9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Let's imagine a sculptor[br]building a statue,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
just chipping away with his chisel.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Michelangelo had this elegant way[br]of describing it when he said,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
"Every block of stone[br]has a statue inside of it,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and it's the task[br]of the sculptor to discover it."

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
But what if he worked[br]in the opposite direction?

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Not from a solid block of stone,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
but from a pile of dust,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
somehow gluing millions of these particles[br]together to form a statue.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I know that's an absurd notion --

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
It's probably impossible.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
The only way you get a statue from a pile[br]of dust is if the statue built itself --

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
if somehow we could compel millions[br]of these particles to come together

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
to form the statue.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Now, as odd as that sounds,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
that is almost exactly the problem[br]I work on in my lab.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I don't build with stone,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I build with nanomaterials.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
They're these just impossibly small,[br]fascinating little object.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
They're so small that if this controller[br]was a nanoparticle,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
a human hair would be the size[br]of this entire room.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And they're at the heart of a field[br]we call nanotechnology,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
which I'm sure we've all heard about,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and we've all heard about how[br]it is going to change everything.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
You know, when I was a graduate student,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
it was one of the most exciting[br]times to be working in nanotechnology.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
There were scientific breakthroughs[br]happening all the time.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
The conferences were buzzing,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
there was tons of money[br]pouring in from funding agencies.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And the reason is,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
when objects get really small,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
they're governed by a different set[br]of physics that govern ordinary objects,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
like the ones we interact with.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
We call this physics quantum mechanics.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And what is tells you is that you[br]can precisely tune their behavior

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
just by making seemingly[br]small changes to them,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
like adding or removing[br]a handful of atoms,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
or twisting the material.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
It's like this ultimate toolkit.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
You really felt empowered;

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
you felt like you could make anything.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And we were doing it,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and by we I mean my whole[br]generation of graduate students.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
We were trying to make blazing-fast[br]computers using nanomaterials.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
We were constructing quantum dots

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
that could one day go in your body[br]and find and fight disease.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
There were even groups[br]trying to make and elevator to space

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
using carbon nanotubes.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
You can look that up,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
it's true.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Anyways, we thought it was[br]going to effect all parts

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
of science and technology,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
from computing to medicine.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And I have to admit,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I drank all of the Kool-Aid.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I mean, every last drop.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
But that was 15 years ago,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and --

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
so fantastic science was done,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
really important work.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
We've learned a lot.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
We were never able to translate[br]that science into new technologies --

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
into technologies that could[br]actually impact people.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And the reason is,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
these nanomaterials --

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
they're like a double-edged sword.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
The same thing that makes [br]them so interesting --

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
they're small size --

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
also makes them impossible to work with.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
It's literally like trying to build[br]a statue out of a pile of dust.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And we just don't have the tools[br]that are small enough to work with them.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
But even if we did,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
it wouldn't really matter,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
because we couldn't one-by-one[br]place millions of particles together

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
to build a techonology.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
So because of that,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
all of the promise

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and all of the excitement

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
has remained just that:

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
promise and excitement.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
We don't have any[br]disease-fighting nanobots,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
there's no elevators to space,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and the thing that I'm most interested in,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
no new types of computing.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Now that last one,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
that's a really important one.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
We just have come to expect

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
the pace of computing advancements[br]to go on indefinitely.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
We've built entire economies on this idea.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And this pace exists[br]because of our ability

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
to pack more and more devices[br]onto a computer chip.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And as those devices get smaller,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
they get faster,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
they consume less power

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and they get cheaper.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And it's this convergence that gives us[br]this incredible pace.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
As an example:

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
if I took the room-sized computer[br]that sent three men to the moon and back,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and somehow compressed it --

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
compressed the world's[br]greatest computer of its day --

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
so it's the same size as your smartphone,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
your actualy smartphone,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
that thing you spent 300 bucks on[br]and just toss out every two years,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
would blow this thing away.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Like, you would not be impressed.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
It couldn't do anything[br]that your smartphone does.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
it would be slow,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
you couldn't put any of your stuff on it,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
you could possibly get through[br]the first two minutes

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
of a "Walking Dead" episode[br]if you're lucky --

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
(Laughter)

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
The point is,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
the progress is not gradual.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
The progress is relentless;

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
it's exponential,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
it compounds on itself[br]year after year,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
to the point where[br]if you compare a technology

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
from one generation to the next,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
they're almost unrecognizable.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And we owe it to ourselves[br]to keep this progress going.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
We want to say the same thing[br]10, 20, 30 years from now:

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
look what we've done[br]over the last 30 years.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Yet we know this progress[br]may not last forever.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
In fact, the party's kind of winding down.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
It's like "last call for alcohol," right?

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
If you look under the covers,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
by many metrics like[br]speed and performance,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
the progress has already slowed to a halt.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
So if we want to keep this party going,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
we have to do what we've always[br]been able to do,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and that is to innovate.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
So our group's role

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and our group's mission

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
is to innovate by employing[br]carbon nanotubes,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
because we think that they can[br]provide a path to continue this pace.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
They are just like they sound.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
They're tiny, hollow tubes[br]of carbon atoms,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and their nanoscale-size --

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
that small size --

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
gives rise to these just outstanding[br]electronic properties.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
The science tells us if we could[br]employ them in computing,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
we could see up to ten times[br]improvement in performance.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
It's like skipping through several[br]technology generations in just one step.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
So, there we have it.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
We have this really important problem,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and we have what is basically[br]the ideal solution.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
The science is screaming at us,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
"This is what you should be doing[br]to solve your problem."

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
So, all right, let's get started,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
let's do this.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
But you just run right back[br]into that double-edged sword.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
This "ideal solution" contains a material[br]that's impossible to work with.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I'd have to arrange billions of them[br]just to make one single computer chip.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
It's that same conundrum,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
it's like undying problem.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
At this point,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
we said, "Let's just stop.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Let's not go down that same road.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Let's just figure out what's missing.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
What are we not dealing with?

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
What are not doing that needs to be done?"

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
It's like in "The Godfather," right?

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
When Fredo betrays his brother Michael,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
we all know what needs to be done.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Fredo's got to go.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
(Laughter)

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
But Michael --

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
he puts it off.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Fine, I get it.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Their mother's still alive,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
it would make her upset.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
(Laughter)

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
We just said,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
"What's the Fredo in our problem?"

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
What are we not dealing with?

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
What are we not doing,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
but needs to be done[br]to make this a success?

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And the answer is that the statue[br]has to build itself.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
We have to find a way,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
somehow,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
to compel,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
to convince billions of these particles

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
to assemble themselves[br]into the technology.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
We can't do it for them.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
They have to do it for themselves.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And it's the hard way,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and this is not trivial,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
but in this case,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
it's the only way.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
As it turns out,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
this is not that alien of a problem.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
We just don't build anything this way.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
People don't build anything this way.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
But if you look around --

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and there's examples everywhere --

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
mother nature builds everything this way.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Everything is built from the bottom up.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
You can go to the beach,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
you'll find these simple organisms[br]that use proteins --

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
basically molecules --

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
to template what is essentially sand,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
just plucking it from the sea

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and building these extraordinary[br]architectures with extreme diversity.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And nature's not crude like us,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
just hacking away.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
She's elegant and smart,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
building with what's available,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
molecule by molecule,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
making structures with a complexity

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and a diversity that we[br]can't even approach.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
She's already at the nano.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
She's been there for hundreds[br]of millions of years.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
We're the ones that are late to the party.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
So, we decided that we're going[br]to use the same tool that nature uses,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and that's chemistry.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Chemistry is the missing tool.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And chemistry works in this case

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
because these nanoscale objects[br]are about the same size as molecules,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
so we can use them to steer[br]these objects around,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
much like a tool.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
That's exactly what we've done in our lab.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
We've developed chemistry[br]that goes into the pile of dust,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
into the pile of nanoparticles,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and pulls out exactly the ones we need.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Then, we can use chemistry to arrange[br]literally billions of these particles

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
into the pattern we need[br]to build circuits.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And because we can do that,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
we can build circuits[br]that are many times faster

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
than what anyone's been able[br]to make using nanomaterials before.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Chemistry's the missing tool,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and everyday our tool gets sharper[br]and gets more precise.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And eventually --

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and we hope this is within[br]a handful of years --

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
we can deliver on one[br]of those original promises.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Computing is just one example.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
It's the one that I'm interested in,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
that my group is really invested in,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
but there are others in renewable energy,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
in medicine,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
in structural materials,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
where the science is going to tell you[br]to move towards that nano.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
That's where the biggest benefit is.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
But if we're going to do that,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
the scientists of today and tomorrow[br]are going to need new tools --

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
tools just like the ones I described.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And they will need chemistry.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
The beauty of science is that once[br]you develop these new tools,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
they're out there.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
They're out there forever,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and anyone anywhere can pick[br]them up and use them,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and help to deliver on the promise[br]of nanotechnology.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Thank you so much for your time.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
(Applause)