nanotechnology and advances in nanotechnology

In this essay, the subject of nanotechnology will be clarified for the reader. An explanation will be given, along with a list of benefits and detriments that this field will bring. The problems facing nanotechnology will also be mentioned.

Nanotechnology is a little known science, that deals with building things out of atoms and molecules. This is similar to how nature works, building things at the molecular level to create organisms, fuel, and other things. The idea first came about in 1959, when Richard Feynman, a physicist, stated in a lecture that: "The principles of physics, as far as I can see, do not speak against the possibility of manoeuvring things atom by atom." Feynman went on to win the 1965 Nobel Prize in physics.

The word nanotechnology was most likely coined by Eric Drexler, in the early 1980's, in his book, Engines of Creation, in which he outlines the ideas and concepts of nanotechnology. The word means, literally, very small technology. While this may refer to...