An AFM experiment by S. P. Jarvis et. This is experimental evidence for thermodynamically reversible mechanochemistry, in a silicon analog of the sp 3 carbon bond cleavage case analyzed in section 8.5.3 of Drexler's Nanosystems . The principal exception is a publication that usually does better, the New York Times . It is not much more incredible than a cow's ability to do the same. And scanning tunneling microscopes can already manipulate single atoms, which is what the assemblers would do.
Biochemists are close to doing it.
In 1997 that seems like so much science fiction, while genetic discoveries, for instance, seem like sure bets. But sometimes, in science, the dark horse comes in before the favorite. The Philadelphia Inquirer published one of the best discussions of nanotechnology we've seen in the general press. Staff Writer Reid Kanaley captured the theoretical basis of nanotechnology, its promise, and its possible economic implications. Futurist Arthur Shostak of Drexel University is quoted discussing the major social and economic upheaval if nanotechnology succeeds in extending life span or in replicating raw materials, or food.