What would it be like to have a desktop nanofactory? Maybe a little like having a nanofax from science fiction writer William Gibson's All Tomorrow's Parties:
"Nanofax AG offers a technology that digitally reproduces objects, physically, at a distance. Within certain rather large limitations, of course. A child's doll, placed in a Lucky Dragon Nanofax unit in London, will be reproduced in the Lucky Dragon Nanofax unit in New York-"
(Read more about the nanofax)
Take a look at this clever visualization of the inner workings of a nanofactory:
Mercedes Benz Solar Paint
'It turns sunlight into electricity, just like any solar power converter - you spray it on.' - Larry Niven, 1995.
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Nano-Chainmail 2D Mechanically Interlocked Polymer
'Nemourlon armor of reasonable weight resists penetration by most fragments and any bullet that is not both reasonably heavy and fairly high-velocity.'
Humans Love Helping Other Species
'At the ringside opposite them a table had been removed to make room for a large transparent plastic capsule on wheels.'