ABSTRACT
Nanotechnologies and the idea of their convergence with other technosciences are rooted in the notion that they are capable of mobilizing nature in order to go beyond nature. At times this notion declares itself with surprising clarity and at others it is merely implied. Often it is rhetorical accompaniment to conventional research, and sometimes it pronounces far-flung possibilities. The notion that e might recruit nature to surpass nature is not new. It has a long history, at least in alchemy and other magical sciences, in romantic philosophy of nature, but also in theories of self-organization and, not least, in biomimetics or bionics. The term ‘enhancement’ offers a fitting technological expression for the appropriation of a notion of nature that is permanently surpassing, if not transcending itself. As far as concrete applications of nanotechnologies are concerned, it is nanoparticles that are being discussed first and foremost.
