...indeed.

I studiously avoided using the word ``nanotechnology'' in this paper because it had already begun to accrete an odour of flakiness, due to the apparently outlandish claims made by some of its partisans. In the Tech Forum presentation the following May (see page ), I used the word only once, as a synonym for my preferred term, ``molecular engineering.'' Since 1990 the word ``nanotechnology'' has become more respectable, and is now seen as an entirely legitimate area of research.