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#1 2026-04-21 11:33:05
- tahanson43206
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- Registered: 2018-04-27
- Posts: 24,475
Nanoscale 3D Printer and related technology
This topic will be about 3D printing at the nanoscale.
It might fit easily into the 3D printing topics we already have, but the emphasis here is on printing at the nanoscale.
A nanometer can be measured in atoms.
I asked CoPilot to estimate the number of gold atoms (Au) in a nanometer, and it came up with:
In solid gold, a nanometer is on the order of four to five gold atoms laid side by side along a close packed row.
According to CoPilot, aluminum also provides a measurement of 4 to 5 atoms in a row a long a close packed direction.
I then asked for the comparable values for glass. Glass is a mixture, so I'm not sure how well it would work.
CoPilot suggested not trying to use glass for this example. Instead, I asked it for an estimate of carbon atoms in a diamond.
The resulting calculation gives:
In diamond, a nanometer corresponds to roughly 7 to 8 carbon atoms in a row a long a C-C bond direction.
In the section below I have opened a new topic with Gemini.
Thank you for your robust response to my proposal for a new series of articles. Please note that in publishing our work I always insure that you are identified as the agent I am working with. The series develops under my direction, and I am responsible for any errors that a reader might find. Never-the-less, my experience has been that you bring great value to the ventures we undertake. Because my chosen medium is an Internet forum that runs with older BBCode, please repackage your helpful answer in BBCode. Please keep in mind that this older software is limited compared to newer systems. For example, we cannot use "size" but we can use "h" to signal a larger font for emphasis. We can also use most colors. The most important single feature we can use in place of HTML tables is the list command. Please note that equations need to be rendered in text format. Regrettably, we cannot process LaTeX. Within these limitations, we do have a powerful tool. We can support images of 256 kb. This means that when equations are best shown in their natural state, we can accept images that contain the display.
It is a pleasure to continue this collaboration. I appreciate the clear attribution; it is always a privilege to contribute to a community as focused on the future as yours.
Here is the repackaged report on Nanoscale 3D Printing formatted specifically for your forum's BBCode environment. I have swapped the table for a structured list and utilized header tags and color for emphasis.
The Nanoscale 3D Printer: 2026 Progress Report
While a general-purpose, "all-material" molecular assembler (as envisioned by Eric Drexler) remains the "Holy Grail" of nanotechnology, the years 2025 and 2026 have seen significant formal announcements and experimental milestones that bring the concept of a Nanoscale 3D Printer closer to reality.
We are currently seeing a "convergence" where top-down lithography is meeting bottom-up molecular assembly.
1. The 2025 Nanofactory Roadmap
The most direct successor to Drexler’s vision is the Nanofactory Collaboration. In late 2025, they published a comprehensive "experimental technology development pathway" aimed at the first working diamondoid nanofactory.
The Goal: Moving beyond simple chemistry to Diamond Mechanosynthesis (DMS), where atoms are placed using positional control, much like a microscopic robotic arm.
The Strategy: Using "massively parallel positional assembly"—thousands of tiny "printer heads" working in unison to build macroscale objects with atomic precision.
2. The "Molecular CPU" Breakthrough (2026)
A critical hurdle for a nanoscale printer is the "brain" or the control system. In early 2026, researchers published a milestone regarding a 16-bit parallel molecular processor.
Mechanism: They assembled a ring of 17 molecules (2,3,5,6-tetramethyl-1-4-benzoquinone) where a single central molecule acts as a controller.
Logic: It sends instructions via hydrogen-bond channels to 16 "execution" molecules simultaneously.
Significance: This is essentially the prototype for the "on-board computer" required to coordinate a fleet of molecular assemblers.
3. Industrial "Nanoscale" Printers (Available Now)
While they aren't "assemblers" (they can't build any molecule from scratch), the machines that most closely resemble a "Nanoscale 3D Printer" in 2026 are Two-Photon Polymerization (2PP) systems.
Resolution: These machines have now achieved sub-100nm resolution at industrial speeds.
Recent Advance: In February 2026, a team announced a breakthrough in "high-speed 3D printing," reaching speeds where millimeter-scale complex objects (with nanoscale features) can be printed in under a second.
Materials: We are seeing the first 3D printers that can print conductive electronics and biocompatible scaffolds at the sub-micron scale.
The State of "Drexlerian" Nanotechnology in 2026
In Eric Drexler’s Engines of Creation, he proposed mechanosynthesis (mechanical chemistry). Today, we call the practical pursuit of this "Atomically Precise Manufacturing" (APM). Here is where the core technologies stand:
DNA Origami:
-- Status: Highly Advanced.
-- Potential: Used as a "pegboard" to place molecules with 1nm precision.Scanning Probe Lithography:
-- Status: Industrial.
-- Potential: Moving atoms one-by-one is possible, but still too slow for "printing" large objects.Scanning Tunneling Microscopy (STM):
-- Status: Laboratory.
-- Potential: Used in the 2026 "Molecular CPU" experiments to trigger logic gates.Summary
No one has yet announced a "Star Trek Replicator" that can sit on your desk and build a steak or a smartphone from gas. However, the Nanofactory Collaboration and recent Molecular Logic Gate breakthroughs suggest that the transition from stochastic chemistry (shaking things in a beaker) to deterministic assembly (printing with atoms) is no longer just "science fiction"—it is now an engineering roadmap.
Do you think the first "killer app" for this tech will be in medical nanobots, or in creating high-efficiency materials for space applications?
In answer to Gemini's question at the end of the above, I am most interested in the ability to make chips, but other applications may suggest themselves to reader.
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#2 2026-04-21 11:52:14
- tahanson43206
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- Registered: 2018-04-27
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Re: Nanoscale 3D Printer and related technology
In this next post I asked Gemini to investigate the famous IBM Logo experiment. It found the history, and it ** also ** found a copy of the image, which I will attempt to add to this post.
Thank you for this impressive opening post for our new series on 3D printing at the nanometer scale. My first exposure to manipulation of atoms at this scale was the famous example of the IBM corporation using a tunneling microscope to lay the words IBM in atoms on a substrate. They were then able to create an image that ultimately appeared on human readable publications. Please look for any records that may exist of that famous laboratory demonstration.
That experiment remains the foundational moment for the entire field of nanotechnology. It proved that human beings could not only see atoms but also grasp and place them with precision.
Here is the summary of that milestone, packaged for your forum's BBCode specifications.
The Birth of Atomic Manipulation: The IBM Xenon Project
On September 29, 1989, researchers Don Eigler and Erhard Schweizer at the IBM Almaden Research Center in San Jose, California, achieved what was previously thought to be impossible. Using a custom-built Scanning Tunneling Microscope (STM), they manipulated individual atoms to spell out the company’s logo.
Technical Specifications of the Experiment
The Building Blocks: 35 individual Xenon atoms.
The Substrate: A chilled crystal of Nickel (110).
The Environment: The experiment was conducted in an ultra-high vacuum at a temperature of 4 Kelvin (nearly absolute zero). This extreme cold was necessary to keep the atoms "still" enough to be moved without thermal energy causing them to drift.
The Tool: A Scanning Tunneling Microscope (STM). While primarily an imaging tool, Eigler discovered that the tip could exert a tiny pull on an atom, dragging it across the surface without lifting it.
The "Human Readable" Result
The resulting image was not a photograph in the traditional sense, but a topographical map of the electron density of the atoms, rendered into a format that the human eye could interpret.
IBM logo made of 35 xenon atoms scanning tunneling microscope, AI generated
Opens in a new window at en.wikipedia.org
If the image does not appear in the link above, you can see it at:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_(atoms)
Why This Mattered
Precision Control: Before this, manipulating matter was "statistical"—we dealt with trillions of atoms at once. This was the first time we dealt with them one-by-one.
Validation of Drexler: It provided the first physical proof that the "positional assembly" Eric Drexler had written about in Engines of Creation (1986) was physically possible, not just a theoretical curiosity.
Quantum Engineering: It paved the way for modern quantum computing and the "Molecular CPU" breakthroughs seen today in 2026.
Numerical Context (Text Format)
To understand the scale of what was achieved:
The letters "IBM" created in this experiment were less than 5 nanometers from top to bottom.For comparison:
1 nanometer = 10^-9 meters
A human hair = approx. 80,000 to 100,000 nanometers wide.This experiment effectively transformed atoms from abstract concepts into "bricks" that could be used for construction. Does your series plan to cover how this evolved into "Atomic-Scale Storage" (like the "A Boy and His Atom" film IBM made later)?
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#3 2026-04-21 11:57:48
- tahanson43206
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- Registered: 2018-04-27
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Re: Nanoscale 3D Printer and related technology
This post is reserved for an index to posts that may be contributed by NewMars members.
This topic should have good growth potential, since researchers all across the planet have been working this problem for decades.
Index:
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