How to Build With Atoms
from David's Gemini Notebook Podcast Collection Hosted by David Weissman
Nanotechnology didn’t begin in a spotless modern laboratory. Ancient potters, Roman glassmakers, and swordsmiths were unknowingly creating nanoscale structures long before anyone could see an atom. This episode enters the realm where gold changes color, gravity fades from importance, and quantum mechanics rewrites the properties of matter—tracing the story from accidental nanomaterials to Richard Feynman’s vision and the microscope that finally let scientists touch individual atoms. Follow the battle over molecular machines, the breakthrough that turned atomic surfaces into programmable canvases, and the arrival of AI-controlled microscopes capable of building single-atom devices. Along the way, explore magic-angle graphene, next-generation energy storage, advanced solar cells, and lipid nanoparticles engineered to carry genetic instructions through the human body. Are we finally realizing the nanobot dream—not with miniature gears and wrenches, but through artificial intelligence and self-assembling chemistry?
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