Nearing Golden Age?

July 10, 2006

Beyond the Small: Nano, Bio and Quantum Technologies

Cheshire Henbury

EmbeddedSystems

The field of Nano, Bio and Quantum is concerned with the future, with technologies that do not yet exist. The field at present is therefore one of science, but interestingly, it is technology that is enabling this science of the very small. The technological tools now exist that provide a means of working at the level beyond micro. These tools are allowing scientists to interact with and to manipulate matter at a level that has not been previously possible.

At the technological level however, there is an increasing realisation that there is not much to be gained in a practical sense by manipulating single atoms or molecules. Therefore novel concepts are needed such as self fabrication and self assembly, which raise problems both at the physics level but also at the level of architecture, computer science and systems engineering.

The new concepts in the field of nanotechnology will come from nature. The nano scale operates at the transition point between condensed matter and molecular behaviour and quantum effects. Ideas will therefore come from the fields of biology, chemistry and quantum physics.

The Contribution of Quantum Physics

One of the new concepts that may have a role to play in the post microelectronics world is quantum computation, which is about using the states of atoms as a basis for computation. Unlike classical logical devices, which only exist in two states (0 or 1), atoms can have three states (0 or 1 or 01 where the latter is a superposition of the first two states).

There are several different reasons for the interest in quantum computation. Technologists are interested because they want to address the problems that arise when the physical limits of silicon are reached. Physicists on the other hand, want to understand more about quantum mechanics. Computer scientists however are interested in changes to complexity classes, where problems that are today seen as difficult may become easy to solve. Logicians are also interested in this area because it opens up the possibility of proving logical propositions through a physical process.

Another element of quantum computation is quantum communications, which involves transmitting quantum states in a reliable way. One way to do this is to use photons, and to write the quantum state of an atom onto photons and then to transmit these. At the receiver these photons are then used to write the state back onto atoms. The technologies for building this kind of quantum communication system, including error correction, will probably be available in a few years time.

The Contribution of Biology

Moving on from the area of quantum physics, another discipline that may have a role to play in shaping future generations of computer technologies, is biology. Can chemical processes at the bio cell and molecular level be used for information processing? Can knowledge of biological molecules help with the development of new information technologies? These are very much, open questions.

Life has a big advantage in terms of technology. There is 3.5 billion years of evolutionary development. DNA (DeoxyriboNucleic Acid, carrying genetic information in chromosomes) provides an example of long term information storage. It is very compact and replicable, however it is not very fast. So its use as a model for information processing seems to be limited. Short-term information storage is handled in biological systems by energy consuming processes. Brain activity is, for example, linked to increased energy consumption, but again the time scales are very slow when compared with microelectronics.

However, in photosynthesis, photon inputs result in virtually instantaneous (pico second range) charge separation which then drives the energy making process in the system. This is an example where biological systems are very fast. Many biological systems are very efficient electron or ion carriers.

Life provides examples of sophisticated biological information mechanisms that might provide models for technological concepts. But which components of biological systems provide useful models? Looking to nature for models is a different approach from trying to incorporate biological materials into computers. This latter objective may in fact not work because biological systems tend to be too slow for most information processing applications. For this reason the emphasis should be more on using biology to discover how to improve information processing.

The Contribution of Chemistry

Another disciplinary area that potentially provides useful concepts for computation is chemistry. Here the focus is on molecular electronic components based on single molecules. A few years ago this idea of molecular electronic was seen as fantasy, but the field is now established and a significant amount of industrial funding is being directed at the area.

In the field of biology the most fruitful path to follow is using nature as a model to find better ways of doing information processing. Biology can provide models that lead to new concepts which would be implemented with non-biological materials.

Of great interest are the self-organising capabilities of biological system. If such processes can be better understood, then this might be an area where biology can make a significant input to computer technology.

One of the benefits of biology will be to show how to control complex systems and how to handle complexity, not how to do computing. Biology will provide the insights into how to do things differently.

Biology shows us that nature uses many different systems for storage and processing of information. Generally life does not care about the system as long as it works. This is an important point and its implications need to be understood.

TelomolecularScience Brief (based on Nano Technology)

In the last few years studies repeated by scientists at important learning institutions such as MIT, Harvard, UT Southwestern, and in other laboratories, have demonstrated that cellular aging is largely a programmed process, and that the diseases of aging -- the deterioration of tissues, gray hair and wrinkles, organ dysfunction, metabolic changes, and specific age-related disease -- are caused by cellular aging.

Telomeres are large nucleoprotein complexes that cap the ends of eukaryotic chromosomes, ensuring genome stability and cell viability. Telomere dysfunction, due to loss of either telomeric DNA (TTAGGG repeats in vertebrates) or telomere-binding proteins, has been demonstrated to trigger end-to-end chromosomal fusions and age-related pathologies in mice. Further, each time cells divide their telomeres become shorter. As they shorten the cells begin to function and replicate more slowly in order to protect the genetic information of inner DNA that would otherwise become exposed and fail to replicate properly when the telomeres are gone (Lundblad and Szostak 1989; Bodnar et al. 1998). This shortening leads to cellular senescence and cell death.

Dr. Harley and colleagues at Geron, Woodring Wright, Jerry Shay, and colleagues at Southwestern Medical Center discovered in 1998, as reported in Science magazine, that human cells could be immortalized in a petri dish by repairing their degraded telomeres through the introduction of a gene that causes the expression of the catalytic human protein telomerase.

the impact of delivering telomerase to cells throughout a human will result in:

(1) A longer lifespan

(2) Youthful appearance

(3) Improved immune function

(4) Reduction of age-related disease

(5) Improved organ function

(6) Improved metabolism and higher energy levels

Though it is possible to “immortalize” cells we do not mean to suggest that humans can become immortal, only that they can become younger and live longer healthier lives through telomere therapy.

To Know more about Nano Technology please visit: www.nano.org.uk

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