The ' new geography' of the 21st century

Exploration and mapping of details in nanospace awaits our 21st century adventurers. In the late 1400's through to the 1700's Europeans set sail in their wonderful new ships to explore the new world with sextant and cartography equipment in hand. In the 20th century astronomers, astronauts and cosmonauts ventured to discover what lies out beyond our little planet in space to explore the other moons, planets, star systems and galaxies. Today as a global society we are just setting out on humanity's next big exploratory adventure. The world of the molecule and the atom has been described as the 'new geography' of the 21st century. What wonderful new worlds will we find 'down there' at the nanoscale? And how well will we choose to use our new found treasures? This exploration is already progressing at an ever accelerating pace. At this stage many fear that in nanotechnology 'there be dragons'.