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Nature 440, 995 (20 April 2006) | doi:10.1038/440995a; Published online 19 April 2006

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Richard A. L. Jones1

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Nanotechnology is a discipline in the throes of an existential crisis.

BOOK REVIEWEDThe Dance of Molecules: How Nanotechnology is Changing our Lives

by Ted Sargent

Thunder's Mouth Press: 2006. 304 pp. $25

Every field needs its founding genius. For many in nanotechnology, this figure is Richard Feynman, on the strength of his 1959 lecture "There's plenty of room at the bottom", in which he discussed the problem of manipulating and controlling things on a small scale.