Philip Moriarty

Philip Moriarty (1968-present) is an Irish physicist who currently works as a Professor of Physics at the University of Nottingham.

Molecular Nanotechnology

During the University of Nottingham Nanoscience Debate, in which proponents of molecular nanotechnology (Mark Sims, Josh Hall et al.) and Richard Jones debated the future of nanotechnology, including radical nanotechnology, Professor Moriarty made the following comment: "To date there has not been a single mechanosynthesis experiment, in that the most basic step in terms of abstracting a hydrogen atom from a diamond surface has not been done. That has to be proved in order to demonstrate the viability of the machine approach. I’ve never been able to square that with the statement that there are no showstoppers—not one experiment has been done, correct?"

Instead of discarding the idea, he proposed an experiment and received a 1.5 million pound grant (2008-2013) to investigate the potential of mechanosynthesis. A 2011 interview mentioned a lack of progress in diamond mechanosynthesis, but the work on Silicon surfaces using a recently-delivered qPlus AFM had shown more progress. By 2011 the group was able to mechanically manipulate the bond angle.

As of 2012, a simple implementation of the minimal toolset before 2013 seems infeasible.

Articles

• "Against The Grain: 'I didn't become a scientist to help companies profit'", The Independent, February 28, 2008.

Interviews

• Philip Moriarty discusses mechanosynthesis with Sander Olson, NextBigFuture, March 22, 2011.
• 10minus9 interview: Philip Moriarty (Part 1)
• 10minus9 interview: Philip Moriarty (Part 2)

Talks

• Molecular Nanotechnology in the Real World - SENS4 Conference
  • Part 1
  • Part 2
  • Part 3
  • Part 4

Transcripts

• University of Nottingham Nanoscience Debate
• Introduction by Philip Moriarty

Videos

• University of Nottingham Nanoscience Debate
• Atomic Switch (moving atoms) - Extended Version

External Links

• University of Nottingham Nanoscience Group