Small Wonders

Nanotechnology focuses on the miniature, but one thing about it is massive: the hype. Boosters have long panted about a coming age of tiny machines that will enhance human intelligence, cure disease, wipe out poverty -- and create fortunes. The National Nanotechnology Initiative, a federally backed research program, has forecast that nanotech will spawn a $1 trillion market by 2015. The froth has sparked an inevitable backlash: Some doubters now dismiss nanotech as sci-fi fantasy and a business bust in waiting.

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