When God fashioned man and woman, he called his creation very good. Transhumanists say that, by manipulating our bodies with microscopic tools, we can do better. Are we ready for the great debate?
Eradicate cancer. Retain and recall everything you can find on the Internet. Give your child a high IQ. Give sight to the blind. Soon, you won't have to be God to fulfil this wish list. But you may not be human, either.
Such is the promise and peril of nanotechnology. First defined by engineer and scientist K. Eric Drexler in the 1980s and 90s, nanotechnology uses tools that operate on the 'nano' scale. A nanometer is one billionth of a meter in length. The DNA molecule is 2.3 nanometers wide. Nanotechnology, then, deals with the manipulation of matter at the atomic or molecular level. It is developing in two ways. The 'top-down' approach creates microscopic machines or delivery systems. The 'bottom-up' approach harnesses the biological world. Oncologists use a biological nanomachine - antibodies attached to ball-shaped molecules - to deliver the radiation drug Zevalin to the cells specifically affected by lymphoma, which saves healthy tissue from exposure to radiation.
