8. Conclusion

Electronic, photonic and magnetic devices, as well as nanosensors, have already been developed in laboratories. There's still a lot to be done in terms of basic nanotechnology research, but some applications (such as biodetection) are no longer fiction. Let's project ourselves into the future and imagine that tomorrow we manage to manipulate atoms and form matter from them. We could use atoms to make our own materials and objects, without producing waste (100% recycling). It's a fascinating dream. Will we succeed? We don't know. We could imagine making flawless materials, perfectly optimized for a given application. In fact, we could reproduce in the laboratory what nature has managed to achieve over hundreds of millions of years. Even if these projections are still in the realm of fiction, it's worth remembering that technology has often been faster than human predictions. On a pragmatic...