Fabrication of tools and objects in the tiniverse, although conceptually very simple, is presently complex and time-consuming – but breakthroughs are continuously being made. Prosthetics for repairing or enhancing bodily function, such as cochlear implants to assist hearing, stents (tiny tubes that reinforce a collapsed vein wall), as well as larger objects like bone replacements, all utilise nanotechnology – either in their component manufacture or in the surface coatings. For all implants biocompatibility is essential to ensure that they are not rejected by our immune system, which basically operates on the nanoscale – nanosurfaces on the prostheses can make them adapt to the environment they are in so they are accepted by the body, whether by promoting adsorption (to help the object assimilate by adhering to the local cells) or by hindering adsorption (e.g., to ensure an object in the bloodstream remains clean and does not get clogged up with proteins). Other products that demonstrate extraordinary aplomb at the nanoscale include medical scalpels with ultrafine blades such that any cuts made with them heal very quickly due to the highly limited damage to the surrounding tissue.
Although writing their company logo in atoms created a furore among nanotechnologists, this technology is much more useful elsewhere. We are familiar with carbon occurring naturally in the two very different forms of diamond and graphite – their differences are obvious even at a glance. However, nanometrology has revealed a third new form of ordered carbon – carbon nanotubes. Although they are individually too small to see with the naked eye, nanotechnologists have already shown that their extraordinary strength enables very light and strong structures to be fabricated –they are serious candidates for making the much vaunted "space elevator", which would of course transform our ability to exploit the economic resources of the extraterrestrial domain.
The auction. "And now we come to LOT 238." The audience gasp. The auctioneer sweats. "LOT 238, the finest example of engraving we have possibly ever seen." A pin dropped. “Until recently we have been unable to see the work that this unusual group of outsider artists has created, but with revolutionary scanning probe microscopy techniques, archaeologists have exposed what is being hailed as the oldest, most original, natural wonder of the world – the Nanoscript.”
“Somehow in the past the most amazing multidimensional engraving was made at what today we call the nanoscale – in the realm of millionths of a millimetre. The work consists of dense geometric designs, repeated, transposed and rotated endlessly to create stunningly intricate patterns on a variety of materials. The collection we have here today includes flint, gold and amber all from Palmyra. How this nanoart was created is under discussion – some say that NanoCritters with carbon teeth or claws created the works as part of mapping their social hierarchies and the pattern symmetries are an emergent outcome. Others say that the patterns are etched during a process of decomposition of an ancient insect, and still others speculate that an unknown species developed the technique thousands of years before, and that the patterns represent a language yet to be deciphered. If the last possibility turns out to be true we could quite possibly be surrounded by a world we have only just begun to read and understand.”
The auctioneer pauses and scans the room. This is possibly his most momentous sale so far in his career. Tension. The prospective owner of a possible key to mankind's past is in the room.
“We start the bidding at 20 million pounds... do I have 20 million? Yes Sir, to my left. Do I hear 21..?”