"At some point in the not-so-distant future every home will have its own private Meat Machine, an appliance about the size of a microwave oven. You'll open the door, shovel in some waste materials -- grass clippings, old bicycle tyres and the like -- then close the door again and fiddle with the controls. Some hours later, out will roll a piece of fresh prime beef.
"Science fiction? Pseudoscience? On the contrary, the Meat Machine will be brought to us by a serious new science known as nanotechnology. Based on the thinking of, among others, Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman, and pioneered by the remarkable Eric Drexler, it promises nothing less than complete control over the structure of matter. At its heart is the creation of an empire of tiny programmed robots called assemblers, so small that they will be able to work with individual molecules of matter. A race of these nano-robots could be programmed to produce any substance, structure or entity allowed by the laws of nature.
"Ed Regis has been following nanotechnology since its beginnings. In Nano! he traces the progress of the idea from the earliest theories to the work being done even now in major research institutions, taking the reader on a journey that could lead to the biggest life-changing development since the harnessing of electricity". [jacket blurb, UK hbk, 1995]
"A very readable account of nanotechnology's early days." --Henry W.Targowski (in Mark/Space , 1995).
Highly recommended.
