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Article: ATOM BY ATOM Can we build computer chips and machines from the bottom up?
- Article from:
- The Boston Globe (Boston, MA)
- Article date:
- May 15, 1995
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 1995 The Boston Globe. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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With a speed that has astonished even leaders in the field,
electronic devices have shrunk so much in recent years that the
number of transistors on a fingernail-sized chip has increased a
millionfold. And still the shrinking continues.
The pace of miniaturization, moreover, is no longer confined to
electronic circuits. Before long, some scientists predict, some
machinery and materials will be produced from the bottom up,
precisely assembled one atom at a time.
Molecular engineering could be used, they say, to construct
minuscule robotic devices able to detect and correct tissue damage or
disease inside a human body -- almost like a real-life "Fantastic
Voyage," -- to decode and alter ...