Word: molecular
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...Princeton University and Carnegie Mellon, who are already redefining the meaning of the word miniature. The prefix nano- refers to a billionth part of a unit--the size range these visionaries are talking about. Already, nanotechnologists have built gears and rotors far thinner than a human hair and tiny molecular "motors" only 50 atoms long...
...that's just the beginning. Within a few decades, nanotechnologists predict, they will be creating machines that can do just about anything, as long as it's small. Germ-size robots will not just measure internal vital signs; they will also organize the data with molecular microcomputers and broadcast the results to a mainframe (implanted under your skin, perhaps), where the data can be analyzed for signs of disease. Nanomachines could then be sent to scour the arteries clean of dangerous plaque buildup, or aid the immune system in mopping up stray cancer cells, or even, a la Fantastic Voyage...
This realization has transformed cancer, in little more than a decade, from an utterly mysterious disease into a disorder whose molecular machinery is largely understood. Now cancer biologists are in the midst of their second epiphany: the recognition that tumors evolve, in Darwinian fashion, as each succeeding generation of cancer cells accumulates genetic mutations. "Survival of the fittest applies to cancer cells," says Richard Schilsky, associate dean for clinical research at the University of Chicago. "We now think of cancer not as a disease but as a genetic process...
Once cloning loses its stigma, the urge to tinker with the genes of offspring may not be far behind. As Cambridge molecular biologist Graeme Mitchison says, "We can all be beautiful--no baldness, no wimps with glasses, no knobby knees." Olivia Judson, author of a forthcoming book called Dr. Tatiana's Sex Advice for All Creation, begs to differ: "If there is such hostility to genetically modified soya, it doesn't bode well for genetically modified people...
...Silver is a professor of molecular biology and public affairs at Princeton University and the author of Remaking Eden: How Genetic Engineering and Cloning Will Transform the American Family