HVAC Control in the New Millennium.pdf - HVAC.Amickracing

Control Technology, Microelectronics and NanotechnologyIn a computer, data are organized into combinations of bits, so theycan be easily reproduced and distributed. With matter, the buildingblocks are atoms and the combinations of atoms that make up molecules.Nanotechnology allows you to manipulate those atoms and molecules,making it possible to manufacture, replicate, and distribute anysubstance as easily and cheaply as you can replicate data on a computer.Any kind of material, from metal and wood to food and DNA could bereplicated. This would be done with an assembler, a few-atoms-largenanomachine that could custom build matter.The key to manufacturing with assemblers is self replication. Ifthese assemblers could replicate themselves, there could be thousandsor even millions of assemblers manufacturing in unison and manufacturingprocesses would be transformed.Cornell, Stanford and Zyvex (the first molecular nanotechnologydevelopment company) have been working on such assemblers. Estimatesof completion vary from 5 to 15 years. The first products could besuperstrong nanoscale building materials, such as the Buckytubes envisionedat Rice University. Buckytubes are made from geodesic domeshapedcarbon molecules called Buckyballs, after Buckminster Fuller, theinventor of the geodesic dome. These tubes are basically nanometersizedgraphite fibers, with a strength of 100 to 150 times that of steel atless than 1/4th the weight.Molecular MachinesMolecular machines will use molecular bonds that will be brokenand reformed. Copper holds its shape because its atoms stick together inregular patterns. It can be bent and hammered because its atoms can slipover one another while remaining bound together. Glass shatters whenit is hammered because its atoms separate before they slip. More complexpatterns make up the active nanomachines of living cells.Biochemists already work with these machines, which are chieflymade of protein, the main engineering material of living cells. Proteinmachines are unusually flexible.In modern gene synthesis machines, genetic engineers build orderlypolymers (DNA molecules) by combining molecules in a particularorder. These molecules are nucleotides or compounds of DNA. The©2001 by The Fairmont Press, Inc. All rights reserved.