About Nanotechnology

History of Nanotechnology

Richard Feynman was the first scientist to suggest that devices and materials could someday be fabricated to atomic specifications: "The principles of physics, as far as I can see, do not speak against the possibility of maneuvering things atom by atom." Later the term nanotechnology was coined. Today nanotechnology is reshaping technology.
A short History of Nanotechnology

For the General Reader

Nanotechnology is a group of emerging technologies in which the structure of matter is controlled at the nanometer scale, the scale of small numbers of atoms, to produce novel materials and devices that have useful and unique properties. Some of these technologies impose only limited control of structure at the nanometer scale, but they are already in use, producing useful products. They are also being further developed to produce even more sophisticated products in which the structure of matter is more precisely controlled. The Foresight Nanotechnology Challenges focus on applying these developing technologies to solving important world problems.

Foresight has had a long-standing interest in the capabilities that await at the other end of this development process, when advanced nanotechnology will enable construction of complex systems in which each individual atom is specified and serves a designed function in the system. To read about these capabilities and their consequences:
Introductions to Nanotechnology for the General Reader

For the Technical Reader

Technical introductions to advanced nanotechnology have emphasized theoretical studies of what our current knowledge of physics and chemistry tells us about the kinds of systems we will eventually be able to build as our ability to control the structure of matter at the nanometer scale increases. Although the best path from current experimental abilities to building advanced systems is not yet clear, several authors have described some good possibilities.
Introductions to Nanotechnology for the Technical Reader

Nanotechnology FAQs

Molecular Manufacturing

Molecular manufacturing is the name given to the proposal that molecular machine systems will eventually be able to manufacture most objects, including large objects, from the molecule up, building complex products with atomic precision.

The proposal that advanced nanotechnology will include artificial molecular machine systems capable of building complex systems to atomic precision has been controversial within the scientific community. In general, proponents have argued from the grounds of theoretical analysis coupled with the existence of multiple plausible implementation pathways from current technology, while opponents have been unimpressed with theoretical arguments in the absence of direct experimental demonstration of crucial milestones.