The most deadly types of cancers are cured. Patients drink a liquid concoction of tiny biological machines that travel through the bloodstream, seeking out and destroying tumors / Paraplegics walk. Using laser tweezers, doctors embed invisible mechanisms into patients’ nervous systems to electrically stimulate muscle movement / Your handheld computer has a chip inside the size of a sugar cube. It holds more data than the Harvard library / Motorists drive to work in vehicles made of a “shape-memory” material that is 100 times stronger, and 10 times lighter, than steel. Gas mileage is extraordinary, and dents repair themselves / Got a hankering for a juicy steak? No need for a cow. The chef at your favorite restaurant will build a sizzling T-bone atom by atom, medium rare and extra flavorful.

by Tom Parisi

IF ALL THIS SOUNDS LIKE THE STUFF of science fiction, think again. This is the vision of the emerging field known as nanoscience. Many believe it will spur the next technological revolution. And Northern Illinois University–with the opening of a new nanoscience laboratory last fall and a new collaboration with world-renowned Argonne National Laboratory–is positioning itself on the frontier of “small-tech” research.

A small, small world

Nanotechnology, the application of nanoscience, aims to develop materials, electronics and machines at the smallest of scales, with dimensions less than 100 nanometers. How small is that? Consider that a million nanometers stretch the length of a millimeter; or that 10,000 nanometers would be about equal to the thickness of a single human hair. Scientists can’t begin to peer into the nano-world with traditional microscopes–they’re simply not powerful enough. Nature works splendidly in this tiny dimension–a strand of DNA is about two nanometers in diameter, for example. Nanotechnology would mimic nature by building matter at the molecular level. If accomplished and mastered, the technology could lead to creation of tiny invisible mechanisms that could be used in just about any industry. If nanoscale assemblers could be built and programmed to manipulate atoms as desired, billions or trillions of these assemblers could build from the ground up products that we use today–and others we could only imagine. To help us picture how nanotechnology would work, NIU physicist Dennis Brown says we might think about a simple chemical experiment, such as the making of rock candy. Take a wet string and roll it in sugar. Suspend the string in sugar-saturated water. Crystals will grow to a size visible to the naked eye within hours.

Above: Physics professor Yasuo Ito and student Brandon Armstrong at work using the transmission electron microscope, or TEM, in the NIU Laboratory for NanoScience, Engineering and Technology. Northern scientists and students in physics and engineering are using the lab to explore the subatomic world and develop nextgeneration materials and applications.

“Chemistry is nanotechnology controlled by nature,” Brown says. “However, if we can control these processes ourselves, it’s a whole new world. This could lead to a new branch of science.”

The Carbon Prairie

Governments worldwide have so recognized the importance of this budding field that they’re pumping billions of dollars into research and development. During his State of the State address earlier this year, Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich highlighted tiny tech as a prime target for expansion. “Guess where the center of the nanotechnology universe is today,” he said. “Right here in Illinois.”

Illinois is counted among the nation’s big players. But Small Times, a magazine devoted to nanotechnology, points to California as the leader in the race to become the economic center of small tech. Illinois is ranked eighth nationally and poised to cash in on its “impressive intellectual capital.” The states that win the race could all see a significant economic boom, according to the magazine, which notes that the National Science Foundation projects a $1 trillion annual market for nanotechnology by 2015.

“The basic idea of nanotechnology is to attempt to continue the silicon revolution,” explains NIU physicist Clyde Kimball.“This will require creation of scientific techniques and materials that will enable further miniaturization of electronic and magnetic devices.Techniques used to create silicon devices have about reached their limits in terms of miniaturization. New tools and materials will be needed.” Kimball, named recently by a hightech business magazine as one of the state’s most influential people in technology, envisions the Silicon Valley being replaced in prominence, perhaps by the Carbon Prairie. “A large portion of the scientific community is betting on carbon to replace silicon as the material of choice in the nano-world,” Kimball says, noting that Illinois is a top producer of carbon. In addition to an optimal material, development of nanotechnology will require a keen understanding of such things

Views into the subatomic world as seen through the lens of the TEM.

as how magnetism works at the atomic level. Scientists know that magnetism can exist on one electron. So, in theory at least, an electron could store data. This could have huge implications for the computer industry.

“There is some probability that a future generation of what we now call electronic devices will work on the basis of magnetic behavior,” Kimball says. “This is called spintronics and could lead to a very large increase in the amount of data that can be put on disc or in computer memory. It also would influence computer speed, because the closer two objects are to each other, the shorter the time they need to communicate.”

Nano-NIU

NIU took a quantum leap forward last fall in its program for nanotechnology with the opening of the Laboratory for NanoScience, Engineering and Technology, made possible with a $2 million federal grant. Led by Kimball, who serves as the lab director, about two-dozen Northern scientists and students in physics and engineering are using the lab to explore the subatomic world and develop next-generation materials and applications.

NIU further enlarged its nano-presence earlier this year with a formal agreement to collaborate with Argonne National Laboratory, one of the nation’s premier federal laboratories and a worldwide leader in nanoscience. While NIU scientists and students have long done research at Argonne, the formal partnership boosts the university’s role. The collaboration is resulting in the sharing of resources, the joint hiring of several new scientists and the creation of highly specialized programs for the development of nanometer-scale templates and materials.

The close working relationship represents a golden opportunity for NIU physics students, who will conduct research with faculty and Argonne scientists. Eventually, students and faculty from electrical engineering, chemistry and biology will likely be involved in the research collaboration as well.

“I do find the field interesting and exciting,” says Brandon Armstrong, a senior physics major who conducts nanoscience research at both NIU and Argonne. Armstrong was interested in a career in astronomy. But he is reconsidering his original plan, having discovered that the nano-world is equally vast, mysterious and thrilling. “With nanoscience,” Armstrong says, “we haven’t started to scratch the surface.”

Adds Kimball, “People are saying we’re in the same state that biotechnology was in 30 years ago when we first started talking about clones. I don’t know whether we’ll ever be able to build a steak, but we’ll better understand the limitations of nanotechnology within a decade. It may be beyond what we can imagine.”

Nano-engineered products

In some consumer areas, nanotechnology has already arrived.While more reliant on traditional high tech, the miniaturization of modern computers is entering thenano-realm. A Chicago area company is using zinc oxide
nano-particles in cosmetics to provide sunscreen protection. And clothing designers are manufacturing pants and shirts that have undergone a special chemical treatment to give them “nano-whiskers”–millions of tiny fibers that repel stains.

Kimball says NIU will spin off a nano-tech company later this year that will aim to produce nano-electronic circuitry and nano-sensors able to detect the presence of environmental toxins. Engineering professor Michael Haji-Sheikh, who spent 10 years with Honeywell International before joining NIU last year, will play a large role.

“Right now, it’s difficult to turn nanotechnology into products because we haven’t developed the right tools to work at the nano-level,” he says. “If I buy a piece of highly polished glass and I want to make a nano-structure on it, tiny invisible scratches on the glass would seem like canyons in the nanoworld.You could see where that would be a problem.”

Haji-Sheikh’s expertise lies in microelectromechanical systems, or MEMS, which he believes will be key to developing new tools. These devices contain microscopic mechanical elements that turn mechanical impulses into electrical impulses, and vice versa. The airbag system in your car relies on MEMS.

“MEMS are too large to be considered nanotechnology,” Haji-Sheikh says. “But they will bridge the gap from the macro-level to the nano-level. Think of it this way. If we want to manipulate a structure that is a few nanometers long, a pair of tweezers won’t do. It would destroy the structure. The tools that we need will be built with MEMS.”

The quirky quantum world

Professor Yasuo Ito observes the subatomic landscape through the lens of the TEM, where invisible scratches on the surface of highly polished glass slides become vast canyons on the nano-scale.

Mankind’s technological advancement can be measured by its ability to manipulate matter. After all, what is technology but the movement of atoms into a predetermined shape or product, whether cavemen creating stone tools or Intel technicians mass-producing computer chips. Manipulation of matter at the nanoscale requires an entirely different knowledge base, however. Once scientists start working with materials at the atomic level, the classical physics that govern the rules of nature fly out the window. “The smaller it gets, the more complicated it gets,” says Michel van Veenendaal, a theoretical physicist and deputy director of the NIU Laboratory for NanoScience, Engineering and Technology. “We’re familiar with microscopic things and we understand them quite well. But there’s a level of uncertainty when we probe into the atomic world.We’re going into a whole new world of physics where we have to figure out the rules. So discovery will require breakthroughs in theory.” The theoretical branch of physics that studies how things work at the atomic scale is known as quantum mechanics.

In the quirky quantum world, things happen that would seem to defy logic. A particle, for example, can be in two places at one time. “You have to deal with probability distributions,” van Veenendaal says. “The particle might be here, but it also might be there. A single electron also can go through two holes at one time. A lot of freaky effects come into play.” So, how far off is a world powered by nanotechnology? Quantum computers and some of the more science fiction-like applications of nano-tech could be many decades off, van Veenendaal says. Still, small tech will ease its way into our lives in countless ways over the next decade. “One day, we will look around and realize that our lives are full of nanotechnology,” van Veenendaal says. “We’ll wonder how we ever lived without it.” home