Navy query on Brownian motion, Maxwell's Demon

from the don't-need-a-PhD-to-answer-this-one dept.
Waldemar Perez writes "A small Navy project is at stake because a 74 Years old PhD is arguing to management that research in nano machines is ridiculous and a waste of money. He has seen only recently some of Drexler's designs on the web and also read the recent article that Mr. Daniel Goldin from NASA published in Mechanical Engineering magazine on Molecular Nanotechnology. He claims that Mr. Goldin does not know what he is talking about and that he feels sorry for him because he has embarrass himself by publishing this article. Some of his questions are familiar to anyone in the field: 1. The construction of molecular machines of the kind proposed by nanotechnology does not take into account Brownian Motion and the famous Maxwell's Demon. 2. How we can assemble a robotic arm for example, manipulating atoms and how we can "clamp" such a structure to another object. Is there any particular section of Nanosystems or scientific papers out there that address the Brownian Motion and Maxwell's Demon issues. I really appreciate any help to answer some of his questions. Thanks"