From Wise Nano

Further reading

Nanosystems by K. Eric Drexler (Wiley Interscience, 1992) remains the foundational book on molecular manufacturing and the design of stiff precise nanoscale machines. A very brief summary of the book is at http://crnano.org/5min.htm. A detailed table of contents, with links to Chapters 1 and 2 and the Glossary, is at http://www.foresight.org/Nanosystems/toc.html

Nanomedicine Volume I: Basic Capabilities by Robert Freitas (Landes Bioscience, 1999) explores the application of high-performance nanosystems to medicine. Much of the book is not specific to medicine, but rather a generally applicable exploration of product design and performance. The entire book is available online at http://nanomedicine.com/NMI.htm

“Design of a Primitive Nanofactory” by Chris Phoenix (Journal of Evolution and Technology, Oct. 2003) is a system analysis of a kilogram-scale integrated molecular manufacturing system. Although the “convergent assembly” design is superceded by the “planar assembly” approach described in the current paper, many concepts and calculations may be adapted for other nanofactory designs. It covers mass, physical layout, throughput, power, computation, cooling, error handling, product design, and a strong nanometer-scale mechanical fastener useful for joining micron-scale or larger parts. It is available at http://www.jetpress.org/volume13/Nanofactory.htm

An animation by John Burch and Eric Drexler shows how an advanced nanofactory might be organized and how it might function. The molecular transfer tools have been verified by computational chemistry. A slide show and links to the animation are available at http://lizardfire.com/nanofactorySS/index.htm

Portions of this paper summarize work done by the author under a Phase 1 grant from the NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts. That work is linked from http://wise-nano.org/w/NIAC_Results

This paper makes many suggestions based on currently available tools and designs. Many of these suggestions will become rapidly obsolete as better tools become available. The latest version of the paper will be available at http://wise-nano.org/w/Doing_MM Note that the website allows interested readers to comment on and even edit the paper.