Is nanotechnology engineering the way of the future?

Question

How much can come of nanotechnology, what are its benefits, is it a fad?

Answer 1

Nanotechnology is the engineering of functional systems at the molecular scale. This covers both current work and concepts that are more advanced. In its original sense, 'nanotechnology' refers to the projected ability to construct items from the bottom up, using techniques and tools being developed today to make complete, high performance products.
When K. Eric Drexler (right) popularized the word 'nanotechnology' in the 1980's, he was talking about building machines on the scale of molecules, a few nanometers wide—motors, robot arms, and even whole computers, far smaller than a cell. Drexler spent the next ten years describing and analyzing these incredible devices, and responding to accusations of science fiction. Meanwhile, mundane technology was developing the ability to build simple structures on a molecular scale. As nanotechnology became an accepted concept, the meaning of the word shifted to encompass the simpler kinds of nanometer-scale technology.
Nanotechnology is often referred to as a general-purpose technology. That's because in its advanced form it will have significant impact on almost all industries and all areas of society. It offers better built, longer lasting, cleaner, safer, and smarter products for the home, for communications, for medicine, for transportation, for agriculture, and for industry in general.
Nanotechnology not only will allow making many high-quality products at very low cost, but it will allow making new nanofactories at the same low cost and at the same rapid speed. This unique (outside of biology, that is) ability to reproduce its own means of production is why nanotech is said to be an exponential technology. It represents a manufacturing system that will be able to make more manufacturing systems—factories that can build factories—rapidly, cheaply, and cleanly. The means of production will be able to reproduce exponentially, so in just a few weeks a few nanofactories conceivably could become billions. It is a revolutionary, transformative, powerful, and potentially very dangerous—or beneficial—technology.
For more click :
http://www.crnano.org/planning.htm

Answer 2

As much as the benefits of nanotechnology can offer is has a long long long way to go before it can be of any use. Nanotechnology at the moment is making molecules/materials on a very small size that can offer some useful things. For example you may have a special material that can convert sunlight into energy or you may have some nano-sized crystals or compounds that have some special properties then you apply light or electrically to them and in turn can be used for cancer treatments, micro circuits. Now the use of nano-sized robots that you find in common sci-fi programmes like star trek and likes have many problems to over come. An experiment you can do to study on of the problems, is first have a look as a tree then its windy. It is big and solid and does not move, now have a look at then someone smokes in a room, if you notice the smoke particles are moved easy by the smallest breeze. Now nano-robots would be 1000 times smaller than the smoke particles, for them to be stabilised to the smallest breeze they would required huge amounts of energy, unfortunelly such amounts would fry any nano-bot. The only way around this would be to invent either some static field or through the use of transportation devices.

Answer 3

Search this link : http://www.mercy.com.au/files/B3Q6HMC3NJ/Bulletin%2011.1.pdf