I think the field known as nanotechnology just took another pretty major advance, judging by this story:
Scientists have made a breakthrough in nanotechnology which could hasten the development of molecular machines that could act as artificial muscles or drug delivery systems in the body.
Chemists at Edinburgh University said on Wednesday they had built molecules that can move objects larger than the size of an atom in an advance in the technology that deals with manipulating materials on a minuscule scale.
If nanotech can be harnessed to deliver potentially life-saving drugs to parts of the body, to deal with conditions such as cancer, for example, its impact on health care could be enormous. And knowing a few people who suffer from cancer, including a good friend of long standing, this is a very personal issue for me.
The problem they found with cancer-centric technology is that a certain number of cancer-style cells are an essential part of the body’s system. To programme nantechnology ‘killers’ to deliver a chemo package to a cell would have to take this detail into account.
Believe you me, I sure as hell hope they find a way round this problem soon …