Earth & Sky

Nanotechnology's myth of grey goo

JB: This is Earth and Sky. While nanotechnology involves some real possible safety risks, there are also a few misconceptions.

DB: We asked Hector Abruna. He’s Professor and Chair of the Department of Chemistry at Cornell University and an expert on nanotechnology. He told us about a common nano myth.

Hector Abruna: Perhaps the biggest example, or the example that’s mostly in people’s minds, is the novel by Michael Crichton called Prey, where supposedly there are these devices, or these little bugs, that have been engineered to basically take over the world.

JB: These self–replicating nanomachines are popularly known as grey goo, a term introduced in 1986 by nanotechnology pioneer Eric Drexler to describe what he believed to be nanotechnology’s worst–case scenario.

DB: Now, even Drexler thinks that such a scenario is unlikely because molecular manufacturing can occur more efficiently without making systems that can self–replicate. Abru?a added that the engineering necessary to make grey goo probably isn’t feasible.

Hector Abruna: To think that one could engineer something at that level, with that level of sophistication, and that is self–propagating, self–replicating . . . is just not going to happen as far as I know.

JB: Come to our website – earthsky.org – with your questions and comments about nanotechnology. With thanks to the National Science Foundation, we’re Block and Byrd for Earth and Sky.

Written by Abby Frank