Editing Molecular nanotechnology (section)

===The Smalley{{ndash}}Drexler debate===
{{main|Drexler–Smalley debate on molecular nanotechnology}}

Several researchers, including Nobel Prize winner [[Richard Smalley|Dr. Richard Smalley]] (1943–2005),<ref>{{cite journal| url=http://www.sciamdigital.com/index.cfm?fa=Products.ViewIssuePreview&ARTICLEID_CHAR=F90C4210-C153-4B2F-83A1-28F2012B637| date=September 2001| journal=Scientific American| title=Of Chemistry, Love and Nanobots| first=Richard E.| last=Smalley| doi=10.1038/scientificamerican0901-76| pmid=11524973| volume=285| issue=3| pages=76–77| bibcode=2001SciAm.285c..76S| access-date=2007-04-15| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120723062135/http://www.sciamdigital.com/index.cfm?fa=Products.ViewIssuePreview&ARTICLEID_CHAR=F90C4210-C153-4B2F-83A1-28F2012B637| archive-date=2012-07-23| url-status=dead}}</ref> attacked the notion of universal assemblers, leading to a rebuttal from Drexler and colleagues,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.imm.org/SciAmDebate2/smalley.php |title=Debate About Assemblers — Smalley Rebuttal |publisher=Imm.org |access-date=2010-09-05}}</ref> and eventually to an exchange of letters.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://pubs.acs.org/cen/coverstory/8148/8148counterpoint.html |title=C&En: Cover Story - Nanotechnology |publisher=Pubs.acs.org |date=2003-12-01 |access-date=2010-09-05}}</ref> Smalley argued that chemistry is extremely complicated, reactions are hard to control, and that a universal assembler is science fiction. Drexler and colleagues, however, noted that Drexler never proposed universal assemblers able to make absolutely anything, but instead proposed more limited assemblers able to make a very wide variety of things. They challenged the relevance of Smalley's arguments to the more specific proposals advanced in ''Nanosystems''.  Also, Smalley argued that nearly all of modern chemistry involves reactions that take place in a [[solvent]] (usually [[water]]), because the [[small molecules]] of a solvent contribute many things, such as lowering [[binding energies]] for transition states.  Since nearly all known chemistry requires a solvent, Smalley felt that Drexler's proposal to use a high vacuum environment was not feasible.  However, Drexler addresses this in Nanosystems by showing mathematically that well designed [[catalysts]] can provide the effects of a solvent and can fundamentally be made even more efficient than a solvent/[[enzyme]] reaction could ever be. It is noteworthy that, contrary to Smalley's opinion that enzymes require water, "Not only do enzymes work vigorously in anhydrous organic media, but in this unnatural milieu they acquire remarkable properties such as greatly enhanced stability, radically altered substrate and [[enantiomeric]] specificities, molecular memory, and the ability to catalyse unusual reactions."<ref>{{cite journal|title=Enzymatic catalysis in anhydrous organic solvents.|date=April 1989 | pmid=2658221 | doi=10.1016/0968-0004(89)90146-1|volume=14|issue=4 |journal=Trends Biochem Sci|pages=141–4 | last1 = Klibanov | first1 = AM}}"{{cite journal|title=Enzymatic catalysis in anhydrous organic solvents|date=April 1989 | pmc=397741|pmid=3858815|volume=82|issue = 10|journal=Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.|pages=3192–6 | last1 = Zaks | first1 = A | last2 = Klibanov | first2 = AM|doi=10.1073/pnas.82.10.3192 |bibcode=1985PNAS...82.3192Z|doi-access=free }}</ref>