Introduction

Molecular nanotechnology (MNT) has been laid out as a vast, long-term project , ultimately leading to a general ability to design and build products to atomic precision, thus providing general applications (figure 1). Research along the development pathways are crucial to any realization of this vision. That realization, however, will have dramatic consequences, requiring significant foresight to properly handle. Developing the appropriate foresight rests upon developing a sufficiently accurate and detailed understanding of the actual capabilities MNT will provide.

Figure 1. Simplified roadmap of the effort to develop and apply molecular nanotechnology (MNT). From [2], used with permission.