"As an emerging science in its infancy, nanotechnology promises the nano-scale manufacture of materials and machines made to atomic specifications. The impact of nanotechnology on our way of life is widely believed to reach profound and hitherto unimagined levels in the coming decades. Proposed changes include clean abundant energy, pollution-free and inexpensive production of superior defect-free materials, complete environmental restoration and cleanup, safe and affordable space travel and colonization, and quantum leaps in medicine leading to perfect health and immortality. As a result of these advances, we anticipate the obsolescence of nearly all of today's industrial and economic processes by the first half of the new century, leading to global and radical changes in life style, finance, law, and politics."

~Behfar Bastani and Dennis Fernandez. From Intellectual Property Rights for Nanotechnology link


"We envision biocompatible surgical nanorobots that can find and eliminate isolated cancerous cells, remove microvascular obstructions and recondition vascular endothelial cells, perform 'noninvasive' tissue and organ transplants, conduct molecular repairs on traumatized extracellular and intracellular structures, and even exchange new whole chromosomes for old ones inside individual living human cells."

~Robert A. Freitas, Jr. link


Molecular nanotechnology promises to usher in the next Industrial Revolution and replace our entire manufacturing base with a new, radically precise, less expensive, and more flexible way of making products. These pervasive changes in manufacturing will leave virtually no product, process, or industry untouched. To be sure, nanotechnology has the potential to disrupt entire industries while leading to the creative destruction of current business models. It has already dramatically changed the competitive landscape of many industries worldwide including advanced materials/composites, aerospace/defense, automotive, energy, life sciences, medicine, electronics and semiconductors. Yet the future potential of nanotechnology depends on creating the tools that will enable us to effectively position molecules and build complex structures with atomically precise control. Every aspect of basic nanoscale science and the commercial production of nanotechnology will rely---first and foremost---on the capacity of these tools, instruments, metrology devices, and modeling/simulation applications to measure, sense, fabricate, and manipulate matter at the atomic level.

2006 SME Nanomanufacturing Conference


"I am certain that nanotechnology holds huge promise. In medicine. In energy. In computer processing. In so many areas. But unless environmental, health, and safety issues are addressed in a way that fosters public understanding and support for nanotechnology, that potential is in jeopardy. I, for one, am unwilling to let that happen."

~U.S. Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR)


"Starting around 2010, workers will cultivate expertise with systems of nanostructures, directing large numbers of intricate components to specified ends. One application could involve the guided self-assembly of nanoelectronic components into three-dimensional circuits and whole devices. Medicine could employ such systems to improve the tissue compatibility of implants, or to create scaffolds for tissue regeneration, or perhaps even to build artificial organs."

~Mihail C. Roco, Senior adviser for nanotechnology to the National Science Foundation and a key architect of the National Nanotechnology Initiative link


"Solar cells and most modern displays are examples of organic hybrids. But as we move to a renaissance in medicine with nanotech, matter becomes code."

~Steve Jurvetson, Managing Director, Draper Fisher Jurvetson. link


"Nanomedicine is here now. Drug delivery from inhalers to tablet formulation and polymer dissolution and phase change studies have been part of Nanomedicine for years. Nanomedicine will continue to grow in these and many less traditional applications over the next 10 years."

~Clark Taylor, Veeco Instruments


"We're very optimistic that nanotechnology can markedly improve cancer therapy."

~James Baker, Director, the Michigan Nanotechnology Institute for Medicine and the Biological Sciences.


"The revolutionary promise of molecular nanotechnology (MNT) has become a part of society's expectations for the future. This technology will provide nanomedicine breakthroughs that could cure cancer and extend lifespace, bring abundance without environmental harm and provide clean sources of energy. These ideas are part of the vision that launched the field of nanotechnology."

~K. Eric Drexler: a researcher, author, and policy advocate focused on emerging technologies and their consequences for the future. He pioneered studies of productive nanosystems and their products (the still-theoretical field originally termed "nanotechnology").


"So while I acclaim this bill (*) as a fantastic first step, there's a lot more that can and should be done. We are still spending less than $1 billion per year on nano, which puts it in the company of a lot of minor, unimportant government programs. Nano is more significant than that, and we should consider beginning a truly ambitious program. Every day we delay is a day that we spend hundreds of millions of dollars buying oil from countries that hate us. Every day we delay is a day that we let thousands of people around the world die who could be saved by nanomedicine."

~James Von Ehr. link (*) 21st Century Nanotechnology Research and Development Act (PDF)


"Most of my work is oriented toward the longer term, but if I had to guess, the (nanomedicine) applications nearest to commercialization are probably the fullerene-related and dendrimer-related drugs. The nanoshells are making their way toward commercialization, but the fullerenes and dendrimers are probably closest in terms of somebody making money from a product."

~Robert A. Freitas, Jr.


"Over the next ten years, the fields of chemistry, physics, material sciences, biology, and computational sciences will converge in a way that will define nanotechnology and impact almost every industry, including computers, semiconductors, pharmaceuticals, defense, health care, communications, transportation, energy, environmental sciences, entertainment, chemicals, and manufacturing. Previously distinct disciplines will also combine: medicine and engineering, law and science, art and physics, etc. This merging will result in developments that are not simply evolutionary; they will be revolutionary."

~Jack Uldrich & Deb Newberry. Next Big Thing Is Really Small: How Nanotechnology Will Change the Future of Your Business.