Creating Nanotech Of The Nearly-Now

Believe writes: "CNN has this article about how recent advances in nano technology could be used in consumer appliances (CRTs, Hard drives, etc) as soon as next year. It's nice to see some nanotech applications that could be seen in the real world sooner than the '5-10' year range." What's most intriguing here to me (besides Weija Wen's "white powder of tiny particles") is the establishment of an Institute of Nanoscience and Technology at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. One million dollars though, seems like, well -- like nanofunding.

Comments

Re:Sick feeling in my stomach...

[Saige]

That's "grey goo", and it describes a scenario where replicating nanobots start replicating out of control. More general ones that can use materials found in the environment to replicate could theoretically turn the planet into a literal "goo" of assemblers after disassembling everything else on the planet, and the planet itself.

Of course, simple engineering choices can eliminate this possibility from ever occuring. The "black goo" scenario, where it is intentional, is probably more likely than grey goo.

Regardless, it's not really relevant at this time, they're far far away from reaching that point yet. They don't mean "molecular nanotechnology" here, they just mean working at the nanoscale level. "Nanotechnology" has become a buzzword.

It's not molecular nanotechnolgoy until they're creating machines at that level.
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