Molecular Manufacturing

This more radical form of nanotechnology originated in the mind of an M.I.T. undergraduate in the mid-1970s. Eric Drexler, who went on to obtain a Ph.D. from M.I.T., realized that the biological "machinery" already responsible for the full diversity of life on Earth could be adapted to build nonliving products upon command.

Molecule-sized machines, modeled after those found in nature, could be used to manufacture just about anything man wished.
Drexler, who began to develop these theories even before he'd heard of Feynman's lecture, first published his ideas in a 1981 journal article. Five years later, he brought the notion of molecular manufacturing to the general public with his book Engines of Creation.

An astonishingly original work of futurism, Engines of Creation pointed out how molecular manufacturing would revolutionize other areas of science and technology-leading to breakthroughs in medicine, artificial intelligence, and the conquest of space. Drexler refutes every technical objection he can anticipate, explaining how such phenomena as quantum uncertainty and thermal vibrations don't make molecular manufacturing impossible. It was also in Engines that Drexler introduced the term "nanotechnology"-a reference to the nanometer, one-billionth of a meter-to describe this approach to molecular manufacturing, although the term is now also used for the more mundane applications (cosmetics, tennis balls, etc.) described above.

To shore up his technical arguments for the feasibility of his vision, Drexler further expanded on his ideas in the world's first nanotechnology textbook. Nanosystems (1992), a dense volume that grew out of a class he taught at Stanford, is crammed with equations and diagrams and designs for molecular machines, and it has gone far to put the theory of molecular manufacturing on sound technical footing-although scientific debate about the achievability and the best routes to developing nanotechnology has continued.