Yesterday, Thutmose V published a post on Robert Gordon’s “The Rise and Fall of American Growth.” At one point in the essay, he argued that there is no revolutionary technology on the horizon that could spark a period of robust growth.
In a comment, I asserted that there is indeed such a technology, nanotechnology, and that it’s rapid growth will have deep economic stimulus effects.
A few people, including one of the smartest guys around here, disagreed, saying that nanotech was small potatoes compared to other revolutionary techs of the past, that its only impact was minor progress in materials science, and that, in the face of the great problems facing humanity now, bouncier tennis balls weren’t going to help.
These commenters were wrong, and their error came with a large serving of irony, as nanotech is poised to become a key tool, perhaps the key tool, in solving the greatest crisis that threatens our species.
Few readers of this site need convincing that anthropogenic change is real and will have profound, perhaps final, effects on modern human civilization. We know we’re in deep doo doo. I can’t imagine anyone here disagreeing with the proposition that reducing atmospheric carbon dioxide is vital to our survival and that of our descendants.
Ten years ago, in one of my first diaries here, I predicted that nanotech would play a central role in accomplishing that goal. That is coming to pass now.
Among the hundreds of patents being filed for nanotech applications are several which offer the promise of remarkably fast and effective carbon capture and sequestration. These molecule manipulators are going to save your world.
In the US, 40 percent of CO2 emissions are generated by electrical generation plants using fossil fuels. Those emissions are prime candidates for carbon capture because the smokestacks stay in one place.
A lot of those stacks are sporting a new accessory: carbon nanotube membranes developed by the California company Porifera, which hold the promise of capturing carbon at a fraction of the cost of current tech. This ain’t a someday thing. You can buy it right now. (Assuming you manage a power plant and need one.)
Other nano-based technologies for carbon capture include nanowire-bacteria hybrid “artificial photosynthesis” developed by scientists at UC Berkeley and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and a process called STEP (Solar Thermal Electrochemical Process) developed by chemists at George Washington University which can not only capture CO2 but knock off the oxygen atoms and get the really strong carbon monofiliments on the spot.
Another use for carbon capture by-product? Well, heck, we’re not going to be kicking the carbon fuel habit tomorrow, so why not make the fuel from the carbon in captured CO2? Pie in the sky? No, it’s a plant on the ground. Right now.
These are just a few of the nanotech carbon capture-sequester-recycle patents out there working today or damn close to it. Here’s a list of 14,000 peer-reviewed papers on the subject if you’ve got a little reading time.
Nanotech isn’t pie in the sky. It’s gold. It’s diamonds.
Which brings me back to that 10-year-old diary and my own desired use for all that captured carbon: diamonds. Yes, just a decade after my prediction, scientists at the University of North Carolina have discovered a new state of carbon, distinct from graphite and diamond, called Q-carbon, membranes only between 20 nanometers and 500 nanometers thick, harder than diamond and ferromagnetic.
It seems my dream may soon come true, and I’ll reopen the long-closed hole in my earlobe and sport a sparkler made from the gasses that might have killed mankind.
Think small, because there’s room at the bottom.