Nanotechnology Now

A cluster of "theoretical" dodechehedron nanoscale quasi-crystals have assembled themselves into a self-organizing, dendritic material matrix. At the nanoscale, myriad seemingly unorthodox crystal formations have been discovered, explored and grown for a variety of research projects and applications. This rendering was the result of a procedural geometry construction routine based on the semi-random growth pattern of quasi-crystalline dendrites, surface mapped with a fractal generated texture, and raytraced.

A self assembling "smart material" is drawing in additional molecular clusters during an instigated phase transition event. Note the phase transition boundary between the crystalline and "fluidic" regions within the material matrix. Though such materials have even entered into the world of sci-fi thriller films such as "Terminator II" (this imagery was originally created before the film appeared), the reality of such smart materials has been an intriguing realm of nanostructured materials research and speculation for many years.

A "quasi-viral component" either composed from an engineered "viral entity", or from a completely synthetic nanoscale proteomic construction , potentially used as molecular "delivery vessels", for targeting and entering specific cells to dispense the appropriate "instructional" protein. This is a 3D procedural rendering of a cluster of such quasi-viral component.

This development trajectory being pursued by a plethora of academic and even commercial participants in a newly emmerging arena of nanobiology, in which the molecular components of living cells can be "re-organized" to create viral-like entities capable of delivering self replicating of "proteomic mechanisms", as a form of molecular software, to living cells for the purpose of allowing the targeted cells to "repair" themselves, or in the case of cancer cells, to "disable" them from further activity.

This technology has spectacular potential biomedical applications, not the least of which is the delivery of key protein components to the organelles of "ailing" cells, which they then could utilize for self repair and modification via intracellular corrective chemistry.

A 3D rendering of a theoretical biochip in which the surface of the chip device features an array of protein receptor site "pads". One of these pads has been "activated" with a self-organizing crystalline dendritic nanostructure, designed to provide a molecular binding structure for inducing molecular collaboration with other nanostructures as an ongoing construction / integrated bio-system interfacing process.

Rendered in 3D Studio, fractal generated procedural textures. This image appeared on the cover of the Oct 1999 issue of MidNight Engineering.

This 3D rendering of a neural interface biochip is actually a slide from a 4 1/2 minute animation created at the AAC (Academy of Art College) in San Francisco, as part of a visualization project roughly based on portions of a book I have been developing. This animation was eventually shown at SigGraph, on PBS televsion, and has been incorporated in related content for events in the US, Europe, and Asia.

Special thanks to Kevin Cain, then the director of computer graphics animation at AAC, and the spectacular efforts of over 30 students and fellow instructors who worked for approx. 9 months to create this production. Rendered in Maya 3D, and a variety of other rendering applications.

This is a 3D rendering of a theoretical neural repair "nano-biodevice", reconstructing the insulating outer membrane of a damaged neural axon. Like the "neural interface biochip" this is a slide extracted from the animation. This animation was eventually shown at SigGraph, on PBS televsion, and has been incorporated in related content for events in the US, Europe, and Asia.

Thanks again to Kevin Cain, the students, and fellow instructors.