There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom
There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom is the title of a 1959 lecture and essay by Richard Feynman, exploring the possibilities of synthetic chemistry's extension into atomic-scale machinery. Collected in books such as 1961's Miniaturization and republished in popular magazines, it is considered pivotal in the early definition and popularization of nanotechnology.
Topics and development
Nanoscale manipulators, Waldo by Robert Heinlein
Challenges
In the initial lecture to the American Physical Society at Caltech, Feynman issued two challenges, with a $1,000 prize each:
Miniaturized motor
William McLellan, 1960
Miniaturized text
Tom Newman, 1985
