Works of Fiction
- In The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson diamond can be constructed by simply building it out of carbon atoms. Also all sorts of devices from dust size detection devices to giant diamond zeppelins are constructed atom by atom using only carbon, oxygen, nitrogen and chlorine atoms.
- In the novel Tomorrow by Andrew Saltzman (ISBN 1-4243-1027-X), a scientist uses nanorobotics to create a liquid that when inserted into the bloodstream, renders one nearly invincible given that the microscopic machines repair tissue almost instantaneously after it is damaged.
- In the manga series Battle Angel Alita the scientist Desty Nova has specialized in molecular nanotechnology.
- In the roleplaying game Splicers by Palladium Books, humanity has succumbed to a "nanobot plague" that causes any object made of a non-precious metal to twist and change shape (sometimes into a type of robot) moments after being touched by a human. The object will then proceed to attack the human. This has forced humanity to develop "biotechnological" devices to replace those previously made of metal.
- On the television show Mystery Science Theater 3000, the Nanites (voiced variously by Kevin Murphy, Paul Chaplin, Mary Jo Pehl, and Bridget Jones) - are self-replicating, bio-engineered organisms that work on the ship, they are microscopic creatures that reside in the Satellite of Love's computer systems. (They are similar to the creatures in Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Evolution", which featured "nanites" taking over the Enterprise.) The Nanites made their first appearance in season 8. Based on the concept of nanotechnology, their comical deus ex machina activities included such diverse tasks as instant repair and construction, hairstyling, performing a Nanite variation of a flea circus, conducting a microscopic war, and even destroying the Observers' planet after a dangerously vague request from Mike to "take care of little problem". They also ran a microbrewery.
Read more about this topic: Molecular Nanotechnology
Famous quotes containing the words works of, works and/or fiction:
“Through the din and desultoriness of noon, even in the most Oriental city, is seen the fresh and primitive and savage nature, in which Scythians and Ethiopians and Indians dwell. What is echo, what are light and shade, day and night, ocean and stars, earthquake and eclipse, there? The works of man are everywhere swallowed up in the immensity of nature. The AEgean Sea is but Lake Huron still to the Indian.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“When life has been well spent, age is a loss of what it can well spare,—muscular strength, organic instincts, gross bulk, and works that belong to these. But the central wisdom, which was old in infancy, is young in fourscore years, and dropping off obstructions, leaves in happy subjects the mind purified and wise.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Being is a fiction invented by those who suffer from becoming.”
—Coleman Dowell (1925–1985)