A couple of 1/2 hour documentaries about nanotechnology, made by the EU nanotechnology program, are now available online.
Nano: the next dimension is a serious and straightforward documentary, introduced by the French Nobel Laureate chemist Jean-Maire Lehn, and featuring other eminent European nanoscientists such as Cees Dekker, Harry Kroto and Christian Joachim.
Nanotechnology is aimed at the younger audience. It has does have some good things, despite its rather cheesy attempts to connect with youth culture, and (in the English version) terrible dubbing. It does, however, feature a very silly animation of a medical nanobot.
My thanks to Raymond Monk from the European Commission for bringing this to my attention.
Richard,
Could you describe what a more realistic medical nanobot look like? a soft wet nanobot that wriggles and jiggles inside of me 😉
The short answer to this is probably that a realistic nanobot would look very much like a bacteria – with a propulsion mechanism suited to very low Reynolds number conditions, like a bacterial flagellum, and with molecular recognition sites on its exterior to recognise its target.