most regions outside the metaempires.
Developed Worlds: universally available, and accessible to all sophonts, apart from proscribed templates. The greatest diversity can be found in the Zoeific Biopolity
Elsewhere: widely available, but depends on polity

Legal Status: Basic templates and genomes public domain; restricted templates and genomes available for wealthy, powerful, or in many Free Zones; proscribed templates and genomes can be had outside angelnetted and supervised polities for those who know where to look. Zoeific Biopolity and NoCoZo have the most liberal laws and freest restrictions. Restricted use in ahuman polities and regions.

Environmental Requirements: most biotech requires specific environments

Ease of Use; Care and Maintenance: Most bionano has specific applications, depending on genome and template. It is not as versitile as some dry nano, and in some cases requires care and feeding, although other forms of bionano can easily function without supervision. Most bionano is self-healing, some is self-replicating

Popular With: Many clades and phyles of sapient grade and above, especially biocentric and biosupremacist groups; not used by prim, and some ludd, vec, and ai clades and phyles




During the 21st century c.e., nanotech proved a lot more elusive than was previously thought. Despite claims of a "three week revolution" in the early decades of the century, progress remained slow, and drexlerian assemblers were not found to be practical. Instead, developments in nanotech during this period more often involved organic components. The resulting "bionanotech" was still sufficient to initiate a real "second industrial revolution" in the middle and second half of the 21st century, providing mass-produced and cheap biochips (information, virtual reality, micro/organic computers), reactive clothing (changes colour with the wearer's mood), artificial life forms, advanced genetic engineering (paving the way for the "tweaks" and "splices", and of course polybuckminsterfullerene and all the other magic components to make space habitats and interplanetary colonisation possible.

Despite later developments in dry nanotech (drexlers and other mechanical assemblers), bionanotech retained tremendous popularity. One reason was the great adaptability of the bioassemblers, which were also cheap and reliable. Mechanical assemblers tended to break down and eventually cease functioning, whilst bionanites had greater redundancy and reliability, even mutational and self-healing properties. While not as environmentally robust as dry nano or even synano, in the right environments, bionano can be very effective.



Dyson Trees - Genetically engineered trees employing bio-nanotech, and serving as a biological space habitat

Nanobones - A bionano process whereby portions of a subject's skeleton are converted into bionanocomputers, using bionanomachines, which run off the subject's blood supply

Nanotrees - process whereby bionanomachines are injected into an otherwise baseline tree and proceed to convert the dead or heartwood of the tree's trunk and larger branches into a bionanocomputer.

3 comments:

epiJ said...

what is nano????

epiJ said...

what is nano???

epiJ said...

Superlattices containing two types of nanoparticle offer the potential to create new materials with valuable physical properties. But it's often been hard to make the structures thermodynamically stable. Now a team from IBM, Columbia University, and the University of Michigan has created ten new binary nanoparticle superlattice materials.


Binary nanoparticle superlattice"In 2003 our teams at IBM and Columbia University reported the first binary superlattice assembled from semiconductor (PbSe) and magnetic (Fe2O3) nanoparticles," Dmitri Talapin, formerly of IBM but who now works at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, told nanotechweb.org. "Since that time we learned how to grow about twenty binary superlattice structures using all possible combinations of about fifteen different materials."

The team made the superlattices by placing a substrate in a colloidal solution of two types of nanoparticles. Evaporating the solvent in a low-pressure chamber enabled the nanoparticles to self-assemble into the ordered structures. The superlattice constituents included nanoparticles of gold, lead selenide (PbSe), palladium, lead sulphide, iron oxide, and silver, as well as triangular nanoplates of lanthanum fluoride. The resulting superlattices had a range of crystal structures.

The scientists were able to direct the self-assembly process by tuning the charge state of the nanoparticles. They achieved this by adding carboxylic acids, tri-n-octylphosphine oxide (TOPO) or dodecylamine to solutions of the nanoparticles. For example, adding oleic acid to PbSe nanocrystals converted some neutral and negatively charged nanocrystals into positively charged ones. Adding TOPO, on the other hand, increased the population of negatively charged PbSe nanocrystals. And adding oleic acid to gold nanoparticles caused most of the nanoparticles to become negatively charged.


Superlattice examples"By gently directing the self-assembly process we were able to produce a large family of novel materials, varying combinations of the building blocks and packing them into different structures," said Talapin. "This is one of the key challenges of nanoscience and nanotechnology - to produce novel materials and generate novel properties by engineering material composition at the nanometre scales and by employing natural self-assembly phenomena."

The researchers were also able to control self-assembly of the lattices by tailoring the shape of the nanoparticles and using different proportions of the two nanoparticle constituents.

According to the scientists, combining two or more materials in a superlattice enables a modular approach to the design of materials. These "metamaterials" can then both combine useful attributes of the constituent building blocks and generate entirely new properties as a result of intermixing of the components.

"In our binary superlattices we can combine semiconductors, metals, magnetic, ferroelectric, dielectric and other materials," said Talapin. "For example, binary superlattices of magnetic and semiconducting nanoparticles are promising for magneto-optic data storage and spintronic devices, and superlattices built of two different semiconductors can be employed for a new generation of solar cells and thermoelectric devices. Finally, binary superlattices can be a tool for designing novel efficient catalysts with a precise arrangement of catalytic centres."

Now Talapin and colleagues are investigating the optical, electronic, thermoelectric, catalytic and other physical and chemical properties of binary nanoparticle superlattices. They also plan to extend the family of binary superlattices by creating novel structures and combining different materials. Finally, they are researching assemblies of three or more different nanocomponents.

The researchers reported their work in Nature.