Technologist Eric Drexler envisioned a future in which machines far smaller than dust motes would construct everything from chairs to rocket engines, atom by atom; in which microscopic robots would heal human ills, cell by cell. Sixteen years after the publication of Drexler’s book Engines of Creation, the molecular-scale technologies most immediately available to consumers are somewhat less fantastic: stain-resistant khakis and more durable tennis balls.
Tag Archives: companies
Schapiro, Bair, Warren: Female Sheriffs of Wall Street
A few weeks back, at an event to celebrate the role of women in finance, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner tried to get things started with a joke. He said he had recently come across a headline that asked, “What If Women Ran Wall Street?” “Now that’s an excellent question, but it’s kind of a low bar,” Geithner continued, deadpan amid rising laughter
Libya’s Crisis: Bad News for Oil Prices, Economic Recovery
Even before its outcome is known, Libya’s uprising could leave an indelible mark on the world economy: oil prices have rocketed since Tuesday and could rise even further amid the continuing turmoil that has prompted thousands of foreign oil workers to flee. Libya’s oil output, typically 1.7 million barrels a day, has fallen by more than half since Tuesday, and its energy exports have ground to a complete halt
Lima’s Lure
The headquarters of Peru’s Interbank are hard to miss. While the building is not the tallest in the capital, Lima, it is the most entertaining on the city’s otherwise drab main drag.
A Summit on Obesity
For years now, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported nothing but bad news about our expanding waistlines.
Kevin O’Leary, TV’s ‘Shark Tank’ Guru: In Real Life, No Business Whiz
Kevin O’Leary stars on ABC’s new business reality show Shark Tank as one of five executives who vet business ideas pitched by would-be entrepreneurs. O’Leary often delivers the harshest of the business critiques
The Gas Dilemma
For more than a decade, Bonnie Burnett and her husband Truman have owned a second home in the hilly farmland of Bradford County, in northeastern Pennsylvania. It was a getaway for the Burnetts , a place to take their grandchildren for a swim in the wooded pond that lies just a few steps from their front door.
Books: In Search of Rubber Ducks
In January 1992, deep within a tempestuous stretch of subarctic sea, a Taiwan ship on its way from Hong Kong to the U.S. was beset by foul weather and lost several steel containers overboard
No Friends in Sight: Libya’s Rebels Routed Once More
On a normal day, residents of Bin Jawad say, there is nothing remarkable about their sunny seaside town.
Doing business in North Korea
As the chairwoman of South Korea’s Hyundai group, Jeong-eun Hyun faces business challenges few other executives can imagine. Subsidiary Hyundai Asan has led efforts to build economic ties between the North and South, so Hyun is not only managing a multinational through a recession but also through global tensions over the North’s nuclear program.