2 Radical nanotechnology
The original "radical" version of nanotechnology can be traced back to Eric Drexler - founder of the Foresight Institute in California - who foresaw sophisticated nano-scale machines that can operate with atomic precision. He imagined using hard materials, like diamond, to fabricate complex nano-scale structures by moving reactive molecular fragments into position. This motion controller, for example, could be a component in a nanomachine used to assemble molecules. Credit: K Eric Drexler/Institute for Molecular Manufacturing, www.imm.org.