My friend, colleague and collaborator from across the road in the chemistry department here at Sheffield, Tony Ryan, went to Malaysia and Singapore the week before last, and one result was this article in the New Straits Times, in which he gives a succinct summary of the current state of play in nanotechnology. He was rewarded by a mildly cross email this morning from K. Eric Drexler. Actually I think Tony’s interview is pretty fair to Drexler – he gives him a big place in the history of the subject, and on the vexed question of nanobots, he says “This popular misconception has been popularised by people who misunderstood the fantastic book Engines of Creation by K. Eric Drexler.”
There was also a useful corrective to those of us worried that nanotechnology is getting overexposed. The writer describes how the article originated from a “short, balding man in the public relations industry” who said about nanotechnology that it’s “”the latest buzzword in the field of science and is making waves globally”. On the contrary, our journalist says… “Buzzword? It most certainly is not. My editor and I looked at each other and agreed that it is more a word that one hears ONLY ever so occasionally. “