Well, here's the transcript of the NBC News segment on nanotechnology i've been promising! Finally got permission! Thanks to NBC for their speedy response.
Again, for those who are just joining us...Over a week ago, (December 31), NBC News had a segment that gave an exposition on NT! The following is a transcript....I've received many letters asking for this....so *enjoy*! Please let me know what you think!
Marc Fielding
BTW, The Caltech Nanotech Study Group will be meeting next
Week...and will include the full video as it explores the topic of lobbying of NT...For the rest, I *am* working on posting the video to the group as soon as permissions come in. **********Start of Transcript*************************** Hi-Tech Future
Burbank Cut Story #3291
TOTAL RUNNING TIME: 2:35
Producers: Alan Kaul/BUR
Shane Keats/NYC A. Yamamoto/TOKYO
[Segment opens with a rice-sized microcar from Tokyo
driving around.]
Announcer: Take a look....a good look at that moving speck...
that thing that looks like an ant. It's an actual working machine, made in Japan. A tiny car, with a motor....and with wheels that turn. A microcar. Which compares in size with a single grain of rice..Make no mistakes, micro-miniature-sized machines aren't toys--they're the future!
[Scene at a conference; Carl Yankowski of Sony--USA interviewed]
Carl Y.: Miniaturization forces major revolutions in terms of
technological innovation. In the process of trying to miniaturize you learn many new things in terms of the technologies and technological advancements.
[Announcer on Camera]
Announcer: Don't just think small or smaller, think smallest!
Tinier than the novelty of the microcar, into the realm of the so-called "nano-machines"...Devices no more than a few molecules in size, constructed of the basic building blocks of nature: ATOMS!!
[Merkle in front of workstation flashing with images of planetary
gears, etc...."Xerox Parc" in tagline.] Merkle: That hydrogen atom, [points at diagram on screen] that one there I want to pluck it off. You bring up the tool --Pop! Announcer: Look at the nanotechnology modelled on Dr. Ralph Merkle's computer at Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center. What he has in mind is molecular-sized tools for use in medicine. Merkle: With nanotechnology we'll be able to build surgical tools that are molecular, both in their size and in their precision. For the first time we'll be able to intervene at the scale where the damage actually occurs and to reverse that injury.
[Drexler and Announcer walk into the Foresight Institute]
Announcer: Dr. Eric Drexler, the first PhD in nanoscience, is the
founder of the smallest-is-better movement.
[Drexler on camera]
Drexler: This technology's going to be cheap and it's about making
the best possible products. Products of which every molecular fragment is in the best arrangement.
[Announcer outside Xerox]
Announcer: Doctors Drexler and Merkle are scientific dreamers...Both
admit their goals may be a few decades away. But others in the field are already pointing the way.
[IBM lab using STM's to manipulate atoms.]
Announcer: Scientists at IBM's Almaden research center in California
--using a scanning-tunneling microscope--are manipulating individual atoms...A necessary first step since nano-machines will have to be built with nano-tools, comparible in size.
[Scientist moves atom on computer screen]
Announcer: Now you got to get excited about that!
Other IBM researchers are looking at more immediate goals.
[Scientist shows floptical-type disk]
They've already designed smaller CD-rom disks. Unlike current CD's, the new ones will be recordable, not just readable.
[IBM researcher Dr. William Lenth onscreen]
Lenth: It will allow us to get large amounts of information on one piece of storage medium--like an entire collection of books.
[Announcer outside Almaden Research Center]
Announcer: Miniaturization means bulky consumer devices will soon
be obsolete. Replacing them will be better, more efficient machines--becoming ever smaller.
[Dissolve to microcar with wheels spinning]
Announcer: Larry Carroll, NBC News, near San Jose, California.