Page 38 - Science at the nanoscale

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Classical Physics at the Nanoscale
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Figure 2.4.
Artist’s impression of a nanobot killing a virus.
subsequently written as a novel of the same title by Isaac Asimov,
based on the screenplay. Fantastic Voyage II: Destination Brain was
written by Isaac Asimov as an attempt to develop and present his
own story apart from the 1966 screenplay. Fantastic Voyage: Micro-
cosm is a third interpretation, written by Kevin J. Anderson, and
published in 2001. This version updates the story with modern
ideas of nanotechnology, but uses the same theme of miniaturis-
ing a crew of scientists, doctors and technicians to investigate a
body.
We have seen from the earlier sections that the motion of a
nanobot in a fluid would be complex and difficult to control. The
viscosity of the fluid is greatly enhanced at the nanoscale making ch02
design of the propulsion system a major engineering challenge.
Brownian motion would cause a constant random shaking that
would also make engineering design difficult. Furthermore, sur-
face forces at the nanoscale become significant, resulting in the
nanobot sticking to any surface it comes into contact with.
Nevertheless, we can use these effects to our advantage by get-
ting inspiration from Nature. After all, living organisms such
as viruses and bacteria are able to find their way into human
cells. If we can design molecules with sticky and non-sticky
areas, then the agitation caused by Brownian motion will even-
tual lead to molecules sticking together in very well-defined ways