nanobiotechnology

[Kal]

I'll start this post with a link (http://www.kurzweilai.net/meme/frame.html?main=/articles/art0680.html) which contains a lengthy article which is the background to this topic.

We are fast approaching the age when nanotechnology and biology will merge. Nanobiotechnology, synthetic biology which is part biology, part machine, made possible with a nanoswitch capable of allowing electron current flow between the living and non-living. When this breakthrough happens, the line between the living and 'machine' will be very grey indeed.

Will this be the next evolutionary leap? Will life on earth break the 'carbon barrier', and will this breakthrough in evolution be a breakthrough of immaculate design at the hands of man? ;)

Nanobiotechnology also poses many questions - it could be potentially far more dangerous than the nuclear threat!

I look forward to this 21st century and seeing what it brings!! :D

[Argonavis]

I think the fast approach is overhyped. It may happen, but not anytime soon.

Many years ago i read a book on the "Biological Time Bomb", and how the next developments in medicine would be unbelievable. They haven't happened but maybe someday we will live forever - when cancer and heart disease is defeated then it is just a matter of replacing the parts that wear out. This is where nanotechnology fits in rather neatly.

Some scientists seriously talk of being able to live forever, just a matter of keeping the body and brain in running order with little nanobots.

But not in my lifetime, I don't think.

[avandonk]

I have worked in Nanobiotechnology for over thirty years. It is called Structural Molecular Biology.
The futurist idea of nanobots is a pipe dream. We are just beginning to understand the exquisite feedback systems controlling Biomolecular interactions. The understanding of these processes may lead to better less intrusive solutions for many diseases.

If anything the paltry knowledge we have already will be misused.

The misuse of Botox is a very simple example.

Bert

[Kal]

The cure for cancer is not that far away Argonavis. Already in the late 90's, someone with a terminal brain tumor had a genetically modified polio virus injected into their head. The modified polio virus only attacked the cancer cells, not normal healthy cells. He is still alive today, and the cancer is gone. While this is not nanobiotechnology, it does show how things like a cure for cancer aren't all that far off.

[Kal]

avandonk - I'm sure that the speed at which mankinds research towards a nuclear future went alot faster than many would have thought. I wonder how many were prepared for it and asked the moral questions of it's application, before hiroshima and nagasaki. When I say the age is fast approaching, I'm not putting a timeline onto it. I do however think it is time to start considering the consequences of the technology and it's potential application/dangers.

[Ric]

Hi all, I think that the 21st century will be full of some of the most amazing advancements in the fields of science and technology.
I think that Nanotechnology will eventually be with us or should I say a part of us but is still a long way off at the moment.
I also think that the technology will probably have to tread along the same path as stem cell research, I hope that it doesnt but thats for the future to decide.

cheers

[avandonk]

You are correct Kal in the fact that in the future the field of Nanotech will overtake most of us in totally unexpected ways. The real problem is that people are scrabbling to rename many existing research endevours to get the attention of science ignorant polititians with wild and misleading scenarios and promises.
The only real way for science to go forward is to do GOOD science without an eye on future profits.

Most if not all major revolutions in science and technology evolved from research into a fundamental understanding of underlying processes where the future profits were not obvious. The transistor invented in Bell labs in the late 1940's comes to mind.

Another simple example is that an American report on the efficacy of all medical research spending, showed for every dollar invested something like five to ten dollars were saved in the long run on better overall health and the lessening of suffering. These savings increase with time.

The really scary thing is that at a molecular level most processes are governed by quantum effects. In other words without quantum effects they would not work. This is happening right now in your body in all the myriad of enzymes that control reactions that work at body temperature. The best we can do to mimic some of these processes is high temperatures and very reactive chemicals.
An example is Kevlar production versus spider silk. The spider silk is much stronger!


Bert