2 Repositioned Atoms

New material behaviors made available at the nanoscale turn out to be just one part of the nanotechnology dream. Feynman's 1959 lecture contained an additional vision for nanotechnology that went far beyond simply uncovering more useful material properties. He predicted a powerful human future that utilized specially developed tools to place atoms and molecules directly into carefully worked-out arrangements. The far-sighted physicist saw that if one could rearrange atoms by picking them up and moving them about, it should be possible to build pretty much anything you wanted, one atom at a time . Atoms could be used as the most basic of all construction materials. He called this nanotech vision molecular manufacturing.