KQED has a great, brief overview video on Nanotechnology and its promises. “Nanotechnology” is a very loaded, over-hyped term which becomes almost useless in discussions without some larger context.
I like to think of Nanotechnology in two broad areas:
- Creating new material properties from modifying the atomic structure existing properties.
- Building new “machines” from the ground up based on engineering at the nanoscale level.
KQED does a nice job of explaining both while giving a general introduction on the topic.
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This related news has much more technical details:
http://www.physorg.com/news95605211.html
Also this one – they really get me thinking about Kurweil’s prophecy:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/04/070412132140.htm