Breakthroughs

Here are some breakthroughs that we need to
make our invention become a reality.

Carlo Montemagno of UCLA's nano systems is developing
small sensors that locomote themselves to where you want
them to go. This is the technology that Nano Snippit-Bots will
rely on to navigate its way through the blood vessels in the
brain and to find the brain tumor.

We need billions of dollars (venture capital) to develop
molecular manufacturing because the benefits for medicine,
the economy, and the environment are potentially great.

To date, researchers have combined
organic molecules and similarly small
pieces of metal to produce tiny motors
capable of moving things dozens of times
larger than the device itself (like an ant!).
The motor's key components are found in
a combination of molecules that
synthesize ATP, a chemical used as an
energy source in all living things. These
motors will need to be refined and built
upon to create our invention.

At UCLA, a team is studying biological electrical functions
such as ion-channel switching and the nanocircuitry of
biological systems, hoping one day to chemically synthesize
a computer. Our invention will require this capability so it
would be able to communicate with the doctor and navigate
its way through the blood vessels in the brain.

How will our Nano Snippit-Bot be manufactured? There
are three possible ways that are presently being explored.
One way is in the form of top-down procedures, such as
moving molecules around with tiny robotic "hands". We
could use a bottom-up process, such as replicating cells.
The other way is to create self assembling mechanical
systems- objects that copy themselves.

Chemical interactions make the motors move. In order to
harness this motion, it involves attaching a rotor to the shaft.
Using techniques involved in  manufacturing computer
chips, Montemagno created nickel rotors about 700
nanometers long and found the rotors and motors came
together on their own. Such an engine is useful, but not if it
is always in motion. Adding zinc to a solution containing the
motors will shut them down, and flushing the zinc out starts
them again. The researchers discovered individual zinc
atoms will attach to certain points between the motors'
cylinders, preventing them from flexing.  These motors
would need to be refined and built upon to create
our invention.

www.nanozine.com/nanogear.htm

Electrocauterization uses an electrical current through a
small probe to cauterize, or seal, blood vessels. The Nano
Snippit-Bot would use electrocauterization through its
gold claws to seal the blood vessels as they are being
snipped.  Gold is a good conductor of electricity, so this is
possible.

This is a NanoGear.

NanoGears

NanoMotor

N.R.

First, we must educate the public about nanotechnology and
our invention.  Then, we need to work with the motors in the
real-world environment.  Once this is done, the NSBs could
navigate through the body.  Finally, we would need to move
the NSBs to clinical applications.