'Nanothis or nanothat'

A great beginning to James Pethokoukis' article on nanohype in this week's print edition of U.S. News & World Report: "If you're a science-fiction novelist or screenwriter struggling to make the impossible seem plausible, just insert "nanothis" or "nanothat" as a handy plot device." I would add that it's not necessarily a bad thing to get the public's imagination all fired up like that, if it also inspires them to seek out more information on nanoreality. James quotes me in there, too: "But as interesting and useful as these and other products are -- including 'clear' sunscreens and longer-lasting tennis balls -- it hardly adds up to the next industrial revolution. 'I'd say that the nanomaterials used in sunscreen and khakis are simply the next evolutionary step in the materials and chemicals industries and can trace little of their lineage back to the original vision of Eric Drexler,' says Howard Lovy, [news] editor of the industry-tracking Small Times." Discuss