HOUSTON – Scientists and researchers with big ideas are thinking "small" as they gather for NanoSpace 2000 on Monday.
Earlier concepts of nano-technology focused on building machines at the molecular or atomic level. But now the field is branching out to include developing applications for medicine and biomedical research.
This year’s conference, held near Johnson Space Center (JSC), will focus on this new area along with others, said the Center’s Dr. Kenneth Cox, the conference director.
"We’re trying to cut across some lines here," Cox said. "We want the life science group to work with the engineers."
Sessions during the six-day conference, sponsored by NASA, include panels on nano-electronics, energy storage and bio-sensors.
"I think (during the conference) we’re going to find a lot of commonality in different areas and solutions to problems, said Dr. Carlo Montemagno of Cornell University.
Montemagno’s research includes developing bio-molecular motors that could be powered by sunlight or bacteria for various tasks.
"Uses are as wide as the imagination," he said. "They could be used for sensing or placed in living cells as a pharmacy to deliver medicine when required."
Cox said the space agency hopes to stimulate interest in commercial applications of nano-technology, but also wants to develop the technology for use in space exploration.
"We might be able to come up with an application that will let us do things cheaper, and perhaps better," he said. "To get beyond low Earth orbit, this sort of technology is going to have much more importance."
One technology already being discussed is the development of a "space elevator" constructed with carbon nano-tubes.
Conference attendees will also have a chance to tour Nobel Prize winner Dr. Richard Smalley’s lab at Rice University, where carbon nano-tube research is conducted.
Though nano-technology is still the domain of the laboratory, Montemagno said he thinks government funding will pay off eventually. The U.S. Department of Defense, the National Science Foundation and NASA have funded research efforts.
"This is the result of the foresight of a lot of program managers who took the risk to invest in this," he said. "They’re the champions of the future. Without them this conference wouldn’t exist."
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