Next Generation Microchips Inspired by Nature’s Nanotech

An article in ComputerWorld¹ reports that Hewlett Packard, IBM, Fujitsu, and Texas Instruments are putting effort into developing nanotechnologies for chip manufacturing based on a principle found in nature: the tendency of matter to fall into predictable patterns as molecules assume low energy states. There aren’t many structures that can be built today, but researchers are finding new ways to manipulate molecules all the time. IBM has been using self-assembly in a capacitor, and HP Labs have self-assembled 10-atom wide conductive wires.

Self-assembly—the tendency of certain structures to fall naturally into patterns—is one of nature’s most common occurrences. On a grand scale, for example, wind direction, temperature and moisture in the air result in predictable types of storms.
Now think smaller—much smaller. Certain molecules combine without guidance in predictable ways.  “Some molecules recognize each other and find natural low-energy states,” says W. Grant McGimpsey, a biology professor and director of the Bioengineering Institute at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts.   (Emphasis added in all quotes.)

¹ Steve Ulfelder,“Molecular Self-Assembly: Nanoscale circuits build themselves, breathing new life into Moore’s Law,” ComputerWorld, pg 28, 5 September, 2005.

Certain molecules in nature recognize each other and combine into predictable patterns as they settle into low-energy states.  This fits very nicely with the Second Law of Thermodynamics and the formation of snowflakes, but is exactly the opposite of what evolutionists claim happened three or four billions of years ago on Earth at the origin of life.  Biological RNA and DNA are not mere crystals or repetitive patterns.  They are highly volatile and energetic, requiring cellular machinery to build and maintain.  Most important, they contain genetic information not derivable from the atoms of which they are composed nor from the laws of physics that describe how their parts interact.  In contrast, “Self-assembled materials form very simple patterns,” said one of the engineers.  Though ordered, these materials do not specify anything.  Though the article spoke of “natural self-assembly,” there was no mention of evolution – good, because evolution and engineering don’t logically mix.  Neo-Darwinian evolution is unguided and purposeless; the engineers here were harnessing natural processes toward intelligently-designed, functional ends.