ABSTRACT
The promotion and eventual development of the transdisciplinary field of nanoscience/nanotechnology did not take off until decades later, when K. Eric Drexler and the Foresight Institute proposed the possibility of self-assembling machines. The promotion of nanotechnology reaches well beyond particular science and engineering disciplines and their immediate lines of patronage, and draws in broader publics. It is ironic, perhaps, that visual images have been so prominent during the short history of nanotechnology. The nanoscale is positioned well below the minimum wavelengths of visible light. Some of the fantastic nano machines and scenarios that proliferated during the early visionary phase of the nanotechnology movement do not resemble molecular models, but instead resemble macroscopic machines. It is frequently noted that nanotechnology is a future-oriented movement, and nano images express such orientation by depicting future possibilities and fantasies as part of a campaign to promote the nascent field and build public support for it.
