Nanosystems: Molecular Machinery, Manufacturing, and Computation
K. Eric Drexler
(Author)
Description
Written by a leading researcher in the field and one of its founders, Nanosystems is the first technical introduction to molecular nanotechnology - an emerging field that has sparked increasing interest and controversy. This groundbreaking book describes fundamental physical principles, components and devices, then examines applications including computers of unprecedented power and manufacturing systems able to build such products molecule by molecule. Nanosystems presents a comprehensive overview of how molecular manufacturing will make products by using nanoscale (billionths of a meter) mechanical and robotic technologies to guide the placement of molecules and atoms. Working with these fundamental building blocks of matter will enable designers to approach the limits of the possible: to build the smallest devices, the fastest computers, the strongest materials, and the highest quality products. By manipulating common molecules at high frequency, molecular manufacturing will make these products quickly, inexpensively, and on a large scale. Molecular manufacturing is the key to implementing molecular nanotechnologies, building systems to complex atomic specifications. This landmark work first presents the basic principles of physics and chemistry required to understand molecular machines. Then, Dr. Drexler describes computational models of molecules as mechanical systems, the effects of statistical mechanics, quantum uncertainty, damage mechanisms, and energy dissipation, and the fundamentals of mechanosynthesis - the use of mechanical devices to guide molecular reactions. Nanosystems then applies the analytical tools and concepts developed in the first section to the design ofnanomechanical components, devices, and systems. It describes nanomechanical gears, bearings, motors, sensors, logic gates, submicron 1000 MIPS computers (consuming 10[superscript -8] times as much power as comparable computers today), and systems able to join simple molecules to build
Product Details
Price
$89.00
$82.77
Publisher
Wiley
Publish Date
November 11, 1992
Pages
576
Dimensions
6.96 X 10.09 X 1.22 inches | 2.18 pounds
Language
English
Type
Paperback
EAN/UPC
9780471575184
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Become an affiliateAbout the Author
K. ERIC DREXLER published the first scientific paper on molecular nanotechnology in 1981. In addition, he taught the first course on the subject (at Stanford University) and chaired the first two conferences. He is currently President of the Foresight Institute and a Research Fellow of the Institute for Molecular Manufacturing. He wrote Nanosystems while a Visiting Scholar at the Stanford University Department of Computer Science and continues to lecture at universities and corporations in the U.S., Europe, and Japan. He received his doctoral degree in molecular nanotechnology from MIT.