LBNL Officials Use `Science Fair' to
Avoid Molecular Foundry Issue

JANICE THOMAS / Berkeley Daily Planet 16may03

[Background information below]

The stage was set for chaos and confusion to be followed by anger and grief. Concerned citizens had been told by Mayor Tom Bates that the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory would hold a public meeting to discuss the proposed molecular foundry. Citizens were skeptical because they had received invitations for a broadly conceived "Conversation about Lab Activities" to discuss the proverbial kitchen sink including not only "Nanoscience and the Molecular Foundry" but "Energy Efficiency and the Berkeley Lamp, other Scientific Initiatives, Fire Protection and Vegetation Management, and Science Education Programs."

Meanwhile hardy citizens found their way to the Strawberry Canyon Recreation Area, where. the room in the Haas Club House was set up like a science fair with tables and posters, but no chairs for people to sit in. Director Shank made introductory remarks introducing interns who had won a prestigious prize. Mayor Bates thanked the lab for holding the meeting.

And then all hell broke loose when one of the foundry directors started giving a presentation on nanotechnology. Concerned citizens wanted to know when they could speak. No answer was given to the first questioner.

Then a second person asked. And before long there was a chorus of people asking when they could ask questions. Finally, the community relations officer did what she should have done in the first place and told the audience what they should have known, i.e. the agenda for the evening.

As concerned citizens began to speak, the community relations officer directed them to ask their questions. It was unfriendly and poorly timed given the evening's billing as a conversation.

Concerned citizens have been blamed when these meetings go awry but it should be clear that the unfriendly circumstances were engineered by the lab. As concerned citizens were trying to make public statements, lab employees were talking at their booths that were located at the perimeter of the room, effectively ignoring the speakers and successfully distracting from what the speakers had to say.

Concerned citizens felt set up, just as the room had been set up for small group conversations rather than for a large group conversation. The lab employees probably knew not what we were told, and meanwhile, we knew not what the lab employees were told. It was a needless collision of the two groups, and they as we were innocent bystanders.

Meanwhile, the proposed six-story building and molecular foundry go forward for approval from the UC Regents without benefit of an Environmental Impact Report.

Less than one-third of a mile from a neighborhood, even closer to the intercollegiate rugby and softball fields, in endangered Alameda Whipsnake habitat, competing with flora and fauna for every inch of space in Strawberry Canyon, spilling construction debris into No Name Creek, it is obvious that a real public meeting would have caused great peril to an expedient completion of the lab's replacement to the Cyclotron, i.e. the well-funded National Nanotechnology Institute otherwise known as the molecular foundry.

Janice Thomas is a Berkeley resident.

Background Information

Nanotechnology is the creation and utilization of materials, devices, and systems through the control of matter on the nanometer-length scale, that is, at the level of atoms, molecules, and supramolecular structures. The essence of nanotechnology is the ability to work at these levels to generate larger structures with fundamentally new molecular organization. These "nanostructures," made with building blocks understood from first principles, are the smallest human-made objects, and they exhibit novel physical, chemical, and biological properties and phenomena. The aim of nanotechnology is to learn to exploit these properties and efficiently manufacture and employ the structures.

The Role of DOE in the NNI

The Department of Energy's portion of the increase for the National Nanotechnology Initiative is $36 million in FY 2001, a 62 percent increase over FY 2000 investments in these areas. The DOE has a stunning portfolio of research and scientific user facilities devoted to visualizing, characterizing, and controlling the nanoworld – from atoms and molecules to bulk materials – which makes the Department's research capabilities unique in the world. The DOE is currently making a broad range of contributions in these areas. For example, the enhanced properties of nanocrystals for novel catalysts, tailored light emission and propagation, nanocomposites and supercapacitors are all being explored. Nanocrystals and layered structures offer unique opportunities for tailoring the optical, magnetic, electronic, mechanical and chemical properties of materials, and DOE researchers are have synthesized layered structures for electronics, novel magnets, and surfaces with tailored hardness.

NNI Research at the DOE

Major new efforts in nanoscale science, engineering, and technology at the Department of Energy will take advantage of opportunities afforded by recent advances. These efforts will be part of the Basic Energy Sciences (BES) program and have the following broad goals: (1) to attain a fundamental scientific understanding of nanoscale phenomena, particularly collective phenomena; (2) to achieve the ability to design and synthesize materials at the atomic level to produce materials with desired properties and functions; (3) to attain a fundamental understanding of the processes by which living organisms create materials and functional complexes to serve as a guide and a benchmark by which to measure our progress in synthetic design and synthesis; and (4) to develop experimental characterization tools and theory/modeling/simulation tools necessary to drive the nanoscale revolution.

The principal missions of DOE in science, energy, defense, and environment will benefit greatly from developments in these areas. For example, nanoscale synthesis and assembly methods will result in significant improvements in solar energy conversion; more energy-efficient lighting; stronger, lighter materials that will improve efficiency in transportation; greatly improved chemical and biological sensing; use of low-energy chemical pathways to break down toxic substances for environmental remediation and restoration; and better sensors and controls to increase efficiency in manufacturing.

Fundamental Research Goals of BES Investments in NNI

The first goal of this work as noted above is fundamental scientific understanding of structures and interactions at the nanoscale, particularly collective phenomena. It is known that when sample size, grain size, or domain size shrink to the nanoscale, physical properties are strongly affected and may differ dramatically from the corresponding properties in the bulk. Yet, there is remarkably little experience with phenomena at the nanoscale. Because of this limited experience, the physical and chemical properties of nanoscale systems are not understood. In effect, this is a new subject with its own set of physical principles, theoretical descriptions, and experimental techniques. One of the most interesting aspects of materials at the nanoscale involves properties dominated by collective phenomena -- phenomena that emerge from the interactions of the components of the material and whose behavior thus differs significantly from the behavior of those individual components. In some case, collective phenomena can bring about a large response to a small stimulus -- as seen with colossal magnetoresistance, the basis of a new generation of recording memory material. Collective phenomena are also at the core of the mysteries of such materials as the high-temperature superconductors, one of the great outstanding problems in condensed matter physics.

The second goal of this work -- the design and synthesis of materials at the atomic level for desired properties and functions -- is the heart of nanoscale science, engineering, and technology. In the future, design and synthesis of new materials at the atomic level will be accomplished using only the electronic structure of the elements. The properties of new materials will not only be a function of their composition but also of the conditions under which they were synthesized. New synthesis conditions might include nonequilibrium, high pressure, high magnetic field, and high energy density. Also, massively parallel fabrication/characterization combinatorial approaches will be employed. The new field of functional materials would include the design of molecular building blocks, the design of multicomponent structures, and the design of molecular machines.

The third goal of this work is the fundamental understanding of the processes by which living organisms create materials and functional complexes. Nanoscale science, engineering, and technology thus inexorably links the physical and biological sciences. Nature arranges atoms and molecules precisely into three-dimensional objects of extraordinary complexity to produce objects with required optical, mechanical, electrical, catalytic, and tribological properties. Nature has also learned how to combine materials and structures to build molecular-level machines. Some of these molecular machines serve as pumps, moving material across barriers; others move molecules, structures, or whole cells; others control processes acting as regulatory systems; and still others produce or convert energy. A major challenge in the physical sciences is to understand how Nature makes these complex objects and molecular machines so that we can develop the tools to design and build materials that function as we want -- materials that have not been envisioned by Mother Nature but use Nature’s self assembly techniques. By understanding and applying these principles to artificial systems, we can make potentially immense advances in diverse areas including energy conversion; data transmission, processing, and storage; "smart" and adaptable materials; sensors for industrial, environmental, and defense purposes; new catalysts; better drugs; and more efficient waste disposal.

The fourth goal of this work is the development of experimental characterization tools and theory/modeling/simulation tools. The history of science has shown that new tools drive scientific revolutions. They allow the discovery of phenomena not previously seen and the study of known phenomena at shorter time scales, at shorter distances, and with greater sensitivity. The BES program has been a leader in the development of tools for characterization at the nanoscale. Required new instrumentation will necessarily involve an enhancement of conventional techniques -- scanning-probe microscopies, steady-state and time-resolved spectroscopies, and so forth. However, characterization will also depend heavily on revolutionary experimental tools, including techniques for the active control of growth, for massively parallel analysis, and for small sample volumes. Capabilities will be needed for triggering, isolating, or activating single molecules; for independently addressing multiple molecules in parallel; and for transferring or harvesting energy to or from a single molecule. New generations of theory and computational tools will also be required.

source: http://www.sc.doe.gov/bes/NNI.htm 16may03