There S Plenty Of Room At The Bottom Predictions

Feynman considered the possibility of direct manipulation of individual atoms as a more powerful form of synthetic chemistry than those used at the time.

There s plenty of room at the bottom predictions.

This is the transcript of the classic talk that richard feynman gave on december 29th 1959 at the annual meeting of the american physical society at caltech and was first published in the february 1960 issue of caltech s engineering and science. 50 years ago eminent physicist richard feynman gave a gave a prophetic speech at caltech entitled there s plenty of room at the bottom the speech described a rich world of possibilities that could arise if we only applied ourselves toward controlling matter on smaller and smaller scales. This paper is a pleasure to read and it is not hard to imagine that the knowledge and practices now called nanotechnology are a fulfillment of feynman s vision. Feynman s classic talk there s plenty of room at the bottom remains a stellar example of physics prognostications that not only came mostly true but in some cases exceeded expectations.

On the evening of 29 december 1959 under the title there s plenty of room at the bottom richard feynman described the exciting possibilities that would open up if scientists could learn how to. There s plenty of room at the bottom. An invitation to enter a new field of physics was a lecture given by physicist richard feynman at the annual american physical society meeting at caltech on december 29 1959. In the talk feynman expounds on the possibilities of miniaturization decades ahead of his time but uncannily prescient.

But what really caught my attention was a fascinating chapter that is entitled there s plenty of room at the bottom a republication of a famous talk that feynman gave to the american physical society on dec. There s plenty of room at the bottom is a thoughtful and eloquent statement about what scientists ought to do with matter at the nanoscale. Feynman then a professor of theoretical physics at caltech was among the attendees and he delivered an after dinner lecture at the nearby huntington sheraton hotel entitled there s plenty of room at the bottom the banquet speech would prove prescient. Much of the improvement in computer performance comes from decades of miniaturization of computer components a trend that was foreseen by the nobel prize winning physicist richard feynman in his 1959 address there s plenty of room at the bottom to the american physical society.

On december 29 1959 american physicist and nobel laureate richard feynman at an american physical society meeting at caltech gave a presentation entitled there s plenty of room at the bottom which is generally considered to be a seminal event in the history of nanotechnology as it inspired the conceptual beginnings of the field decades later.