Nanotechnology: radical new science or plus ça change?

Abstract

Is a radical nanotechnology involving the construction of macroscopic products via software-directed manipulation of single molecules possible? Are we only a few decades away from a technological utopia where virtually any product may be constructed via molecular manufacturing?1 These and other similarly provocative questions formed the backdrop for a well-attended debate on nanotechnology held in the University of Nottingham last year (26 August 2005). To the best of the author’s knowledge, the Nottingham event represented the first time that key proponents of the molecular manufacturing concept (originally put forward by Drexler in 19812) debated with leading British scientists in a public forum in the UK. A transcript of the entire debate features in this issue of Nanotechnology Perceptions, and the reader will find that a variety of thought-provoking technical and societal issues were raised during the two hour session.