Most people wouldn’t build a LEGO castle by starting with
a huge block of LEGOs and then slowly chipping away at the sides
until they sculpt out the perfect shape.
But this is the traditional method scientists have been using
for years in manufacturing.
All this is about to change.
With the development of nanotechnology, researchers at UCLA want
to revolutionize the way science is done ““ from the ground
up.
Just as it would be easier, and more efficient, to build a LEGO
castle by carefully snapping together small pieces, it would also
be easier to manufacture products by building them from their
smallest components ““ the atoms.
Using atoms like LEGO blocks, researchers hope that
nanotechnology will help create lighter, stronger, and more
efficient products that will revolutionize everything from
agricultural methods, to finding cures to diseases, to creating new
defense mechanisms.
A nanometer is over 100,000 times smaller than the width of a
human hair ““ a startlingly small size for something at the
core of a multi-billion dollar international field that is expected
to revolutionize science and technology.
Backed by over $235 million in funding, UCLA and UCSB have
formed a joint partnership to pioneer this scientific
revolution.
Along with Governor Gray Davis and University of California
President Richard Atkinson, officials from the two universities
broke ground on the site of the future $70 million California
NanoSystems Institute last Friday.
Researcher and politicians alike have set lofty goals for
nanotechnology, expecting it to affect the environment, information
technology, the aerospace industry, biology, defense mechanisms and
arts and entertainment ““ to name a few.
Current projects in nanotechnology include the creation of:
highly efficient light bulbs, quantum computing for information
technologies, the development of a rapid pharmaceutical screening
process and the development of early, medical diagnostic tools,
according to the CNSI Web site.
The implications for big research opportunities means the
potential for big bucks.
Nanotechnology is a fast-growing field, with over $116 billion
in benefits last year alone, said Hewlett Packard Senior Fellow
Stan Williams.
According to some forecasts, the economic benefits of
nanotechnology will reach $1 trillion by the end of the decade,
Williams said.
“Research universities have always played a key role in
the economic development of California,” said Atkinson at
Friday’s ceremony.
There are 23 biotech companies within a 25 mile radius of a UC
campus, Atkinson said.
In the post dot-com era, where the fall of Silicon Valley has
left a souring economy and a wave of unemployment throughout the
state, many researchers hope that nanotechnology will help boost
California’s faltering job market.
“This is an investment in California’s economic
future,” said Governor Grey Davis, who spearheaded the idea
for the institute.
“Not only will we develop new cures and therapies … but
new jobs.”
These jobs come from the wide variety of research opportunities
available, as well as from the new fields being created.
As many researchers are quick to point out, traditional
boundaries between disciplines blur in nanotechnology as new ones
appear to be emerging.
Researchers from a wide array of fields, including biochemistry,
chemical engineering, mechanical and aerospace engineering,
microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics, are already
conducting research for CNSI, with over 25 groups presenting their
data on Friday alone.
Set for completion in winter of 2004-05, the building will
facilitate the interdisciplinary nature of the field by including
open staircases connecting labs together.
Designed by architect Raphael Vinoly, who is one of the two
finalists selected to design the new World Trade Center, the
180,000 square foot CNSI building will include seven levels
designed to allow scientists to interact easily with one
another.
“We are bringing together all our resources into one
central location; it is ideally located,” said CNSI Executive
Administrator Wendy Nishikawa.
Several groups have already formed partnerships with members of
different fields, incorporating techniques from other disciplines
to create innovative technologies to help all parties involved.
For example, one group of graduate student researchers, working
with CNSI Acting Co-Director J. Fraser Stoddart, are developing a
structural molecule that will help proteins bond to cells
better.
They hope this will eventually help develop better diagnostics
and treatments for cancer.
“The long term goal is to help biologists,” said
fourth-year chemistry and biochemistry graduate student Alshakim
Nelson, who worked on the project. “As a chemist, I will make
these chemicals that will help biologists.”
Another group of scientists grounded in mechanical and aerospace
engineering studied the lotus leaf to learn new methods of
minimizing the surface area something takes up. Normally, a large
object has more friction with the surface it is moving on than a
smaller object. It would require more energy to move the larger
object across the surface than the smaller one.
By reducing the surface area, or miniaturizing the object on the
nano level, the group hopes to reduce the amount of energy required
to move the object.
You could apply this method to several fields, from drug
delivery systems to moving a space ship, said Chang-Hwan Choi, a
second-year mechanical and aerospace engineering graduate student
who worked on the project.
Scientists and the two UC universities involved aren’t the
only ones working together.
The new CNSI institute involves the participation of people from
both the private and public sectors, with donations of $138 million
and $100 million respectively.
According to Governor Davis, the Institute has already received
over half of this money.
“Good things happen when the private and public sectors
work together, not in competition,” Davis said, pointing to
the cooperation between the two fields that led to finding a cure
for polio in 1952.
This interaction could be facilitated by the use of “open
lab” space in the building, labs that have the resources to
handle nearly any type of experiment. These labs can change to
accommodate members of different fields, and can also allow
corporate partners to conduct research in them.
Through continual investment in the new institute, the Governor
emphasized his desire to make California the leader in
nanotechnology.
But according to Williams, California lags behind the efforts of
other states.
In addition, the United States only contributes 20 percent of
worldwide funding for nanotechnology. This is half of what the
European Union gives and still less than the amount Japan gives,
Williams continued.
For CNSI to lead the world, it has to “be bolder and
smarter” than the competition, he said.
“The best way to predict the future is to invent
it.”