MICRO

"Micro"

In the book "Micro" by Michael Crichton and Richard Preston, The sociopathic CEO antagonist uses miniaturization technology developed by his company to kill those who learn his secrets or stand in his way. He sees enemies all around, Uses everyone, and discards or kills those he has no use for. A group of College Graduate students, drawn by the lure of making big money, travel to Hawaii to see the companies facility. They learn something they shouldn't and get on the bad guy's bad side, he shrinks them, then tries to kill them but fails. Then, they seek revenge.

Micrometer Scale Electro-Mechanical Systems and Technology

    In the book "Micro" by Michael Crichton and Richard Preston, a machine exists that can shrink machines and living things down to about 1 mm. While such a machine is, of course, Science Fiction, it IS possible to build extremely small machines. Since the 1980's, the Idea of nanotechnology has been thought to be the wave of the future. But while several things have been developed into actual products, the almost magical transformational technological wonders that were promised have not been realized. 

    Above the scale of nano-meters is micro-meters. Here again, while progress is being made, nothing really wonderful has come out of it. Many scientists and technical researchers are working on building Micro-machines. They started in the early `90's with parts etched out of silicon wafers since that technology was so ubiquitous. These days, other substances are being experimented with and truthfully, I am not currently knowledgeable about the state of the art. I have seen pictures of small gears and levers that can act as miniature locks, clocks nd other mechanical devices. Soon, little mechanical robots, microbots, will be roaming our world, doing good and probably doing mischief also.