Nanoscience’s Master Mechanic by David Pescovitz (from the University of California - Berkeley’s excellent Science Matters Newsletter):
The Center of Integrated Nanomechanical Systems (COINS) aims to develop a storehouse of mechanical components hundreds of times smaller than the diameter of a human hair.
…
“Right now, we make most nanodevices one at a time, sometimes as laboriously as atom by atom,” Zettl says. “That approach can prove a concept, but if you can’t scale up then it becomes a curiosity instead of a viable technology. We need automated assembly at the nanoscale.”
