THE NANYTES ARE COMING (7-2004)

There have been lots of books and movies about robots. “AI” 
was a movie about a little boy robot that was given 
artificial intelligence. After his “family” abandoned him 
because they feared he may harm their real child, he spent 
eons of time searching for his “mother.”

The latest Will Smith movie, “I, Robot” is about a fleet of 
robots that go amok. But one thing nearly all these robot 
stories have in common is that the robots are people-sized.

Imagine a robot-like device that is so tiny that a thousand 
of them could be injected into your bloodstream using a 
hypodermic needle. Imagine robots that do all their work 
while residing inside a single human cell.

These robots do not exist yet. But the hope is that one day 
they, and other similar minuscule devices, will be common.

The branch of science that deals with manipulation of 
extremely tiny devices is called nanotechnology. Nano- is a 
Greek prefix, meaning dwarf. A nanometer is a measurement 
equal to one-billionth of a meter.  

Nanotechnology deals with sizes of less than 100 
nanometers. That means you could fit a million such objects 
across the head of a pin. In other words, nanotechnology 
deals with objects no larger than single molecules.

Although the technology itself is years old, to date there 
have been no life-changing products coming out of this 
field. The research has yielded advances in stain-resistant 
fabrics, glare-resistant windshields, and higher-bouncing 
tennis balls. But so far, there have been no nano-robots 
built that can go inside your cells and cure diseases.

But its promoters insist that within 10 years or so, 
nanotechnology will yield computers the size of sugar 
cubes. And, they say, molecules manipulated through 
nanotechnology will be developed that can go in and tag 
cancer cells for treatment. There will also be many other 
uses for the technology, they predict.

In the 1980s, the science fiction TV series, “Star Trek: 
The Next Generation” premiered. Several episodes of the 
series involved tiny robot-like creatures called “nanytes.” 
Their purpose was to cure diseases on a cellular level, 
build computer chips one molecule at a time, and reprogram 
individual computer chips. One episode, however, even had 
them evolving into sentient beings.

It may be decades before anything as complex as a “Star 
Trek” style “nanyte” is produced, but the time may be very 
close for more mundane uses of the technology.

In fact, nanotechnology is Wall Street’s newest investment 
craze. Bankers and venture capitalists are pushing for 
initial public offerings of nanotech startups. Everyone, 
from day traders to fund managers, seems eager to get in 
early on what they hope will be the next big thing.

Others caution, however, that even the few companies that 
are already publicly traded do not really have any products 
yet. One nanotech company that plans an initial public 
offering this year doesn’t plan on producing a profit or a 
product for years.

And, of course, there is also the “dot-com” debacle fresh 
in the minds of some traders. They don’t want the same 
thing to happen with this new technology.

But it is a very curious and exciting new field. And if the 
predictions do come true, somebody is going to make a ton 
of money.