WEBVTT 00:00:00.993 --> 00:00:04.034 Let's imagine a sculptor building a statue, 00:00:04.034 --> 00:00:06.003 just chipping away with his chisel. 00:00:06.291 --> 00:00:09.520 Michelangelo had this elegant way of describing it when he said, 00:00:09.520 --> 00:00:12.444 "Every block of stone has a statue inside of it, 00:00:12.444 --> 00:00:15.180 and it's the task of the sculptor to discover it." 00:00:15.473 --> 00:00:17.882 But what if he worked in the opposite direction? 00:00:17.882 --> 00:00:19.956 Not from a solid block of stone, 00:00:19.956 --> 00:00:21.521 but from a pile of dust, 00:00:21.521 --> 00:00:25.563 somehow gluing millions of these particles together to form a statue. 00:00:25.693 --> 00:00:27.499 I know that's an absurd notion; 00:00:27.499 --> 00:00:28.991 it's probably impossible. 00:00:29.224 --> 00:00:34.701 The only way you get a statue from a pile of dust is if the statue built itself -- 00:00:34.701 --> 00:00:38.738 if somehow we could compel millions of these particles to come together 00:00:38.738 --> 00:00:40.311 to form the statue. NOTE Paragraph 00:00:40.554 --> 00:00:42.119 Now, as odd as that sounds, 00:00:42.119 --> 00:00:46.099 that is almost exactly the problem I work on in my lab. 00:00:46.316 --> 00:00:47.720 I don't build with stone, 00:00:47.720 --> 00:00:49.112 I build with nanomaterials. 00:00:49.112 --> 00:00:53.380 They're these just impossibly small, fascinating little objects. 00:00:53.380 --> 00:00:56.815 They're so small that if this controller was a nanoparticle, 00:00:56.815 --> 00:00:59.297 a human hair would be the size of this entire room. 00:00:59.600 --> 00:01:02.393 And they're at the heart of a field we call nanotechnology, 00:01:02.393 --> 00:01:04.319 which I'm sure we've all heard about, 00:01:04.319 --> 00:01:07.901 and we've all heard how it is going to change everything. NOTE Paragraph 00:01:07.901 --> 00:01:09.514 When I was a graduate student, 00:01:09.514 --> 00:01:12.805 it was one of the most exciting times to be working in nanotechnology. 00:01:12.805 --> 00:01:15.606 There were scientific breakthroughs happening all the time. 00:01:15.888 --> 00:01:17.363 The conferences were buzzing, 00:01:17.363 --> 00:01:20.523 there was tons of money pouring in from funding agencies. 00:01:20.893 --> 00:01:22.231 And the reason is 00:01:22.231 --> 00:01:24.090 when objects get really small, 00:01:24.090 --> 00:01:27.659 they're governed by a different set of physics that govern ordinary objects, 00:01:27.659 --> 00:01:29.168 like the ones we interact with. 00:01:29.168 --> 00:01:31.314 We call this physics quantum mechanics. 00:01:31.314 --> 00:01:34.536 And what it tells you is that you can precisely tune their behavior 00:01:34.536 --> 00:01:36.860 just by making seemingly small changes to them, 00:01:36.860 --> 00:01:39.393 like adding or removing a handful of atoms, 00:01:39.393 --> 00:01:40.849 or twisting the material. 00:01:41.079 --> 00:01:42.870 It's like this ultimate toolkit. 00:01:42.870 --> 00:01:44.155 You really felt empowered; 00:01:44.155 --> 00:01:45.964 you felt like you could make anything. NOTE Paragraph 00:01:45.964 --> 00:01:47.070 And we were doing it -- 00:01:47.070 --> 00:01:50.381 and by we I mean my whole generation of graduate students. 00:01:50.381 --> 00:01:53.912 We were trying to make blazing-fast computers using nanomaterials. 00:01:53.912 --> 00:01:55.516 We were constructing quantum dots 00:01:55.516 --> 00:01:58.776 that could one day go in your body and find and fight disease. 00:01:58.993 --> 00:02:02.117 There were even groups trying to make an elevator to space 00:02:02.117 --> 00:02:03.759 using carbon nanotubes. 00:02:03.759 --> 00:02:04.769 You can look that up, 00:02:04.769 --> 00:02:05.769 that's true. 00:02:06.940 --> 00:02:09.371 Anyways, we thought it was going to effect all parts 00:02:09.371 --> 00:02:10.621 of science and technology, 00:02:10.621 --> 00:02:12.070 from computing to medicine. 00:02:12.070 --> 00:02:13.472 And I have to admit, 00:02:13.472 --> 00:02:15.395 I drank all of the Kool-Aid. 00:02:15.395 --> 00:02:17.820 I mean, every last drop. 00:02:18.709 --> 00:02:21.439 But that was 15 years ago, 00:02:21.439 --> 00:02:22.440 and -- 00:02:22.440 --> 00:02:23.945 fantastic science was done, 00:02:23.945 --> 00:02:25.042 really important work. 00:02:25.042 --> 00:02:26.350 We've learned a lot. 00:02:26.350 --> 00:02:30.768 We were never able to translate that science into new technologies -- 00:02:30.768 --> 00:02:33.369 into technologies that could actually impact people. 00:02:33.369 --> 00:02:34.504 And the reason is, 00:02:34.504 --> 00:02:35.726 these nanomaterials -- 00:02:35.726 --> 00:02:37.361 they're like a double-edged sword. 00:02:37.361 --> 00:02:39.657 The same thing that makes them so interesting -- 00:02:39.657 --> 00:02:41.003 they're small size -- 00:02:41.003 --> 00:02:43.278 also makes them impossible to work with. 00:02:43.278 --> 00:02:46.833 It's literally like trying to build a statue out of a pile of dust. 00:02:47.090 --> 00:02:50.564 And we just don't have the tools that are small enough to work with them. 00:02:50.790 --> 00:02:51.821 But even if we did, 00:02:51.821 --> 00:02:53.067 it wouldn't really matter, 00:02:53.067 --> 00:02:57.143 because we couldn't one by one place millions of particles together 00:02:57.143 --> 00:02:58.620 to build a techonology. 00:02:58.855 --> 00:02:59.917 So because of that, 00:02:59.917 --> 00:03:00.916 all of the promise 00:03:00.916 --> 00:03:02.120 and all of the excitement 00:03:02.120 --> 00:03:03.623 has remained just that: 00:03:03.623 --> 00:03:05.172 promise and excitement. 00:03:05.172 --> 00:03:07.735 We don't have any disease-fighting nanobots, 00:03:07.735 --> 00:03:09.797 there's no elevators to space, 00:03:09.797 --> 00:03:11.801 and the thing that I'm most interested in, 00:03:11.801 --> 00:03:13.251 no new types of computing. NOTE Paragraph 00:03:13.251 --> 00:03:14.503 Now that last one, 00:03:14.503 --> 00:03:15.947 that's a really important one. 00:03:15.947 --> 00:03:17.280 We just have come to expect 00:03:17.280 --> 00:03:21.147 the pace of computing advancements to go on indefinitely. 00:03:21.147 --> 00:03:23.688 We've built entire economies on this idea. 00:03:23.688 --> 00:03:26.428 And this pace exists because of our ability 00:03:26.428 --> 00:03:29.599 to pack more and more devices onto a computer chip. 00:03:29.599 --> 00:03:31.560 And as those devices get smaller, 00:03:31.560 --> 00:03:32.618 they get faster, 00:03:32.618 --> 00:03:33.846 they consume less power 00:03:33.846 --> 00:03:35.277 and they get cheaper. 00:03:35.277 --> 00:03:39.316 And it's this convergence that gives us this incredible pace. 00:03:39.645 --> 00:03:40.648 As an example: 00:03:40.648 --> 00:03:46.469 if I took the room-sized computer that sent three men to the moon and back 00:03:46.469 --> 00:03:48.556 and somehow compressed it -- 00:03:48.556 --> 00:03:51.773 compressed the world's greatest computer of its day -- 00:03:51.773 --> 00:03:54.498 so it was the same size as your smartphone -- 00:03:54.498 --> 00:03:55.779 your actual smartphone, 00:03:55.779 --> 00:03:59.181 that thing you spent 300 bucks on and just toss out every two years -- 00:03:59.181 --> 00:04:01.620 would blow this thing away. 00:04:01.620 --> 00:04:03.117 You would not be impressed. 00:04:03.117 --> 00:04:05.610 It couldn't do anything that your smartphone does. 00:04:05.610 --> 00:04:07.207 It would be slow, 00:04:07.207 --> 00:04:09.156 you couldn't put any of your stuff on it, 00:04:09.156 --> 00:04:11.582 you could possibly get through the first two minutes 00:04:11.582 --> 00:04:13.721 of a "Walking Dead" episode if you're lucky -- NOTE Paragraph 00:04:13.721 --> 00:04:14.719 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:04:14.719 --> 00:04:16.166 The point is the progress -- 00:04:16.166 --> 00:04:17.252 it's not gradual. 00:04:17.252 --> 00:04:18.977 The progress is relentless; 00:04:18.977 --> 00:04:20.104 it's exponential; 00:04:20.104 --> 00:04:22.509 it compounds on itself year after year, 00:04:22.509 --> 00:04:24.661 to the point where if you compare a technology 00:04:24.661 --> 00:04:26.397 from one generation to the next, 00:04:26.397 --> 00:04:28.236 they're almost unrecognizable. 00:04:28.442 --> 00:04:31.072 And we owe it to ourselves to keep this progress going. 00:04:31.072 --> 00:04:34.774 We want to say the same thing 10, 20, 30 years from now: 00:04:34.774 --> 00:04:37.246 look what we've done over the last 30 years. 00:04:37.478 --> 00:04:40.227 Yet, we know this progress may not last forever. 00:04:40.227 --> 00:04:42.226 In fact, the party's kind of winding down. 00:04:42.226 --> 00:04:44.686 It's like "last call for alcohol," right? 00:04:44.686 --> 00:04:46.347 If you look under the covers, 00:04:46.347 --> 00:04:48.852 by many metrics like speed and performance, 00:04:48.852 --> 00:04:51.597 the progress has already slowed to a halt. 00:04:51.936 --> 00:04:54.103 So if we want to keep this party going, 00:04:54.103 --> 00:04:56.341 we have to do what we've always been able to do, 00:04:56.341 --> 00:04:58.004 and that is to innovate. NOTE Paragraph 00:04:58.004 --> 00:04:59.622 So our group's role 00:04:59.622 --> 00:05:00.727 and our group's mission 00:05:00.727 --> 00:05:02.990 is to innovate by employing carbon nanotubes, 00:05:02.990 --> 00:05:06.731 because we think that they can provide a path to continue this pace. 00:05:06.988 --> 00:05:08.424 They are just like they sound. 00:05:08.424 --> 00:05:11.041 They're tiny, hollow tubes of carbon atoms, 00:05:11.041 --> 00:05:12.561 and their nanoscale size -- 00:05:12.561 --> 00:05:13.966 that small size -- 00:05:13.966 --> 00:05:17.280 gives rise to these just outstanding electronic properties. 00:05:18.270 --> 00:05:21.488 The science tells us if we could employ them in computing, 00:05:21.488 --> 00:05:24.112 we could see up to ten times improvement in performance. 00:05:24.112 --> 00:05:28.436 It's like skipping through several technology generations in just one step. NOTE Paragraph 00:05:29.004 --> 00:05:30.161 So, there we have it. 00:05:30.161 --> 00:05:32.475 We have this really important problem, 00:05:32.475 --> 00:05:34.846 and we have what is basically the ideal solution. 00:05:34.846 --> 00:05:36.659 The science is screaming at us, 00:05:36.659 --> 00:05:39.552 "This is what you should be doing to solve your problem." 00:05:41.605 --> 00:05:43.473 So, all right, let's get started, 00:05:43.473 --> 00:05:44.467 let's do this. 00:05:44.467 --> 00:05:47.144 But you just run right back into that double-edged sword. 00:05:47.144 --> 00:05:50.983 This "ideal solution" contains a material that's impossible to work with. 00:05:50.983 --> 00:05:55.068 I'd have to arrange billions of them just to make one single computer chip. 00:05:55.298 --> 00:05:57.197 It's that same conundrum, 00:05:57.197 --> 00:05:58.939 it's like this undying problem. NOTE Paragraph 00:05:59.471 --> 00:06:00.472 At this point, 00:06:00.472 --> 00:06:01.716 we said, "Let's just stop. 00:06:01.716 --> 00:06:03.520 Let's not go down that same road. 00:06:03.520 --> 00:06:05.713 Let's just figure out what's missing. 00:06:05.987 --> 00:06:07.382 What are we not dealing with? 00:06:07.382 --> 00:06:09.742 What are not doing that needs to be done?" 00:06:09.742 --> 00:06:11.503 It's like in "The Godfather," right? 00:06:11.503 --> 00:06:13.913 When Fredo betrays his brother Michael, 00:06:13.913 --> 00:06:15.558 we all know what needs to be done. 00:06:15.558 --> 00:06:16.839 Fredo's got to go. NOTE Paragraph 00:06:16.839 --> 00:06:17.838 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:06:17.838 --> 00:06:18.835 But Michael -- 00:06:18.835 --> 00:06:19.931 he puts it off. 00:06:19.931 --> 00:06:20.929 Fine, I get it. 00:06:20.929 --> 00:06:22.241 Their mother's still alive, 00:06:22.241 --> 00:06:23.389 it would make her upset. NOTE Paragraph 00:06:23.389 --> 00:06:24.391 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:06:24.391 --> 00:06:25.393 We just said, 00:06:25.393 --> 00:06:27.312 "What's the Fredo in our problem?" 00:06:27.312 --> 00:06:28.722 What are we not dealing with? 00:06:28.722 --> 00:06:30.337 What are we not doing, 00:06:30.337 --> 00:06:33.425 but needs to be done to make this a success?" 00:06:33.425 --> 00:06:37.438 And the answer is that the statue has to build itself. 00:06:37.438 --> 00:06:38.514 We have to find a way, 00:06:38.514 --> 00:06:39.507 somehow, 00:06:39.507 --> 00:06:41.358 to compel, 00:06:41.358 --> 00:06:43.596 to convince billions of these particles 00:06:43.596 --> 00:06:46.188 to assemble themselves into the technology. 00:06:46.567 --> 00:06:47.792 We can't do it for them. 00:06:47.792 --> 00:06:49.772 They have to do it for themselves. 00:06:49.772 --> 00:06:51.078 And it's the hard way, 00:06:51.078 --> 00:06:52.965 and this is not trivial, 00:06:52.965 --> 00:06:54.290 but in this case, 00:06:54.290 --> 00:06:55.537 it's the only way. NOTE Paragraph 00:06:55.876 --> 00:06:56.966 As it turns out, 00:06:56.966 --> 00:06:59.273 this is not that alien of a problem. 00:06:59.650 --> 00:07:01.648 We just don't build anything this way. 00:07:01.648 --> 00:07:03.685 People don't build anything this way. 00:07:03.685 --> 00:07:04.930 But if you look around -- 00:07:04.930 --> 00:07:06.847 and there's examples everywhere -- 00:07:06.847 --> 00:07:09.822 mother nature builds everything this way. 00:07:09.822 --> 00:07:11.855 Everything is built from the bottom up. 00:07:12.499 --> 00:07:13.646 You can go to the beach, 00:07:13.646 --> 00:07:16.915 you'll find these simple organisms that use proteins -- 00:07:16.915 --> 00:07:18.301 basically molecules -- 00:07:18.301 --> 00:07:20.382 to template what is essentially sand, 00:07:20.382 --> 00:07:21.826 just plucking it from the sea 00:07:21.826 --> 00:07:25.167 and building these extraordinary architectures with extreme diversity. 00:07:25.167 --> 00:07:26.721 And nature's not crude like us, 00:07:26.721 --> 00:07:27.793 just hacking away. 00:07:27.793 --> 00:07:29.479 She's elegant and smart, 00:07:29.479 --> 00:07:30.955 building with what's available, 00:07:30.955 --> 00:07:32.329 molecule by molecule, 00:07:32.329 --> 00:07:34.517 making structures with a complexity 00:07:34.517 --> 00:07:37.020 and a diversity that we can't even approach. 00:07:37.589 --> 00:07:39.283 She's already at the nano. 00:07:39.283 --> 00:07:41.776 She's been there for hundreds of millions of years. 00:07:41.776 --> 00:07:43.907 We're the ones that are late to the party. NOTE Paragraph 00:07:44.241 --> 00:07:48.630 So, we decided that we're going to use the same tool that nature uses, 00:07:48.630 --> 00:07:50.219 and that's chemistry. 00:07:50.219 --> 00:07:51.781 Chemistry is the missing tool. 00:07:51.781 --> 00:07:53.837 And chemistry works in this case 00:07:53.837 --> 00:07:57.749 because these nanoscale objects are about the same size as molecules, 00:07:57.749 --> 00:08:00.391 so we can use them to steer these objects around, 00:08:00.391 --> 00:08:01.624 much like a tool. 00:08:01.940 --> 00:08:03.949 That's exactly what we've done in our lab. 00:08:03.949 --> 00:08:07.261 We've developed chemistry that goes into the pile of dust, 00:08:07.261 --> 00:08:08.775 into the pile of nanoparticles, 00:08:08.775 --> 00:08:11.148 and pulls out exactly the ones we need. 00:08:11.148 --> 00:08:14.763 Then, we can use chemistry to arrange literally billions of these particles 00:08:14.763 --> 00:08:17.693 into the pattern we need to build circuits. 00:08:17.693 --> 00:08:19.008 And because we can do that, 00:08:19.008 --> 00:08:21.442 we can build circuits that are many times faster 00:08:21.442 --> 00:08:24.691 than what anyone's been able to make using nanomaterials before. 00:08:24.691 --> 00:08:26.099 Chemistry's the missing tool, 00:08:26.099 --> 00:08:29.708 and every day our tool gets sharper and gets more precise. 00:08:29.708 --> 00:08:30.709 And eventually -- 00:08:30.709 --> 00:08:33.654 and we hope this is within a handful of years -- 00:08:33.654 --> 00:08:36.395 we can deliver on one of those original promises. NOTE Paragraph 00:08:37.190 --> 00:08:39.165 Now, computing is just one example. 00:08:39.165 --> 00:08:40.939 It's the one that I'm interested in, 00:08:40.939 --> 00:08:42.864 that my group is really invested in, 00:08:42.864 --> 00:08:44.885 but there are others in renewable energy, 00:08:44.885 --> 00:08:46.546 in medicine, 00:08:46.546 --> 00:08:48.254 in structural materials, 00:08:48.254 --> 00:08:51.252 where the science is going to tell you to move towards the nano. 00:08:51.252 --> 00:08:53.685 That's where the biggest benefit is. 00:08:53.970 --> 00:08:55.431 But if we're going to do that, 00:08:55.431 --> 00:08:58.649 the scientists of today and tomorrow are going to need new tools -- 00:08:58.649 --> 00:09:00.798 tools just like the ones I described. 00:09:02.780 --> 00:09:04.886 And they will need chemistry. 00:09:04.886 --> 00:09:08.616 The beauty of science is that once you develop these new tools, 00:09:08.616 --> 00:09:09.625 they're out there. 00:09:09.625 --> 00:09:10.908 They're out there forever, 00:09:10.908 --> 00:09:14.132 and anyone anywhere can pick them up and use them, 00:09:14.132 --> 00:09:17.308 and help to deliver on the promise of nanotechnology. NOTE Paragraph 00:09:17.622 --> 00:09:19.190 Thank you so much for your time. 00:09:19.190 --> 00:09:20.188 I appreciate it. NOTE Paragraph 00:09:20.188 --> 00:09:21.186 (Applause)