Molecular nanotechnology is a technology
based on the ability to build structures
to complex, atomic specifications by
means of mechanosynthesis. This is
distinct from nanoscale materials. Based
on Richard Feynman's vision of miniature
factories using nanomachines to build
complex products, this advanced form of
nanotechnology would make use of
positionally-controlled mechanosynthesis
guided by molecular machine systems. MNT
would involve combining physical
principles demonstrated by biophysics,
chemistry, other nanotechnologies, and
the molecular machinery of life with the
systems engineering principles found in
modern macroscale factories.
Introduction
While conventional chemistry uses
inexact processes obtaining inexact
results, and biology exploits inexact
processes to obtain definitive results,
molecular nanotechnology would employ
original definitive processes to obtain
definitive results. The desire in
molecular nanotechnology would be to
balance molecular reactions in
positionally-controlled locations and
orientations to obtain desired chemical
reactions, and then to build systems by
further assembling the products of these
reactions.
A roadmap for the development of MNT is
an objective of a broadly based
technology project led by Battelle and
the Foresight Institute. The roadmap was
originally scheduled for completion by
late 2006, but was released in January
2008. The Nanofactory Collaboration is a
more focused ongoing effort involving 23
researchers from 10 organizations and 4
countries that is developing a practical
research agenda specifically aimed at
positionally-controlled diamond
mechanosynthesis and diamondoid
nanofactory development. In August 2005,
a task force consisting of 50+
international experts from various
fields was organized by the Center for
Responsible Nanotechnology to study the
societal implications of molecular
nanotechnology.
Projected applications and capabilities
= Smart materials and nanosensors=
One proposed application of MNT is
so-called smart materials. This term
refers to any sort of material designed
and engineered at the nanometer scale
for a specific task. It encompasses a
wide variety of possible commercial
applications. One example would be
materials designed to respond
differently to various molecules; such a
capability could lead, for example, to
artificial drugs which would recognize
and render inert specific viruses.
Another is the idea of self-healing
structures, which would repair small
tears in a surface naturally in the same
way as self-sealing tires or human skin.
A MNT nanosensor would resemble a smart
material, involving a small component
within a larger machine that would react
to its environment and change in some
fundamental, intentional way. A very
simple example: a photosensor might
passively measure the incident light and
discharge its absorbed energy as
electricity when the light passes above
or below a specified threshold, sending
a signal to a larger machine. Such a
sensor would supposedly cost less and
use less power than a conventional
sensor, and yet function usefully in all
the same applications — for example,
turning on parking lot lights when it
gets dark.
While smart materials and nanosensors
both exemplify useful applications of
MNT, they pale in comparison with the
complexity of the technology most
popularly associated with the term: the
replicating nanorobot.
= Replicating nanorobots=
MNT nanofacturing is popularly linked
with the idea of swarms of coordinated
nanoscale robots working together, a
popularization of an early proposal by
K. Eric Drexler in his 1986 discussions
of MNT, but superseded in 1992. In this
early proposal, sufficiently capable
nanorobots would construct more
nanorobots in an artificial environment
containing special molecular building
blocks.
Critics have doubted both the
feasibility of self-replicating
nanorobots and the feasibility of
control if self-replicating nanorobots
could be achieved: they cite the
possibility of mutations removing any
control and favoring reproduction of
mutant pathogenic variations. Advocates
address the first doubt by pointing out
that the first macroscale autonomous
machine replicator, made of Lego blocks,
was built and operated experimentally in
2002. While there are sensory advantages
present at the macroscale compared to
the limited sensorium available at the
nanoscale, proposals for positionally
controlled nanoscale mechanosynthetic
fabrication systems employ dead
reckoning of tooltips combined with
reliable reaction sequence design to
ensure reliable results, hence a limited
sensorium is no handicap; similar
considerations apply to the positional
assembly of small nanoparts. Advocates
address the second doubt by arguing that
bacteria are evolved to evolve, while
nanorobot mutation could be actively
prevented by common error-correcting
techniques. Similar ideas are advocated
in the Foresight Guidelines on Molecular
Nanotechnology, and a map of the
137-dimensional replicator design space
recently published by Freitas and Merkle
provides numerous proposed methods by
which replicators could, in principle,
be safely controlled by good design.
However, the concept of suppressing
mutation raises the question: How can
design evolution occur at the nanoscale
without a process of random mutation and
deterministic selection? Critics argue
that MNT advocates have not provided a
substitute for such a process of
evolution in this nanoscale arena where
conventional sensory-based selection
processes are lacking. The limits of the
sensorium available at the nanoscale
could make it difficult or impossible to
winnow successes from failures.
Advocates argue that design evolution
should occur deterministically and
strictly under human control, using the
conventional engineering paradigm of
modeling, design, prototyping, testing,
analysis, and redesign.
In any event, since 1992 technical
proposals for MNT do not include
self-replicating nanorobots, and recent
ethical guidelines put forth by MNT
advocates prohibit unconstrained
self-replication.
= Medical nanorobots=
One of the most important applications
of MNT would be medical nanorobotics or
nanomedicine, an area pioneered by
Robert Freitas in numerous books and
papers. The ability to design, build,
and deploy large numbers of medical
nanorobots would, at a minimum, make
possible the rapid elimination of
disease and the reliable and relatively
painless recovery from physical trauma.
Medical nanorobots might also make
possible the convenient correction of
genetic defects, and help to ensure a
greatly expanded lifespan. More
controversially, medical nanorobots
might be used to augment natural human
capabilities.
= Utility fog=
Another proposed application of
molecular nanotechnology is "utility
fog" — in which a cloud of networked
microscopic robots would change its
shape and properties to form macroscopic
objects and tools in accordance with
software commands. Rather than modify
the current practices of consuming
material goods in different forms,
utility fog would simply replace many
physical objects.
= Phased-array optics=
Yet another proposed application of MNT
would be phased-array optics. However,
this appears to be a problem addressable
by ordinary nanoscale technology. PAO
would use the principle of phased-array
millimeter technology but at optical
wavelengths. This would permit the
duplication of any sort of optical
effect but virtually. Users could
request holograms, sunrises and sunsets,
or floating lasers as the mood strikes.
PAO systems were described in BC
Crandall's Nanotechnology: Molecular
Speculations on Global Abundance in the
Brian Wowk article "Phased-Array
Optics."
Potential social impacts
= Benefits=
Nanotechnology will let us continue the
historical trends in manufacturing right
up to the fundamental limits imposed by
physical law. It will let us make
remarkably powerful molecular computers.
It will let us make materials over fifty
times lighter than steel or aluminium
alloy but with the same strength. We'll
be able to make jets, rockets, cars or
even chairs that, by today's standards,
would be remarkably light, strong, and
inexpensive. Molecular surgical tools,
guided by molecular computers and
injected into the blood stream could
find and destroy cancer cells or
invading bacteria, unclog arteries, or
provide oxygen when the circulation is
impaired.
Nanotechnology will replace our entire
manufacturing base with a new, radically
more precise, radically less expensive,
and radically more flexible way of
making products. The aim is not simply
to replace today's computer chip making
plants, but also to replace the assembly
lines for cars, televisions, telephones,
books, surgical tools, missiles,
bookcases, airplanes, tractors, and all
the rest. The objective is a pervasive
change in manufacturing, a change that
will leave virtually no product
untouched. Economic progress and
military readiness in the 21st Century
will depend fundamentally on maintaining
a competitive position in
nanotechnology.
Despite the current early developmental
status of nanotechnology and molecular
nanotechnology, much concern surrounds
MNT's anticipated impact on economics
and on law. Whatever the exact effects,
MNT, if achieved, would tend to reduce
the scarcity of manufactured goods and
make many more goods manufacturable.
It is generally considered that future
citizens of a
molecular-nanotechnological society
would still need money, in the form of
unforgeable digital cash or physical
specie. They might use such money to buy
goods and services that are unique, or
limited within the solar system. These
might include: matter, energy,
information, real estate, design
services, entertainment services, legal
services, fame, political power, or the
attention of other people to one's
politicalphilosophical message.
Furthermore, futurists must consider
war, even between prosperous states, and
non-economic goals.
If MNT were realized, some resources
would remain limited, because unique
physical objects are limited or because
they depend on the goodwill of a
particular person. Demand will always
exceed supply for some things, and a
political economy may continue to exist
in any case. Whether the interest in
these limited resources would diminish
with the advent of virtual reality,
where they could be easily substituted,
is yet unclear. One reason why it might
not is a hypothetical preference for
"the real thing", although such an
opinion could easily be mollified if
virtual reality were to develop to a
certain level of quality.
MNT should make possible nanomedical
capabilities able to cure any medical
condition not already cured by advances
in other areas. Good health would be
common, and poor health of any form
would be as rare as smallpox and scurvy
are today. Even cryonics would be
feasible, as cryopreserved tissue could
be fully repaired.
= Risks=
Molecular nanotechnology is one of the
technologies that some analysts believe
could lead to a Technological
Singularity. Some feel that molecular
nanotechnology would have daunting
risks. It conceivably could enable
cheaper and more destructive
conventional weapons. Also, molecular
nanotechnology might permit weapons of
mass destruction that could
self-replicate, as viruses and cancer
cells do when attacking the human body.
Commentators generally agree that, in
the event molecular nanotechnology were
developed, its self-replication should
be permitted only under very controlled
or "inherently safe" conditions.
A fear exists that nanomechanical
robots, if achieved, and if designed to
self-replicate using naturally occurring
materials, could consume the entire
planet in their hunger for raw
materials, or simply crowd out natural
life, out-competing it for energy. Some
commentators have referred to this
situation as the "grey goo" or
"ecophagy" scenario. K. Eric Drexler
considers an accidental "grey goo"
scenario extremely unlikely and says so
in later editions of Engines of
Creation.
In light of this perception of potential
danger, the Foresight Institute has
drafted a set of guidelines for the
ethical development of nanotechnology.
These include the banning of
free-foraging self-replicating
pseudo-organisms on the Earth's surface,
at least, and possibly in other places.
Technical issues and criticism
The feasibility of the basic
technologies analyzed in Nanosystems has
been the subject of a formal scientific
review by U.S. National Academy of
Sciences, and has also been the focus of
extensive debate on the internet and in
the popular press.
= Study and recommendations by the U.S.
National Academy of Sciences=
In 2006, U.S. National Academy of
Sciences released the report of a study
of molecular manufacturing as part of a
longer report, A Matter of Size:
Triennial Review of the National
Nanotechnology Initiative The study
committee reviewed the technical content
of Nanosystems, and in its conclusion
states that no current theoretical
analysis can be considered definitive
regarding several questions of potential
system performance, and that optimal
paths for implementing high-performance
systems cannot be predicted with
confidence. It recommends experimental
research to advance knowledge in this
area:
"Although theoretical calculations can
be made today, the eventually attainable
range of chemical reaction cycles, error
rates, speed of operation, and
thermodynamic efficiencies of such
bottom-up manufacturing systems cannot
be reliably predicted at this time.
Thus, the eventually attainable
perfection and complexity of
manufactured products, while they can be
calculated in theory, cannot be
predicted with confidence. Finally, the
optimum research paths that might lead
to systems which greatly exceed the
thermodynamic efficiencies and other
capabilities of biological systems
cannot be reliably predicted at this
time. Research funding that is based on
the ability of investigators to produce
experimental demonstrations that link to
abstract models and guide long-term
vision is most appropriate to achieve
this goal."
= Assemblers versus nanofactories=
A section heading in Drexler's Engines
of Creation reads "Universal
Assemblers", and the following text
speaks of multiple types of assemblers
which, collectively, could
hypothetically "build almost anything
that the laws of nature allow to exist."
Drexler's colleague Ralph Merkle has
noted that, contrary to widespread
legend, Drexler never claimed that
assembler systems could build absolutely
any molecular structure. The endnotes in
Drexler's book explain the qualification
"almost": "For example, a delicate
structure might be designed that, like a
stone arch, would self-destruct unless
all its pieces were already in place. If
there were no room in the design for the
placement and removal of a scaffolding,
then the structure might be impossible
to build. Few structures of practical
interest seem likely to exhibit such a
problem, however."
In 1992, Drexler published Nanosystems:
Molecular Machinery, Manufacturing, and
Computation, a detailed proposal for
synthesizing stiff covalent structures
using a table-top factory. Diamondoid
structures and other stiff covalent
structures, if achieved, would have a
wide range of possible applications,
going far beyond current MEMS
technology. An outline of a path was put
forward in 1992 for building a table-top
factory in the absence of an assembler.
Other researchers have begun advancing
tentative, alternative proposed paths 
for this in the years since Nanosystems
was published.
= Hard versus soft nanotechnology=
In 2004 Richard Jones wrote Soft
Machines, a book for lay audiences
published by Oxford University. In this
book he describes radical nanotechnology
as a deterministic/mechanistic idea of
nano engineered machines that does not
take into account the nanoscale
challenges such as wetness, stickness,
Brownian motion, and high viscosity. He
also explains what is soft
nanotechnology or more appropriatelly
biomimetic nanotechnology which is the
way forward, if not the best way, to
design functional nanodevices that can
cope with all the problems at a
nanoscale. One can think of soft
nanotechnology as the development of
nanomachines that uses the lessons
learned from biology on how things work,
chemistry to precisely engineer such
devices and stochastic physics to model
the system and its natural processes in
detail.
= The Smalley-Drexler debate=
Several researchers, including Nobel
Prize winner Dr. Richard Smalley,
attacked the notion of universal
assemblers, leading to a rebuttal from
Drexler and colleagues, and eventually
to an exchange of letters. Smalley
argued that chemistry is extremely
complicated, reactions are hard to
control, and that a universal assembler
is science fiction. Drexler and
colleagues, however, noted that Drexler
never proposed universal assemblers able
to make absolutely anything, but instead
proposed more limited assemblers able to
make a very wide variety of things. They
challenged the relevance of Smalley's
arguments to the more specific proposals
advanced in Nanosystems. Also, Smalley
argued that nearly all of modern
chemistry involves reactions that take
place in a solvent, because the small
molecules of a solvent contribute many
things, such as lowering binding
energies for transition states. Since
nearly all known chemistry requires a
solvent, Smalley felt that Drexler's
proposal to use a high vacuum
environment was not feasible. However,
Drexler addresses this in Nanosystems by
showing mathematically that well
designed catalysts can provide the
effects of a solvent and can
fundamentally be made even more
efficient than a solvent/enzyme reaction
could ever be. It is noteworthy that,
contrary to Smalley's opinion that
enzymes require water, "Not only do
enzymes work vigorously in anhydrous
organic media, but in this unnatural
milieu they acquire remarkable
properties such as greatly enhanced
stability, radically altered substrate
and enantiomeric specificities,
molecular memory, and the ability to
catalyse unusual reactions.""Enzymatic
catalysis in anhydrous organic
solvents.". April 1989. ""Enzymatic
catalysis in anhydrous organic
solvents". April 1989. 
= Design issues=
For the future, some means have to be
found for MNT design evolution at the
nanoscale which mimics the process of
biological evolution at the molecular
scale. Biological evolution proceeds by
random variation in ensemble averages of
organisms combined with culling of the
less-successful variants and
reproduction of the more-successful
variants, and macroscale engineering
design also proceeds by a process of
design evolution from simplicity to
complexity as set forth somewhat
satirically by John Gall: "A complex
system that works is invariably found to
have evolved from a simple system that
worked. . . . A complex system designed
from scratch never works and can not be
patched up to make it work. You have to
start over, beginning with a system that
works."  A breakthrough in MNT is needed
which proceeds from the simple atomic
ensembles which can be built with, e.g.,
an STM to complex MNT systems via a
process of design evolution. A handicap
in this process is the difficulty of
seeing and manipulation at the nanoscale
compared to the macroscale which makes
deterministic selection of successful
trials difficult; in contrast biological
evolution proceeds via action of what
Richard Dawkins has called the "blind
watchmaker"  comprising random molecular
variation and deterministic
reproduction/extinction.
At present in 2007 the practice of
nanotechnology embraces both stochastic
approaches and deterministic approaches
wherein single molecules are manipulated
on substrate surfaces by deterministic
methods comprising nudging them with STM
or AFM probes and causing simple binding
or cleavage reactions to occur. The
dream of a complex, deterministic
molecular nanotechnology remains
elusive. Since the mid-1990s, thousands
of surface scientists and thin film
technocrats have latched on to the
nanotechnology bandwagon and redefined
their disciplines as nanotechnology.
This has caused much confusion in the
field and has spawned thousands of
"nano"-papers on the peer reviewed
literature. Most of these reports are
extensions of the more ordinary research
done in the parent fields.
= The feasibility of the proposals in
Nanosystems=
The feasibility of Drexler's proposals
largely depends, therefore, on whether
designs like those in Nanosystems could
be built in the absence of a universal
assembler to build them and would work
as described. Supporters of molecular
nanotechnology frequently claim that no
significant errors have been discovered
in Nanosystems since 1992. Even some
critics concede that "Drexler has
carefully considered a number of
physical principles underlying the 'high
level' aspects of the nanosystems he
proposes and, indeed, has thought in
some detail" about some issues.
Other critics claim, however, that
Nanosystems omits important chemical
details about the low-level 'machine
language' of molecular nanotechnology.
They also claim that much of the other
low-level chemistry in Nanosystems
requires extensive further work, and
that Drexler's higher-level designs
therefore rest on speculative
foundations. Recent such further work by
Freitas and Merkle  is aimed at
strengthening these foundations by
filling the existing gaps in the
low-level chemistry.
Drexler argues that we may need to wait
until our conventional nanotechnology
improves before solving these issues:
"Molecular manufacturing will result
from a series of advances in molecular
machine systems, much as the first Moon
landing resulted from a series of
advances in liquid-fuel rocket systems.
We are now in a position like that of
the British Interplanetary Society of
the 1930s which described how multistage
liquid-fueled rockets could reach the
Moon and pointed to early rockets as
illustrations of the basic principle."
However, Freitas and Merkle argue  that
a focused effort to achieve diamond
mechanosynthesis can begin now, using
existing technology, and might achieve
success in less than a decade if their
"direct-to-DMS approach is pursued
rather than a more circuitous
development approach that seeks to
implement less efficacious nondiamondoid
molecular manufacturing technologies
before progressing to diamondoid".
To summarize the arguments against
feasibility: First, critics argue that a
primary barrier to achieving molecular
nanotechnology is the lack of an
efficient way to create machines on a
molecular/atomic scale, especially in
the absence of a well-defined path
toward a self-replicating assembler or
diamondoid nanofactory. Advocates
respond that a preliminary research path
leading to a diamondoid nanofactory is
being developed.
A second difficulty in reaching
molecular nanotechnology is design. Hand
design of a gear or bearing at the level
of atoms might take a few to several
weeks. While Drexler, Merkle and others
have created designs of simple parts, no
comprehensive design effort for anything
approaching the complexity of a Model T
Ford has been attempted. Advocates
respond that it is difficult to
undertake a comprehensive design effort
in the absence of significant funding
for such efforts, and that despite this
handicap much useful design-ahead has
nevertheless been accomplished with new
software tools that have been developed,
e.g., at Nanorex.
In the latest report A Matter of Size:
Triennial Review of the National
Nanotechnology Initiative put out by the
National Academies Press in December
2006, no clear way forward toward
molecular nanotechnology could yet be
seen, as per the conclusion on page 108
of that report: "Although theoretical
calculations can be made today, the
eventually attainable range of chemical
reaction cycles, error rates, speed of
operation, and thermodynamic
efficiencies of such bottom-up
manufacturing systems cannot be reliably
predicted at this time. Thus, the
eventually attainable perfection and
complexity of manufactured products,
while they can be calculated in theory,
cannot be predicted with confidence.
Finally, the optimum research paths that
might lead to systems which greatly
exceed the thermodynamic efficiencies
and other capabilities of biological
systems cannot be reliably predicted at
this time. Research funding that is
based on the ability of investigators to
produce experimental demonstrations that
link to abstract models and guide
long-term vision is most appropriate to
achieve this goal." This call for
research leading to demonstrations is
welcomed by groups such as the
Nanofactory Collaboration who are
specifically seeking experimental
successes in diamond mechanosynthesis.
The "Technology Roadmap for Productive
Nanosystems" aims to offer additional
constructive insights.
It is perhaps interesting to ask whether
or not most structures consistent with
physical law can in fact be
manufactured. Advocates assert that to
achieve most of the vision of molecular
manufacturing it is not necessary to be
able to build "any structure that is
compatible with natural law." Rather, it
is necessary to be able to build only a
sufficient subset of such structures—as
is true, in fact, of any practical
manufacturing process used in the world
today, and is true even in biology. In
any event, as Richard Feynman once said,
"It is scientific only to say what's
more likely or less likely, and not to
be proving all the time what's possible
or impossible."
= Existing work on diamond
mechanosynthesis=
There is a growing body of peer-reviewed
theoretical work on synthesizing diamond
by mechanically removing/adding hydrogen
atoms  and depositing carbon atoms .
This work is slowly permeating the
broader nanoscience community and is
being critiqued. For instance, Peng et
al. reports that the most-studied
mechanosynthesis tooltip motif
successfully places a C2 carbon dimer on
a C(110) diamond surface at both 300 K
and 80 K, and that the silicon variant
also works at 80 K but not at 300 K.
Over 100,000 CPU hours were invested in
this latest study. The DCB6 tooltip
motif, initially described by Merkle and
Freitas at a Foresight Conference in
2002, was the first complete tooltip
ever proposed for diamond
mechanosynthesis and remains the only
tooltip motif that has been successfully
simulated for its intended function on a
full 200-atom diamond surface.
The tooltips modeled in this work are
intended to be used only in carefully
controlled environments. Maximum
acceptable limits for tooltip
translational and rotational
misplacement errors are reported in Peng
et al. -- tooltips must be positioned
with great accuracy to avoid bonding the
dimer incorrectly. Peng et al. reports
that increasing the handle thickness
from 4 support planes of C atoms above
the tooltip to 5 planes decreases the
resonance frequency of the entire
structure from 2.0 THz to 1.8 THz. More
importantly, the vibrational footprints
of a DCB6Ge tooltip mounted on a
384-atom handle and of the same tooltip
mounted on a similarly constrained but
much larger 636-atom "crossbar" handle
are virtually identical in the
non-crossbar directions. Additional
computational studies modeling still
bigger handle structures are welcome,
but the ability to precisely position
SPM tips to the requisite atomic
accuracy has been repeatedly
demonstrated experimentally at low
temperature, or even at room temperature
constituting a basic existence proof for
this capability.
Further research to consider additional
tooltips will require time-consuming
computational chemistry and difficult
laboratory work.
A working nanofactory would require a
variety of well-designed tips for
different reactions, and detailed
analyses of placing atoms on more
complicated surfaces. Although this
appears a challenging problem given
current resources, many tools will be
available to help future researchers:
Moore's Law predicts further increases
in computer power, semiconductor
fabrication techniques continue to
approach the nanoscale, and researchers
grow ever more skilled at using
proteins, ribosomes and DNA to perform
novel chemistry.
Works of fiction
In The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson
diamond can be constructed by simply
building it out of carbon atoms. Also
all sorts of devices from dust size
detection devices to giant diamond
zeppelins are constructed atom by atom
using only carbon, oxygen, nitrogen and
chlorine atoms.
In the novel Tomorrow by Andrew
Saltzman, a scientist uses nanorobotics
to create a liquid that when inserted
into the bloodstream, renders one nearly
invincible given that the microscopic
machines repair tissue almost
instantaneously after it is damaged.
In the roleplaying game Splicers by
Palladium Books, humanity has succumbed
to a "nanobot plague" that causes any
object made of a non-precious metal to
twist and change shape moments after
being touched by a human. The object
will then proceed to attack the human.
This has forced humanity to develop
"biotechnological" devices to replace
those previously made of metal.
On the television show Mystery Science
Theater 3000, the Nanites - are
self-replicating, bio-engineered
organisms that work on the ship, they
are microscopic creatures that reside in
the Satellite of Love's computer
systems. The Nanites made their first
appearance in season 8. Based on the
concept of nanotechnology, their comical
deus ex machina activities included such
diverse tasks as instant repair and
construction, hairstyling, performing a
Nanite variation of a flea circus,
conducting a microscopic war, and even
destroying the Observers' planet after a
dangerously vague request from Mike to
"care of [a] little problem". They also
ran a microbrewery.
See also
Nanotechnology in water treatment
Technomimetics
References
Reference works
The primary technical reference work on
this topic is Nanosystems: Molecular
Machinery, Manufacturing, and
Computation, an in-depth, physics-based
analysis of a particular class of
potential nanomachines and molecular
manufacturing systems, with extensive
analyses of their feasibility and
performance. Nanosystems is closely
based on Drexler's MIT doctoral
dissertation, "Molecular Machinery and
Manufacturing with Applications to
Computation". Both works also discuss
technology development pathways that
begin with scanning probe and
biomolecular technologies.
Drexler and others extended the ideas of
molecular nanotechnology with several
other books. Unbounding the Future: the
Nanotechnology Revolution  and .
Unbounding the Future is an easy-to-read
book that introduces the ideas of
molecular nanotechnology in a
not-too-technical way. Other notable
works in the same vein are Nanomedicine
Vol. I and Vol. IIA by Robert Freitas
and Kinematic Self-Replicating Machines
"KSRM Table of Contents Page".
Molecularassembler.com. Retrieved
2010-09-05.  by Robert Freitas and Ralph
Merkle.
Nanotechnology: Molecular Speculations
on Global Abundance Edited by BC
Crandall offers interesting ideas for
MNT applications.
External links
Foresight Institute
Main Page - Wise-Nano A wiki for MNT
Dr. Freitas's bibliography on
mechanosynthesis updated here
The Molecular Assembler website of
Robert A. Freitas Jr.
Nanotechnology Now Nanotechnology
basics, news, and general information
Eric Drexler's personal website and
digital archive
National Nanotechnology Initiative
Institute for Molecular Manufacturing
Accelerating Future's MNT articles
See also
Nanochemistry
