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Nanotechnology: the Coming Revolution
in Molecular Manufacturing

"Molecular nanotechnology: Thorough, inexpensive control of the structure of matter based on molecule-by-molecule control of products and byproducts of molecular manufacturing."

................................................K.Eric Drexler, Chris Peterson, Gayle Pergamit

	Introductions For the General Reader For the Technical Reader Nanotechnology FAQ Feasibility of Molecular Manufacturing		Special Topics Technical Progress towards Molecular Manufacturing Jobs in Nanotechnology Studying Nanotechnology History of the Nanotechnology Idea Policy Issues Projected Applications of Nanotechnology
	Sources of Further Information Nanotechnology Books on the Web Online Nanotechnology Bookstore Other Sources ... Foresight Publications Nanotechnology Images Special Features Discussion Groups Other Publications, Bibliographies, Web Sites

Introductions

For the General Reader

• Unbounding the Future provides a clear, nontechnical introduction to molecular manufacturing: what it is about, what it will make possible, and what are the dangers, as well as the opportunities, that will come with the development of nanotechnology. The entire book, with illustrations, is now available at this Web site. A book review is available on the Web.
• The first chapter of Engines of Creation presents the basic vision of nanotechnology as a fundamental revolution in technology. This is the first and still the classic book on nanotechnology. The entire book is available here. It features an updated Afterword as well as a new Introduction written especially for the Web version.
• A brief introduction to the core concepts of molecular nanotechnology is available on Ralph Merkle's nanotechnology Web site. Briefly and elegantly answers the question "What is nanotechnology?"
• "Molecular Nanotechnology: the Next Industrial Revolution" (2000) Written by Foresight President Christine Peterson, a preprint of an article in the IEEE publication Computer
• "Nanotechnology: From Concept to R&D Goal" (1995) Written by Foresight President Christine Peterson and presented here with the permission of the original publisher HotWired
• "It's a small, small, small, small world" (1997) Written by Foresight Board Member Ralph Merkle and published in MIT's Technology Review, provides a general introduction to nanotechnology. The original article is no longer available on the Technology Review Web site, but a longer and somewhat more technical version of the article is available on Ralph Merkle's nanotechnology Web site.
• "The Challenge of Nanotechnology" is an introductory talk that Eric Drexler gave at a conference in 1989, and is available on a Web site that contains the conference proceedings.
• Prospects in Nanotechnology presents articles from the First General Conference on Nanotechnology, a conference held by the Foresight Institute to present the wider applications of nanotechnology to an audience primarily of non-researchers. This book can be bought at our online bookstore.

For the Technical Reader

• The earliest and still most thorough treatment of molecular nanotechnology is the text Nanosystems: Molecular Machinery, Manufacturing, and Computation, by K. Eric Drexler, which can be bought at our online bookstore.
• The first journal article published on molecular nanotechnology: "Molecular engineering: An approach to the development of general capabilities for molecular manipulation," Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, September 1981, is now available at the Institute for Molecular Manufacturing web site.
• The key concept in the proposal that molecular nanotechnology will allow the fabrication of complex objects to atomic precision is positional control. Ralph Merkle has written and made available at his Web site the article "Molecular Manufacturing: Adding Positional Control to Chemical Synthesis."
• The key concept in molecular manufacturing that will allow inexpensive fabrication of all manufactured products is self replication. Ralph Merkle has written and made available at his Web site the article "Self replication and nanotechnology", which contains links to further information.
• Nanotechnology: Research and Perspectives is the proceedings of the First Foresight Conference on Nanotechnology, the first interdisciplinary technical conference on nanotechnology. This book can be bought at our online bookstore.
• "Overview of Nanotechnology" Adapted by J. Storrs Hall from papers by Ralph C. Merkle and K. Eric Drexler, and available at the sci.nanotech home page.

Nanotechnology FAQ

• Foresight's Frequently Asked Questions about Molecular Nanotechnology
• A list of Frequently-Asked Questions (FAQ) in nanomedicine has been compiled by Robert Freitas.
• The Frequently Asked Questions adapted for the sci.nanotech newsgroup. An older version of these FAQ.

Feasibility of Molecular Manufacturing

Foresight Chairman Eric Drexler proposed in 1981 that molecular objects could be mechanically positioned to atomic precision to effect controlled site-specific synthetic reactions to build complex objects. In 1986 Drexler gave the name assembler to devices that "will be able to bond atoms together in virtually any stable pattern." In Nanosystems, published in 1992, Drexler presented a detailed technical analysis of the process of molecular manufacturing that assemblers would make possible.

Although no flaws in this analysis have been suggested, a number of prominent scientists have made unsupported claims that molecular manufacturing is infeasible, and the wider scientific community has failed to take the prospect of molecular manufacturing seriously. For example, an otherwise visionary NSF study, published in 2002, titled Converging Technologies for Improving Human Performance (see Update 49) fails to mention molecular assemblers. Without a broad consensus in the technical community that molecular manufacturing is indeed feasible, it is likely that lack of resources will unnecessarily delay the development of molecular manufacturing, and the eventual development of assemblers will take place without informed oversight and will take an unprepared society by surprise, possibly with disastrous consequences.

• 1996. Foresight Debate with Scientific American
• 2001. "'That's impossible!' How good scientists reach bad conclusions", by Ralph C. Merkle
• 2001. IMM Responds to Articles in Scientific American. For the details: "On Physics, Fundamentals, and Nanorobots: A Rebuttal to Smalley's Assertion that Self-Replicating Mechanical Nanorobots Are Simply Not Possible" and "Many Future Nanomachines: A Rebuttal to Whiteside's Assertion That Mechanical Molecular Assemblers Are Not Workable and Not A Concern"
• 2002. "Balancing the National Nanotechnology Initiative's R&D Portfolio", by Neil Jacobstein, Ralph Merkle, and Robert Freitas (PDF - 68 KB)
• 2002. "The Next Stage", by Eric Drexler
• 2003. "Focusing on Assemblers", by Ralph Merkle
• 2003. In Congressional testimony, Foresight president Christine Peterson calls for "a basic feasibility review in which molecular manufacturing's proponents and critics can present their technical cases to a group of unbiased physicists for analysis."
• 2003. An open letter on assemblers from Drexler to Smalley and a follow-up letter more than two months later seeking closure

Special Topics

Technical Progress towards Molecular Manufacturing

Abstracts for Conference Talks and Posters

• The abstracts of the talks and posters presented at the October 2003 11th Foresight Conference on Molecular Nanotechnology provide a snapshot of current research in fields leading toward molecular manufacturing.
• The abstracts of the talks and posters presented at the October 2002 10th Foresight Conference on Molecular Nanotechnology provide a snapshot of current research in fields leading toward molecular manufacturing.
• The abstracts and full papers of the talks and posters presented at the November 2001 Ninth Foresight Conference on Molecular Nanotechnology provide a snapshot of current research in fields leading toward molecular manufacturing.
• The abstracts and full papers of the talks and posters presented at the November 2000 Eighth Foresight Conference on Molecular Nanotechnology provide a snapshot of current research in fields leading toward molecular manufacturing. See also the review of the Conference presented in Update 43.
• The abstracts and full papers of the talks and posters presented at the October 1999 Seventh Foresight Conference on Molecular Nanotechnology provide a snapshot of current research in fields leading toward molecular manufacturing. See also the review of the Conference presented in Update 39.
• The abstracts and full papers of the talks and posters presented at the November 1998 Sixth Foresight Conference on Molecular Nanotechnology provide a snapshot of current research in fields leading toward molecular manufacturing. See also the review of the Conference presented in Update 35.
• The abstracts and full papers of the talks and posters presented at the November 1997 Fifth Foresight Conference on Molecular Nanotechnology provide a snapshot of research in fields leading toward molecular manufacturing. See also the review of the Conference presented in Update 31.
• Abstracts and other information from the March, 1996, NASA Ames Computational Molecular Nanotechnology Workshop can be accessed from the Web page for that conference.
• Abstracts and many full papers can be accessed from the Web page for the 1995 Fourth Foresight Conference on Molecular Nanotechnology.

Foresight Update "Recent Progress" columns

• Update 52/IMM Report Number 40: Using an STM to fabricate a molecule
• Update 51/IMM Report Number 37: Learning to control nature's molecular machinery, Naturally occurring diamondoid building blocks, Building metallic circuits with DNA
• Update 50/IMM Report Number 34: programming nanoscale architectures with DNA
• Update 49/IMM Report Number 32: Nanofabrication of metal nanostructures, Designing a working monomolecular machine, Self-assembled nanotube scaffolding, Another DNA nanomotor
• Update 48/IMM Report Number 30: A Better DNA Motor, Building Complexes of Proteins
• Update 45/IMM Report Number 26: Structural Components, Moving Parts, Scanning Probe Techniques
• Update 44/IMM Report Number 24: STM Techniques, DNA Nanotechnology, Carbon Nanotubes, Nanowires, Biochemical Components
• Update 43/IMM Report Number 23: Molecular Electronics, Exponential Assembly, Nanotube Gears
• Update 42/IMM Report Number 19: DNA Actuator, Nanotubes, Proteins, STM Techniques
• Update 41/IMM Report Number 17: STM Fabrication, Diagnostics: Vibrational Spectroscopy, Carbon Nanotubes, Proteins
• Update 40/IMM Report Number 14: Inorganic Lattices, Nanotubes, Information Processing, Mechanochemistry, Fabrication Techniques
• Update 39/IMM Report Number 13: Ribosomes, Motors, Molecular Electronics, Scanned Probe Methods, Applications
• Update 38/IMM Report Number 11: New Components, Fullerene Nanotubes, Fabrication Techniques, Computational Elements
• Update 37/IMM Report Number 10: Mechanosynthesis Simulations, New Components, Single Molecule Techniques
• DNA actuator; Update 36/IMM Report Number 9: Nanotube Techniques, Protein Structure Prediction and Design, Protein Dynamics, Polymer-Based Self-Assembled Structures
• Update 35/IMM Report Number 6: Soluble Nanotubes, DNA Crystal Design, Container Molecule Self-Assembly, Exploiting Top Down Technology
• Update 34/IMM Report Number 3: New Components, Supramolecular systems, Diagnostics, Electronic Properties, Applications
• The "Recent Progress" column has been moved to the IMM Web site: IMM Report Number 2: Stiff Components From Bulk Techniques, Biopolymer and Foldamer Components, Scanning Probe Fabrication Techniques, Instrumentation, Calculations, Applications, Architecture
• Update 32: Calibrating Theory, Protein Analysis and Design, New Components
• Update 31: Simulation, Proximal Probe Techniques, DNA, Single Molecule Electronics
• Update 30: Applications, Foldamers, Enzyme Design and Analysis, Single Molecule Techniques
• Update 29: Components and Assembly Techniques, Novel Features, Protein Motors, Single Molecule Diagnostics, Single Electronics in Esprit, Abzymes
• Update 28: Advances in Parallel Techniques, Advances in Sequential Techniques, Catalytic Structures, Mechanochemistry
• Update 27: Advances in Proximal Probe Techniques, Towards Machine Phase Synthesis, Protein Design and Synthesis, DNA Technology, Fullerenes, Software
• Update 26: Supramolecular Chemistry
• Update 25: Molecular Components, Chemical Design Techniques, Modeling, Proximal Probes
• Update 24: Protein and Peptide Design, Catalytic Antibodies, A Protein/Polymer Actuator, Diagnostic Techniques, Larger Scale Components From Biological Systems, Ab Initio Calculations, Nanotube Advances, Scanning Probe Techniques, Nanometer Scale Particles
• Update 23: Scanning Tunneling Microscope Techniques, Single Electron Circuits, Biochemical Techniques, Crystal Growth, Computational Microscopy
• Update 22: Fabrication with Scanning Probes, Self-Assembled Systems, Analysis and Design Techniques, Applications, Instrumentation
• Update 21: Molecular Machinery Analysis, Molecular Motors, Protein Design and Synthesis, Organic Chemistry
• Update 20: Accessing atoms and molecules, Movies of molecules? Rotary engines in mitochondria, Peptide nanotubes
  
  
  

Jobs in Nanotechnology

Learn more about Jobs in Nanotechnology.

Studying Nanotechnology

Information about preparation for a career in nanotechnology can be found on the Web at:

• Foresight Briefing #1 "Studying Nanotechnology", written by K. Eric Drexler.
• "The study of nanotechnology", written by Ralph Merkle and made available on his Web site.
• Recommended text book: Nanosystems: Molecular Machinery, Manufacturing, and Computation
• Bachelor of Science in Nanotechnology at Flinders University in Adelaide, Austrailia
• University of Washington in Seattle to launch nation's first doctoral program in nanotechnology
• For an excellent overview on how to go about studying nanotechnology, see Steve Lenhert's "Nanotechnology Education".

History of the Nanotechnology Idea

• In a talk given in 1959, 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."
• The first journal article published on molecular nanotechnology: "Molecular engineering: An approach to the development of general capabilities for molecular manipulation," Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, September 1981, is now available at the Institute for Molecular Manufacturing Web site.
• A short history of the idea of nanotechnology is given in "Nanotechnology: Evolution of the Concept," Journal of the British Interplanetary Society, Vol. 45, pp. 395-400. This essay was reprinted in the book Prospects in Nanotechnology: Toward Molecular Manufacturing, ed. (Markus Krummenacker and James Lewis, Wiley, 1995).

Policy Issues

Position Statements on Nanotechnology and Policy

• "Balancing the National Nanotechnology Initiative's R&D Portfolio", by Neil Jacobstein, Ralph Merkle, and Robert Freitas (PDF - 68 KB)
• "Nanotechnology for Clean Energy and Resources", by Steve Gillett (PDF - 2.3 MB; text only - 272 KB)
• Foresight Position Statement on Avoiding High-Tech Terrorism
• Nanotechnology: Six Lessons from Sept. 11

Essays on the Impact of Nanotechnology on the Human Condition

• Essays to explore general issues related to the impact of nanotechnology and other emerging technologies upon the human condition and the environment.
• "How good scientists reach bad conclusions" by Ralph C. Merkle
• "Environmental Regulation of Nanotechnology: Some Preliminary Observations", PDF format, 112 KB. Requires ACROBAT READER by ADOBE.

Dangers, Safe Development, and Regulation

• "A Dialog on Dangers" by K. Eric Drexler
• The paper "Regulating Nanotechnology Development", written by David Forrest
• Arguments made by Arthur Kantrowitz about "The Weapon of Openness" are crucial to thinking about policy toward nanotechnology.
• Analysis of "Some Limits to Global Ecophagy by Biovorous Nanoreplicators, with Public Policy Recommendations", written by Robert A. Freitas Jr., takes a technical look at some classic "gray goo" scenarios and concludes that early detection is the key to an effective defense.
• A draft proposal: "Foresight Guidelines on Molecular Nanotechnology"
• The topics page for the May 2000 Senior Associates Gathering "Engines of Creation 2000: Confronting Singularity" provides a primer on issues to be faced with the advent of molecular nanotechnology.

National and World Security

• "Nanotechnology and Global Security", a talk presented at the Fourth Foresight Conference on Molecular Nanotechnology by Admiral David E. Jeremiah, United States Navy (Retired), former Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
• "Nanotechnology and International Security" was presented at the Fifth Foresight Conference on Molecular Nanotechnology by Mark A. Gubrud
• "Molecular Nanotechnology and the World System", by Thomas McCarthy, available on his Web site.
• "Law Enforcement and Emerging Technology", a Guest Viewpoint presented in Update 49 by Captain Thomas J. Cowper, New York State Police.

Social and Economic Policy

• Essays to explore basic aspects of human nature and political economy that will impact how emerging technologies affect the societies into which they emerge.
• To Economize On Love: An Alternate Approach to Social Philosophy and Political Economy

Projected Applications of Nanotechnology

This section will focus on Nanotechnology and its application to Medicine, Space, Computers, Business and Economics, The Environment, etc.

Medicine

• Chapter 7 of Engines of Creation: "Engines of Healing"
• Chapter 8 of Engines of Creation: "Long Life in an Open World"
• Chapter 9 of Engines of Creation: "A Door to the Future"
• "Medicine that Cures" in Chapter 1 of Unbounding the Future
• Chapter 10 of Unbounding the Future: "Nanomedicine"
• "Nanotechnology in Medicine", an article by Gregory Fahy in Update 16
• Ralph Merkle has written a paper "Nanotechnology and Medicine", available on his Web site.
• Visit the Nanomedicine Page, which features a preview of Nanomedicine, a three-volume work that will comprehensively address the technical issues involved in the medical applications of molecular nanotechnology and medical nanodevice design, plus a growing collection of nanomedicine-related information, links, and technical papers.

Space Development

• Chapter 6 of Engines of Creation: "The World Beyond Earth"
• Molecular Manufacturing Shortcut Group: A Chapter of the National Space Society
• "Some Novel Space Propulsion Systems", by Forrest Bishop, presented at the Fifth Foresight Conference on Molecular Nanotechnology.
• "The Logical Core Architecture", by Tom McKendree, presented at the Fifth Foresight Conference on Molecular Nanotechnology.
• "Space, Nanotechnology, and Techno-Worries" by Glenn H. Reynolds, published in Ad Astra and available as a PDF download (requires ACROBAT READER by ADOBE).
• "Space Development: The Case Against Mars" by K. Eric Drexler

The Environment and Resources

• "Healing And Protecting The Earth" in chapter 8 of Engines of Creation
• Chapter 9 of Unbounding the Future "Restoring the Environment".
• "BioArchive Project", "Will the BioArchive Work?"
• NanoEcology
• Environmental Regulation of Nanotechnology: Some Preliminary Observations, PDF format, 112 KB. Requires ACROBAT READER by ADOBE.
• New Foresight White Paper on "Nanotechnology for Clean Energy and Resources" by Steve Gillett (PDF - 2.3 MB; text only - 272 KB).

Sources of Further Information

Nanotechnology Books on the Web

Foresight has made available on the Web several books about nanotechnology.

	Engines of Creation by Eric Drexler
	Unbounding the Future: the Nanotechnology Revolution by Eric Drexler and Chris Peterson, with Gayle Pergamit

Also available on the Web:

Nanomedicine, Volume I: Basic Capabilities by Robert A. Freitas Jr.

Online Nanotechnology Bookstore

Foresight Institute -- in association with Amazon.com -- presents an online bookstore focusing on nanotechnology and related topics.

Other Sources ...

Other sources for Nanosystems, Engines of Creation, and Unbounding the Future.

Foresight Publications

Read Foresight's publications. The Update, Foresight's quarterly newsletter, presents both technical and non-technical developments in nanotechnology. Foresight Background and Briefing documents are also being made available here.

Nanotechnology Images

Molecular Machine Parts Designed by Drexler and Merkle

Designs for molecular machine parts, produced by K. Eric Drexler, or by K. Eric Drexler and Ralph C. Merkle, that appear on the Web sites of the Foresight Institute and the Institute for Molecular Manufacturing (IMM) are copyrighted by IMM. It is not necessary to obtain permission to use IMM-copyrighted images for either commercial or non-commercial purposes. Permission to use the images is granted on the condition that credit is given and our copyright notice appears in the publication.. Images should also contain the URL for IMM (www.imm.org).

List of available images of molecular machine parts created by K. Eric Drexler and Ralph C. Merkle.

Other Nanotechnology-related images

The Nanomedicine Art Gallery, contributed by Robert A. Freitas Jr., contains original visual artwork that shows how medical nanorobots and other nanomedical devices might appear. Links are included to many Web pages with other nanotechnology-related images, of both real and proposed objects.

Special Features

A historical perspective on predicting new technologies

A Congressional Research Report provides an amusing collection of erroneous predictions about science and technology. Reading these gives a bit of perspective on the current debate about the feasibility of nanotechnology.

Discussion Groups

News and Discussion of Coming Technologies

Foresight has launched an online newspaper at Nanodot.org based on Slashdot software. The site uses the open-source software Slash, selected because of its reputation system, which enables those making high-quality posts to automatically gain a higher profile on the system. Read more about Nanodot.

Moderated news group on nanotechnology: sci.nanotech

The Usenet technical discussion group (moderated) on nanotechnology is sci.nanotech. The sci.nanotech archives are now available at: http://crit.org/critmail/nano_archives.html. The sci.nanotech Website contains a number of background papers on nanotechnology. Because sci.nanotech served as an archive for material on nanotechnology prior to the development of this Foresight Institute Website, some of the material duplicates material now present on this Website. Other material is uniquely present there.

Other Publications, Bibliographies, Web Sites

First journal on nanoscale science and technology

The Institute of Physics Publishing's journal Nanotechnology.

Nanotechnology Bibliography

A Nanotechnology Bibliography is available on the sci.nanotech Web site.

A few other Nanotechnology Websites

• The Institute for Molecular Manufacturing, another of the Foresight Family of Organizations
• Ralph Merkle's nanotechnology Website
• The NAS Computational Molecular Nanotechnology group at NASA Ames
• A Website with many nanotechnology links
• Sean Morgan's Nanotechnology pages
• Nanotechnology database sponsored by the National Science Foundation
• A nanotechnology special topic page on the MIT Technology Review Web site.
• Early lists of nanotechnology-related sites compiled by Foresight: "Key Nanotechnology Internet Sites" and "Web URL's for Nanotechnology Sites"
• Web Watch columns of recent issues of Update report noteworthy nanotechnology Websites: Update 51, Update 50, Update 49, Update 47, Update 46, Update 45, Update 44, Update 43, Update 42, Update 41, Update 40, Update 39, Update 38, Update 37, Update 36, Update 35, Update 34, Update 33, Update 32, Update 30, Update 29, Update 28, Update 27, Update 26, Update 25, and Update 24.
• Gina "Nanogirl" Miller's Nanotechnology Industries web site has a large collection of nanotechnology-related links.
• Small Times' web site provides feature stories, breaking news and news briefs on the world of small tech, including nanotechnology, MEMS and microsystems.

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