This Thursday (tomorrow!) I start work on a survey of nanotechnology. I have to figure out what the fuss is really all about. Are we going to be eaten by grey goo and have our brains rotted out by nanoparticles? Or maybe nanotech will lead to another stock market boom and bust, shortly after it solves the world's energy problems and creates peace in the Middle East. OK, I lied about the last one.
In a timely fashion, the magazine Wired is about to publish a piece in its October issue saying that the idea of assembling matter from the ground up using molecular assembly is tosh and many scientists now think it is not possible. I may understand too little about all this but I think I discovered proof of principle of molecular assembly a little earlier today by eating a ham sandwich.
The tour starts in Oxford, England and I head for San Francisco on Sunday.