Summary: T
hereisnosuchthingasbadpublicity,it
is sometimes said. But ever since Eric
Drexler brought the term `nanotech-
nology' into vogue in his 1986 book Engines
of Creation, some researchers have felt that
the field has been burdened by unwanted
baggage. Drexler envisioned an era in which
factory production lines were replaced by
self-replicating, nanoscale `assemblers' --
andwarnedthatsuchentitiescouldsupplant
humans to become the dominant`life'forms
on our planet. These ideas were quickly
seized on by transhumanists -- people who
imagine what the world will look like after
technologyhasrenderedusextinct.
But today, nanotechnology is acquiring
the respect researchers in the field believe it
deserves. This year, for the first time, the US
governmenthasidentifiednanoscalescience

Source: Aksay, Ilhan A. - Department of Chemical Engineering, Princeton University

Collections: Materials Science