Nanobot

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The following important information is missing from this article or section:
The current state of science has not been updated since 2012, especially with regard to feasibility, prototypes and study results. Match-sized robots are by definition too big to be called nanobots. Nanobots used in medicine usually work with biological mechanisms, for example based on viruses, bacteria or their components.
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Under nanobots or nanorobots (also nanites ) means - hypothetical - autonomous machines ( robots ) or molecular machines in miniature as one of the development directions of nanotechnology .

Nanobots, which are capable of manipulating individual atoms and molecules , are also called assemblers . An important idea related to these is the ability to self-replicate .

General

Prototypes that are possible today would be the size of a match head , in the future they should shrink to the size of blood cells or below and be capable of locomotion. Such machines are predicted to have a great future in medicine , as they could be on their own, for example in the human organism, looking for sources of disease (such as cancer cells ) to eliminate them.

Long, thin, fiber-shaped nanobots that run between the body cells or in the blood vessels would also be suitable for medical applications . This could make it possible to supply a patient with drugs or substrates in a targeted manner from the outside and to obtain information about the status quo of cells or tissues. This application of the nanobots would be a direct further development of minimally invasive surgery . The positioning and control of freely swimming nanobots would then no longer be necessary.

Possible applications

Possible areas of application and possibilities include:

  • Medicine: eradicating cancer, rebuilding bones, muscles and organs, operations
  • Production: Manufacture of products, only the right atoms have to be available → garbage as raw material
  • Computer networks and monitoring through "intelligent dust"
  • Military applications: Nanites could not only be used for surveillance and espionage, the manufacture of required products would also be possible. But the use as a weapon cannot be ruled out.
  • Dynamic Physical Rendering : Catoms, in principle a form-variable matter.
  • Space research: for example, as Von Neumann probes , the nanobots could be launched with modified particle accelerators or Gaussian cannons in a vacuum from earth orbit and / or use the pressure of light as a drive

research

There are detailed analyzes of the dangerousness of such scenarios. In June 2004 the Institute of Physics published an article by Eric Drexler in which he pointed out that swarms of autonomous, self-replicating nanobots are neither necessary nor desirable for the realization of molecular manufacturing . Instead, he explains the reasons for using auto-productive manufacturing systems. A detailed design for such an alternative system comes from Chris Phoenix . Dispensing with autonomous, self-replicating nanobots, however, requires that all people involved in the development of nanobots are responsible and benevolent. A paper published in the journal Nature Biotechnology describes the use of a “DNA nanorobot” on tumors in mice. In fact, it is a form of drug targeting .

fiction

Nanobots are also the subject of fiction:

  • In 1955, Philip K. Dick described in his short story Autofac (German: “Autofab” or “War of the Automata”) the development, undesirable by humans, from robots competing for raw materials to nanorobots.
  • Stanisław Lem's 1964 novel The Invincible is about a planet populated by swarms of such beings. The novel Fiasko in 1986 takes up the idea again from a different point of view.
  • The by Eric Drexler in his book Engines of Creation embossed slogan of Gray goo (about "gray slime") has won a certain popularity: meant Thus myriad of running amok and self-propagating, aggressive nanobots that in no time at all things on the earth's surface consume.
  • In the novel Trinity Blood by Sunao Yoshida , four people who were sent to Mars to monitor colonization are implanted with nanobots that give them unearthly powers when they activate the nanobots.
  • The Borg, a fictional race of cyborgs from the science fiction series Star Trek , use nanobots (there “nanoprobes”) to assimilate living organisms. These rebuild the organism in such a way that it transforms into a Borg, whereby the implants produced by the nanobots almost completely control the body and consciousness of the victims through a constant connection to the Borg collective.
  • In the Star Trek series Spaceship Enterprise - The Next Century , improved nanites that have learned to reproduce are released in the first episode of the third season (The Power of Nanites) during a failed experiment. In the course of the episode, the nanites take control of the spaceship and even learn to communicate with the people on board.
  • In the Stargate universe ( Stargate: SG1 , Stargate Atlantis , Stargate: The Ark of Truth ) there is a whole people made up of nanites, the replicators or Asurans. In addition, they were once used there as a nanovirus, which causes hallucinations and brain aneurysms with death, as an aging accelerator and as a medical healing method.
  • In the remake of The Day on which the Earth stood still , GoRT consists only of nanites, which decompose any material in seconds and can thus reproduce.
  • In the 2009 film GI Joe - Cobra Secret Mission, nanobots represent a dangerous weapon of mass destruction that is misused by a corrupt arms dealer.
  • In the pen - & - paper role-playing game Shadowrun nanobots are used in medicine, production, espionage, as weapons, as well as in the body to optimize (also nanites or "nano-goods") to the body functions or other things always new adjustable tattoo to present.
  • In the first person shooter Crysis , nanites, which are stored in the so-called “nanosuits”, are used to strengthen human abilities. So it is the hero of the game z. B. possible to jump much higher or to be insensitive to bullets
  • Michael Crichton's novel Prey deals with runaway nanorobots
  • The novel Lord of All Things by Andreas Eschbach is about a scientist from Japan who wants to make all people rich through self-replicating robots. This should be made possible by having these robots take over all the work
  • The novel Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson details a nanotechnologisierte future
  • Nanotechnology is used in the 2014 film Transcendence . The scientist Will dies in an attack. His mind and memories are uploaded to a data center and he begins to evolve as artificial intelligence. The technology is developing so far that nanorobots can enter drinking water through clouds and spread across the earth. So Will is present everywhere and can exert influence everywhere. Through biotechnology, Will also influences people through nanorobots and can control them through networking.
  • The plot of the television series Revolution is based on globally distributed nanobots which, depending on their programming, can prevent the use of electrical devices in any area of ​​the earth or even all over the world.
  • Films Agent Cody Banks 1–2
  • In the 10th episode of the 6th season of the X-Files TV series - The scary cases of the FBI from 1999 with the title SR 819 , people are infected with nanotechnology and thus made controllable. In Kevin J. Anderson's X-Files novel Antibodies , published two years earlier, nanotechnology takes on a deadly life of its own.
  • In 2018 published book thalamus of Ursula Poznanski nanobots out of control, which have been used for healing purposes in the brains of patients.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Contribution by Eric Drexler
  2. ↑ Design of a Primitive Nano Factory. Retrieved May 6, 2010 .
  3. ^ S. Li, Q. Jiang et al. a .: A DNA nanorobot functions as a cancer therapeutic in response to a molecular trigger in vivo. In: Nature Biotechnology . Volume 36, Number 3, March 2018, pp. 258-264, doi : 10.1038 / nbt.4071 , PMID 29431737 .
  4. ↑ gray goo in the English language Wikipedia
  5. ↑ Video about the effects of gray slime ( memento of March 9, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
  6. ↑ Post on Shadow Helix to Nano goods in Shadowrun