I do see synbio as the most promising source of new materials with a huge range of properties, scalable manufacturing, and ability to come down cost curves amongst other tailwinds. Graphene, as an example of perhaps a nanotech material, is also scaling well in an array of uses after surviving a hype cycle. Metamaterials are talked about a lot, but seems like we’re still earlier in their commercialization from my limited understanding of them.
On the history of the development of plastics, this is thorough and one of the better resources I’ve found. It’s a 20 part series of articles (and counting since last I checked). I’ve linked all of them here as the url path naming convention is inconsistent.
Another future potential to consider is atomically precise manufacturing—true “nanotech”, rather than simply nanomaterials—which could allow some really incredible possibilities such as manufacturing or construction with diamond. See Where Is My Flying Car?
True atomic scale manufacturing is definitely an exciting future tech! One angle from some proponents of cell-free catalysis is that enzymes is a path to atomic scale manufacturing and assembly. For example, Aether Bio has nano-manufacturing in the spirit of what you are saying as their vision.
I do see synbio as the most promising source of new materials with a huge range of properties, scalable manufacturing, and ability to come down cost curves amongst other tailwinds. Graphene, as an example of perhaps a nanotech material, is also scaling well in an array of uses after surviving a hype cycle. Metamaterials are talked about a lot, but seems like we’re still earlier in their commercialization from my limited understanding of them.
On the history of the development of plastics, this is thorough and one of the better resources I’ve found. It’s a 20 part series of articles (and counting since last I checked). I’ve linked all of them here as the url path naming convention is inconsistent.
Tracing the History of Polymeric Materials: Part 1
Tracing the History of Polymeric Materials—Part 2
Tracing the History of Polymeric Materials, Part 3
Tracing the History of Polymeric Materials, Part 4
Tracing the History of Polymeric Materials: Part 5
Tracing the History of Polymeric Materials: Part 6
Tracing the History of Polymeric Materials: Part 7
Tracing the History of Polymeric Materials: Part 8
Tracing the History of Polymeric Materials: Part 9
Tracing the History of Polymeric Materials: Part 10
Tracing the History of Polymeric Materials: Part 11
Tracing the History of Polymeric Materials: Part 12
Tracing the History of Polymeric Materials, Part 13
Tracing the History of Polymeric Materials: Part 14
Tracing the History of Polymeric Materials: Part 15
Tracing the History of Polymeric Materials: Part 16
Tracing the History of Polymeric Materials: Part 17
Tracing the History of Polymeric Materials: Part 18
Tracing the History of Polymeric Materials: Part 19
Tracing the History of Polymeric Materials: Part 20
Another future potential to consider is atomically precise manufacturing—true “nanotech”, rather than simply nanomaterials—which could allow some really incredible possibilities such as manufacturing or construction with diamond. See Where Is My Flying Car?
That blog series looks great, thank you!
Sure thing, thanks for the link!
True atomic scale manufacturing is definitely an exciting future tech! One angle from some proponents of cell-free catalysis is that enzymes is a path to atomic scale manufacturing and assembly. For example, Aether Bio has nano-manufacturing in the spirit of what you are saying as their vision.