Instead, we will need to develop more control over the materials we have available. In Drexler's Nanosystems, Appendix B gives a short overview of these areas of research.
Mechanical engineering encompasses the design, construction, and utilization of machines.
At the scale of molecular technology, mechanical engineering develops molecular machines and molecular machine components. Nanotechnology uses chemistry extensively because the scale of molecules is the domain of chemistry. All nanotechnology designs must be chemically viable. Microtechnology offers no obvious path to molecular manufacturing, but research into the effects of increased miniaturization may benefit nanotechnology. Protein engineering is as area of research dealing with the natural molecular machinery found in cells.