Robin Cook
Nano
NANO is dedicated both to the promise nanotechnology brings to medicine and to the hope that any downside will be minimal.
PREFACE
Smallness has been a most unappreciated attribute. We’re always implored to think “big,” and never “small.” But now smallness sits at the convergence of chemistry, physics, and biology at a place called nanotechnology, which is transforming the world of scientific research and development and which is going to have an enormous impact on medicine. Despite its emergence only at the end of the last century, nanotechnology is already a multibillion-dollar phenomenon, with more commercial applications arriving on the scene at an ever increasing pace.
In the nanotechnology arena, small is very small indeed. The basic unit of length is the nanometer: one-billionth of a meter. Consider that if a marble were to represent a nanometer, then the entire earth would represent a meter. A hydrogen atom is approximately a tenth of a nanometer in diameter; a DNA molecule is 2 to 3 nanometers thick. Among living organisms, viruses range from 20 to 400 nanometers; bacteria are larger. Salmonella, the cause of typhoid fever and 90 percent of cases of food poisoning worldwide, is on the order of 2,500 nanometers in length and about 500 nanometers in width, with a narrow tail-like flagellum, also 500 nanometers long. The cells making up the human body are larger, with the disc-shaped red blood cell coming in at a diameter of around 7,000 nanometers, while white blood cells are 10,000 nanometers plus.
This nano netherworld is governed more by quantum mechanics than by the laws of macro-chemistry and physics such that bonds, forces, and fields prevail over mass, gravity, and inertia. And the power of these bonds, forces, and fields is stupendous, representing the potential energy locked away from the cataclysms of billions of celestial supernova explosions that have occurred over the life span of the universe.
Within the microcosm of nano-sized constructs of individual atoms and molecules, surface phenomena assume particular importance because the ratio of surface area to volume increases dramatically, essentially exposing their negatively charged electron fields and thereby their characteristics. For example, in the nano realm, gold is not the color of gold, nor is it inert. More important for nanotechnology is the element carbon, the basic building block of life, already known to be versatile in forming both diamond and graphite. In the nanotechnology domain, carbon atoms have recently been found to form other astonishing and marvelous nano-sized structures when subjected to equivalent violent conditions that exist in the interior of red giant stars. These structures, called fullerenes, include sixty-carbon-atom buckyball spheres 1 nanometer in diameter, and even more important for nanotechnology, nanotubes of varying length and structure 1.3 nanometers in diameter. These surprising constructs have unique physical characteristics — amazing strength, lightness, stability, and conductivity, and will assume increasing importance as nanotechnology surges ahead.
In nanotechnology there exists a world of possibility but also of potential threat. Not even the experts know of the environmental or health effects of nanoparticles. For example, it has been noted that concretions of carbon nanotubes, something they tend to do, resemble the microscopic structure of asbestos with its known carcinogenic tendency. The fact that nanoparticles penetrate the human body, even the brain, is a known fact. How damaging this could be is totally unknown.
The second threat of nanotechnology is based on its immediate commercial success. In a very real sense, no one is guarding the multibillion-dollar R&D hen house. There is no oversight, like there had been with recombinant DNA research, on the potential negative impact of nanoparticles. Nanotechnology research is being done in thousands of private laboratories, each racing ahead willy-nilly to be the first to secure valuable patents in a competitive environment where secrecy is paramount and the risks are minimized or ignored.
PROLOGUE
The cyclist decided to go for a relaxing ride — the real training would resume on Tuesday, after he underwent more medical tests. The trainers had said it was okay for him to take his bike out to work off some of the stiffness he had built up the previous day, but insisted he shouldn’t push himself too hard. They had also made sure he was wearing the usual sensors for heart rate, breathing rate, and oxygen partial pressure, as well as the GPS device so that he could be appropriately monitored.
The route he was provided went north of Boulder to Carter Lake and back. The total trip was more than seventy-five miles, but there wasn’t much change in elevation along the way. If he and the others expected to compete at the level intended, they would have to be able to cycle seventy-five miles of predominantly flat terrain without breaking a sweat.
After a few miles, the cyclist felt bored and restless. He knew he was supposed to take it easy, but his body felt so good, it was as if he were flying over the pavement. His legs were stronger than they’d ever been, and not only was he not out of breath, his breathing was shallow and easy like he was strolling in a park. It was a lovely spring day, and he welcomed the warmth of the sun on his back. Despite warnings to the contrary, he was ready to push himself. Why shouldn’t he take advantage of feeling this good? Perhaps they’d punish him in some form or fashion, but the cyclist was confident they wouldn’t follow through on any of the threats they made to hurt his family back home. Those sanctions were reserved for trying to escape, not for pushing oneself too hard during a workout. In fact, he thought he might even be rewarded for making such obvious progress in his conditioning.
What the hell? the man thought, and he started to race hard, pumping his legs, picking up speed, crouching flat against the handlebars to reduce the wind resistance. He’d been cycling for only about a year, but he doubted there was anyone in the world who could do this better. Wasn’t his country about to demonstrate to the world that they could compete on a world-class level and in all endurance-based sporting endeavors?
The route had one climb of any significance, and the cyclist attacked it hard, initially holding his breath. He didn’t slow down at all, taking the paved road as if it were flat, rather than a 6 percent incline. He was really racing now, flying, exhilarated, when, suddenly, halfway up the hill, he couldn’t breathe and there was a sharp, stabbing pain in his chest and another in his left upper abdomen. The cyclist’s hand went to his throat as he felt his airway contract. He tried to brake, but lost control and the bike veered right, hit the slight curb, and threw the cyclist hard into a downward-sloping shoulder that was half grass, half gravel. He landed awkwardly and bumped and rolled before coming to a stop. His arms and legs were scraped and cut, but that didn’t matter because, try as he might, he couldn’t catch his breath. It was as if he had breathed out but couldn’t breathe in. On top of that, he was perspiring crazily, his heart was beating at an impossible rate, and the pain was unrelenting. The man hovered on the brink of unconsciousness, unable to get up or even move.
He had no idea how long he had been lying there, his body motionless on the outside but spiraling out of control within, like a runaway nuclear reactor. After a time — ten, thirty minutes? — he was aware of figures standing around him. Three or four people were talking at once and a hand grabbed his wrist. The man was aware that these were countrymen — he was in the United States but these people were Chinese, like him. They were part of the team. He felt his body being lifted roughly from the road and laid on a hard surface, and then a different kind of motion. The last sensation he had before finally falling unconscious was of being driven, presumably back to home base.