Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!nanotech From: doom@portia.stanford.edu (Joseph Brenner) Newsgroups: sci.nanotech Subject: I screwed up Keywords: nano-lithography, silicon Message-ID: Date: 12 Sep 89 21:15:21 GMT Sender: nanotech@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: Stanford University Lines: 14 Approved: nanotech@aramis.rutgers.edu Some time ago I presented an argument that it's difficult to use very simple nano-manipulators to do something useful on the macroscale, because if you don't have self-replication, it's hard to make enough manipulators to do anything. I still think this is more or less correct. Unfortunately, I crunched some incorrect numbers in my analysis. The surface atomic density of silicon is more like 10^5. It's the volume density that's about 10^22. So what's seven orders of magnitude, anyway? -- Joe B.