You know, I don't follow the news obsessively on this subject, but I did recently run across a pretty good nanotech news portal that's worth checking in on now and then.
Nano technology offers the possibility of being able to build machines that are stronger than steel, not much bigger than molecules, and as complex as any machine being built today. It thus offers tantalyzing glimpse of a day when you can cure certain diseases or correct certain conditions by simply injecting the appropriate robots to do their work--and direct them to destroy themselves when done.
It also offers the possibility of much stronger and lighter materials for traditional construction and manufacturing.
Of course, it's all mostly Science Fiction now, but one step at a time it's coming closer to reality. Just remember that cell phones were Science Fiction once too.
Anyway, it's an interesting news portal if you like to keep an eye on developments in the industry.
Kim Eric Drexler:
http://www.foresight.org/FI/Drexler.html
His book "Engines of Creation":
http://www.foresight.org/EOC/
The Foresight Institute:
http://www.foresight.org/FI/index.html
More on him (from the Institute for Molecular Manufacturing):
http://www.imm.org/DrexlerCV.html
The Institute for Molecular Manufacturing:
http://www.imm.org/index.html
Reason I'm so interested in Eric Drexler is because he went to Central High School, Monmouth-Independence, Oregon, with us (1970-1973). Same grade, too. He was a close friend of my brother David and me. Not to imply that any of his genius rubbed off on me, but I'm proud to have known him even so.
Only one comment to this post? Only me? Surely, somebody else here knows something about nanotechnology. I hardly know anything about, I only knew the genius behind it, Eric Drexler. A lot of people smarter than me comment here. C'mon, people!
I guess nano-tech is new to most people still, even though I'm seeing references to it in the media, on blogs, even in comic books. Otherwise, somebody else here would know something about it and be posting something more intelligent than I'm doing. I only knew Drexler by accident. I'm dumb as a brick! Perhaps in a few years, nano-tech will become as well known as the Internet, as the blogosphere. But, I guess, not yet.