Medieval philosophers, it is said, would spend days and weeks arguing about how many angels could dance on the head of a pin. Hundreds of years later, only the subject has changed. Today, futuristic philosophers and scientists spend days, weeks, and, in some cases, lifetimes, arguing "How many atom-sized manufacturers can build new worlds on the head of a pin." That question is the essence of a new scientific discipline called "Nanotechnology," "nano" being Greek for "Dwarf."
As Pecovitz (1997) notes, "nanotechnology conjures images that seem a little preposterous even to the most optimistic technophiles: microscopic cell-repair machines speeding through your bloodstream, tiny terabyte memory chips, dirt morphing into Caesar salad" (Pescovitz, 1997, 3). Pescovitz, a contributing editor of Wired Magazine adds "even though nanotechnology--an approach to engineering where individual atoms are positioned to build practical structures--was first proposed by famed physicist Richard Feynman way back in 1959, practical applications remain scarce" (Pescovitz, 1997, 3).
Pescovitz's (1997) article was describing the fifth Foresight Conference on Molecular Nanotechnology held in November, 1997, where 325 nanotechnologists gathered to hear keynote speaker Richard Smelly, a Rice University professor who shared the 1996 Nobel Prize for the 1985 discovery of buckminsterfullerene (a previously unknown crystalline form of carbon), and who has recently invented "Bucky Tubes," which are conductive wires 100,000 times thinner than a human hair. Pescovitz cornered Dr. Smalley for an interview, which is more than a little disturbing to read.
The interview starts off with the normal first question: "What exactly is nanotechnology?" Dr. Smalley responded by stating:
Nanotechnology is the art, science and technology of building stuff that does stuff on the nanometer scale. [A nanometer is one-billionth of a meter.] With the term "molecul...