The "Technology Roadmap for Productive Nanosystems" was finally released last week after a long effort that began in 2005. Just in time for Christmas, the Battelle Memorial Institute-led report offers a wish list for how to move nanotechnology forward to lead the world in "addressing grand challenges in energy, health care, and other fields." The two main technologies the group asks for are for the U.S. to "1.Develop atomically precise technologies that provide clean energy supplies and a cost-effective energy infrastructure. 2. Develop atomically precise technologies that produce new nanomedicines and multifunctional in vivo and in vitro therapeutic and diagnostic devices to improve human health."
That's right: Peace on earth and good will towards men through tiny, tiny robots.
For those who worry about what nanotech might bring (me) or those who are just excited about bulletproof vests, the report's worth a good skim through.
Okay, it's 198 pages, but you should at least check out the executive summary. Pretty much every industry could see an application. But while the report focuses on practical applications of atomically precise work and we're developing more successful technology to manipulate nanomaterials, there's still a ways to go says lead technical consultant Eric Drexler.
"[The roadmap] centers on today's capabilities, exploring the rewards we can expect from incremental advances, and links these advances to longer term objectives for atomically precise manufacturing (which, by the way, are quite unlike the popular fictions)."
Oh, never mind. Maybe once we get past the 30-year time line we'll get back to popular fiction.
Add a comment