Fitting the entire content of the Library of Congress on a computer chip the size of a sugar cube or sending a microscopic robotic submarine through the human body to attack cancer cells are oft-cited examples of what nanotechnology could theoretically lead to. Some view the NNI as America's counter to Japan's lead in publicly funded nanotech research. The 10-year research program was funded at a total of Y25 billion with a final evaluation due in fiscal 2001. The Japanese government plans to earmark over Y50 billion in the fiscal 2001 budget for nanotech research. Unlike the Atom Technology Project, which focused on research of basic technologies, the new center will focus on developing higher-density system chips and more efficient solar cells.
Practical applications are still years or decades away.
But with the potential to manipulate the very stuff of matter, nanotechnology has implications for a variety of disciplines, including medicine, energy, computers, materials, and environmental science. Japanese nanotech efforts have focused more on nanomaterials and nanoelectronics than nanobiotechnology. Perhaps because of Japan's competence in manufacturing, Japanese nanotech efforts have focused more on nanomaterials and nanoelectronics than nanobiotechnology, i.e. the inorganic rather than the organic side of nanotech. The US, on the other hand, with its superiority in biomedicine and genomics, has focused more on nanotech's biotech implications. At this embryonic stage of nanotechnology, however, the Library of Congress chip appears more within reach than the cancer-busting nanorobot.