X-Message-Number: 12774 From: "George Smith" <> References: <> Subject: Breakthroughs, Protests and Reading the Newspaper. Date: Sun, 14 Nov 1999 12:47:33 -0800 A few points on recent postings: (1) I consider the July 20, 1999 nanotech breakthrough to be a breakthrough because a breakthrough is when the objections to a new technology being "possible" are quashed by something which overcomes those objections. When the replicators are finally built that will be the nanotech explosion. Just as fax machines appeared in a 5-week period internationally linking businesses, the nanotech explosion will leave us gasping in its rapid spread. (2) Once you know the "recipe" (Thank you, John Clark. I still prefer "blueprint") for building the human body from the smallest molecule to the finished structure, it is easy to see how small roving nano repair devices could spot a deviant protein molecule and replace it with one which is correct. Objections that this is complex with billions of possible combinations ignore the concept that (a) the blueprint CONSISTS of those combinations and (b) that's what the nanotech computer breakthrough of July 20,1999 is all about - the creation of a new computer billions of times faster than our best silicon computers today ...and on a nano scale. (3) The flurry of emails I received proclaiming studied ignorance on the reality of the July 20, 1999 nanotech breakthrough included a complete evasion regarding the previously posted (Cryonet) November 1, 1999 Yale news release (again below) in which the Yale researchers DEMONSTRATED a single molecule computer memory. I will not bother to mention the "smart dust" (gargantuan!) 2mm diameter sensors which can float in the air) Defense Department / U of Cal Berkeley news report last month, nor the announcement of an enzyme which makes the creation of hydrogen cheap, thereby overturning the current centralized petroleum industry (killing even the need for solar, fusion or alternative power sources). These are simply publicly published news reports on research breakthroughs and implementations. Ladies and gentlemen, you may declaim all you wish, but the work is now being engineered by the wealthiest organizations in the world (the ones you pay taxes to). Those who protest the problems cannot be solved, need to read the newspaper! Folks, it is happening as you read this! George Smith www.cryonics.org YALE News Release CONTACT: Karen Peart (203) 432-1326 For Immediate Release: November 1, 1999 Yale Research Team First to Describe Molecular-Sized Memory --Discovery has Implications for Drastically Reducing Cost of Computer Memory New Haven, Conn. -- Computer storage capacity can be vastly increased using a molecular memory based on a single molecule, a research team from Yale and Rice Universities has discovered. The discovery attacks one of the major problems facing the microelectronics industry -- cost. Detailed results of the study will be presented at the International Electron Devices Meeting in Washington, D.C. on Dec. 6, 1999. The tremendous improvements and reduced cost seen over the last three decades in electronics -- computers, telecommunications, multimedia -- will eventually stop because circuits cannot be made smaller economically, says Mark Reed, Harold Hodgkinson Professor of Engineering and Applied Science and chair of electrical engineering at Yale. "We've demonstrated a memory element the size of a single molecule," said Reed, principal investigator on the paper. "This is the ultimate in size that one can achieve in microminaturization. The fabrication of the molecular memory was done using a method called 'self-assembly,' which has the potential to dramatically reduce cost." The single molecule memory effect is more robust in storing information than conventional silicon memory, which is typically 'dynamic random access memories' (DRAM). The single molecule memory has a life approximately one million times longer than DRAM, which is not capable of holding stored charges for long. "With the single molecule memory, all a general-purpose ultimate molecular computer now needs is a reversible single molecule switch," said Reed. "I anticipate we will see a demonstration of one very soon." Papers presented at the International Electron Devices Meeting represent the world's leading applied research in electronics. As such, the papers give important clues about where electronics technology will be three-to-five years from now. The meeting runs from December 5-8, 1999. The research team consisted of Reed and graduate student Jia Chen in Yale's electrical engineering department; and Professor James Tour and graduate student Adam Rawlett of the Department of Chemistry and Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology at Rice University. Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=12774