Drexler Sayeth:<p><i>Contrary to popular opinion, diamond synthesis seems almost irrelevant to progress toward advanced nanosystems. At the current stage or research, it is both difficult and unnecessary.</i><p>The current view is that we're ready to start work on a first generation of nanoassembly tools using designed proteins for tooltips and DNA scaffolds for programmable, atomically precise structure.  The trouble is that it doesn't <i>look</i> like a first generation of molecular manufacturing tools are just around the corner, so the research isn't getting done.<p><a href="http://metamodern.com/2008/12/27/toward-advanced-nanosystems-materials-1/" rel="nofollow">http://metamodern.com/2008/12/27/toward-advanced-nanosystems...</a>