Nanotechnology has fascinated me for some time now ever since I picked up Eric Drexler’s Engines of Creation. I am always, however, constantly amazed when I mention it to my friends and they never seem to have any idea about what it is, where it’s going, and what are the possibilities. So here’s a small list of must reads. You can always rely on Wikipedia’s nanotechnology article for an introduction, but there are better works out there to rely on.

Drexler’s book was written some time ago, so a lot has obviously happened since then. You can get it for free here at the Foresight Nanotech Insitute’s website, a “think tank and public interest institute on nanotechnology” focused on “guiding nanotechnology research, public policy and education to address the critical challenges facing humanity”. The Foresight Institute also maintains a decent RSS feed with up to date news references. Drexler’s work is still recommended reading for a very clear introduction to the subject and, since this work was considered the first definitive argument for nanotechnology, it’s great to see where it all began (figuratively speaking of course, since the science has obviously been built on the backs of others for many years already).

If you’re looking for something more up-to-date, try The Royal Society’s report entitled Nanoscience and nanotechnologies: opportunities and uncertainties (2004), an excellent overview of the current state of nanotechnology, as well as the wide-ranging issues that need to be overcome, such as health, environment, and safety concerns, and also ethical and social issues.

You can also have a look at Nanotech Basics at KurzweilAI.net, a website run by Ray Kurzweil, one of the foremost thinkers when it comes to science and the concept known as The Singularity, “the idea that accelerating technology will lead to superhuman machine intelligence that will soon exceed human intelligence, probably by the year 2030″.

If you’re more a visual kind of person, check out Productive Nanosystems (From molecules to superproducts), a computer animated video on how a possible nanofactory may function. The video is from Nanorex, which is aiming on creating an open-source 3D nanomechanical CAD program “for nanomechanical engineering, enabling a new generation of scientists and engineers to design, model, simulate and analyze productive nanosystems.”. They’ve also got a few other cool graphics on different types of gears and nanofactory parts modelled with their software.

Ok, enough from me. I don’t claim to be an expert, but I found these really useful in grasping the science and concepts. Oh, and I also maintain a list of up to date links on my del.icio.us account here (you can find most of the links in this article bookmarked there already).