"PRINCE CHARLES IS READING TOO MANY SILLY BOOKS"

THE Prince of Wales was ridiculed by Nobel prize-winning scientists yesterday for raising fears that miniature robots could turn the world into "grey goo".

Leading experts, including two of Britain's Nobel laureates, accused the Prince of ignorance and scaremongering after he expressed his concerns about nanotechnology.

The emerging science, which involves building tiny machines from atoms and molecules, holds great promise for medicine and electronics, but some environmentalists have suggested it could lead to the creation of uncontrollable, self-replicating "nanobots".

The concept, which is dismissed by scientists, features in Prey, a novel by Michael Crichton, the author of Jurassic Park, in which robots copy themselves, converting the planet into "grey goo".

Sir Harry Kroto, Professor of Chemistry at Sussex University, who won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1996, said: "Someone's had this ridiculous idea about nanoscale robots that can replicate themselves, and it's so far-fetched as to be utterly preposterous."

"It shows a complete disconnection from reality. He should take a degree in chemistry, or at least talk to someone who understands it, rather than reading silly books."

Sir Aaron Klug, of the Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, who won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1992 and is a former President of the Royal Society, said: "He's been reading too much science-fiction. "I'm surprised that the Prince's advisers cannot distinguish between science-fiction fantasy and what's actually going on in the scientific world."

I haven't read the Critchen book.

However, I came across the term "grey goo" in 1999 when doing some on-line research on nanotechnology. This technology arises from the computer industry, specifically photolithographic etching. Without going into all the technical details, this technology allows millions of transistors for computer CPU chips to be created by very precisely laying down successive extremely thin layers of conductive and nonconductive materials on silicon wafers.

Researchers began experimenting with the technology and discovered that extremely small (hence the term "nano"; billionth) mechanical components also could be created using the same photoetching techniques. These components (gears, levers, pumps, turbines, etc), if assembled into machines and controlled by on-board nanocomputers, would permit physical contact and manipulation of substance at incredibly small scales. For example, someday in the future spinal column injuries might be repaired by unleashing an army of specially designed and programmed "nanites" (to use the Star Trek: Next Generation term for them) into the injured person's body with instructions to repair the "damaged wiring" by signal tracing neural path ways from one side of the affected area to the other and making repairs at the cellular level as needed.

The term "grey goo" comes into play when things go wrong. The basic theory is that, after a significant number of successive generations of self-replication and self-improvement, these miniature robotic devices become so small that they will be able to disassemble matter at the molecular/atomic level and reasssemble the constituent atoms into what the researchers called "diamonoid," a diamond-like substance. The nanites will use this material to replicate and that would make the little buggers nearly indestructible. Since the nanites would be programmed to be goal seeking (with production of the next generation being a primary goal), each successive generation would absorb more and more of the Earth's substance until the entire planet was eventually converted into what the researchers referred to as "grey goo."

Now some questions and limitations exist to this largely theoretical(at this point)technology (device lifespan, generational seccession struggle, conflicting goals, etc.). The creepy thing about reading the webposts (try a search using diamonoid or nanotechnology)was the sense you got that some of the researchers might not be able to restrain themselves from fully implementing the technology despite the possibility of "grey goo" as the outcome.

Nanotechnology, once it is developed and if it is properly constrained, has tremendous potential to benefit humanity and the environment. Obviously, this technology is in it's earliest infancy and some decades of research are yet required before it's real potential will be evident. Ultimately, the danger of "grey goo" may not even be possible. I know that some nanotechnology researchers will resent the implied criticism of their sense of responsibility and ethics. However, it would only take a few self-righteous "pioneers determined to push the envelope of the possible despite obstacles strewn in their path by a ossified bureaucracy and in defiance of what the larger society thinks" to endanger everyone and everything on Earth.

Personally, I don't want the last words of unimperiled existance on Earth to be:

"Wow! That's kewl, Bevis. (snicker) What else can you make them do?"

Yes, the technology will open up really new methods of dealing with disease - especially since the nanobots will be able to be far more invasive and thoroughgoing in hunting down whatever it is they were sent in to repair or destroy. The downside is if they are "allowed" to become too autonomous or too smart; in other words, self-directing. The decision to give them that capability will be one humanity may want to ponder for a long while before proceeding.

Moving alittle further into the realm of science fiction, I suspect that more advanced civilizations would regard humanity as presently passing through a period of extremely dangerous challenges in its maturation process; the atomic weapon challenge, the information technology challenge, the nanotechnology challenge, and the genetic engineering challenge. The technologies involved all are inter-related, synergistic and occurring simultaneously. The task is to master them without being destroyed by one or all of them.

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