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Here comes nanotech! Most people think of flying cars as fantasies, but nanotechnologists believe they're within human reach. For now, we simply don't know what the results of nanotechnology research will be.

For researcher Ralph Merkle, the endless possibilities of nanotechnology are addictive. "There's a lot of activity going on, and also the research itself is moving forward. It has an excitement built into the advances. It kind of hooks you," says Merkle.

As a child, Merkle never dreamed of becoming a nanotechnology researcher.

"Well, I certainly didn't know as a child. Obviously, the field didn't exist then, and really only in the '80s was there increased public awareness about this area to the point where people could start to pursue this. Now...we're seeing increased interest in all aspects of this area," he says.

Today, nanotechnology has nowhere to go but forward. "The fundamental issue is that we see a golden new era...opening up. We see an opportunity of staggering proportions opening in front of us," says Merkle.

In 20 years, diamonds may be worth as much as the lead on the end of your pencil. Lots of work has been done to rearrange carbon atoms found in common graphite in order to produce diamonds, says Merkle.

"Right now, it's so precious and so difficult to shape, and so expensive that we really can't use it for anything except a very few products and, of course, jewelry," says Merkle.

He believes that diamonds, like glass, will lose their value once we learn how to produce and process them. "It used to be glass beads were sought after, but once we learned how to make them inexpensively, they lost their value as jewelry.

"But now, they're quite valuable as windows and a wide range of other things. Diamond is very, very strong and very, very light. So it's going to let us make products that are wonderfully light, wonderfully strong, and we'll be able to do that inexpensively," says Merkle.

Gina Miller is a senior associate at the Foresight Institute and the publisher of Nanotechnology Industries Newsletter. She also has a vision of the future of nanotechnology.

"In our homes, nanotechnology could affect us in many ways. The super strong materials, very cheap and powerful computers and very cheap manufacturing mean that our homes a few decades from now will all be made from smart materials: retractable walls, doors, paper thin televisions [and] automatic cleaning floors.

"Trash would also be automatically removed, assemblers could rearrange the atoms in garbage to recycle and produce clean water or food," says Miller.

Miller is not a scientist by training. Her educational background is in liberal and fine arts. It wasn't until 1993, when she returned to her small hometown after college, that she was drawn to the futuristic and life-changing aspects of nanotechnology.

She remembers the day that she was struck by a bolt of what she calls nano-fever. "I was watching the PBS channel on television. I saw a movie...[that] described the process of nanotechnology -- how it worked, the ability to place atoms where you want in order to build complex structures.

"With stunning computer graphics, it predicted the future: at home, boxes the size of microwaves, manufacturing any material item that could fit inside, with a few touches of a button -- it discussed the economics of such a science. Would jobs be necessary?

"Afterwards, I questioned everyone I knew about this 'nanotechnology.' I could not let go of something I had realized could have such an astounding impact on society and life as we know it. I began creating a nano-related web presence for myself, became a Foresight senior associate, and a member of some other relative groups."

Nanotechnology researchers come from a wide range of backgrounds. "As a matter of fact, there are many disciplines that are constructive to the goal of nanotech, which is why there is no nano degree at this point in time," says Miller. "[There are] too many department heads to merge together."

While nanotechnology hasn't worked its way into standard university curriculum, it is certainly the wave of the future. It is the next step for science departments, according to physics professor Bryan Statt.

"It's one of these areas across technology that's growing very rapidly," says Statt. "So it includes physics, chemistry and engineering. We would like to get into that area. And if we get some more positions, that's the first area we're planning on going into."

Physics graduates, says Statt, are 93 to 98 percent employed. "That doesn't mean they're all working exactly in the field they would like, but they're all working," says Statt.

If interest in nanotechnology continues to increase, funding for university programs will likely follow. Universities will be able to establish nanotech departments and research will advance more rapidly.

It's a futuristic field and Miller has fun just imagining the possibilities of nanotechnology. "My own biggest, most fantastical dream is to one day nanostructure my own planet -- [one] that has an environment that changes with my own moods, with velvet oceans," she says.

Does Miller think any of this is really possible? "I guess I'll just have to wait and see!" she says.

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