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Femtotechnology is a term used in reference to the hypothetical manipulation of matter on the scale of afemtometer, or 10−15 m. This is three orders of magnitude lower thanpicotechnology, at the scale of 10−12 m, and six orders of magnitude lower thannanotechnology, at the scale of 10−9 m.
Work in the femtometer range involves manipulation of excited energy states withinatomic nuclei, specificallynuclear isomers, to produce metastable (or otherwise stabilized) states with unusual properties. In the extreme case, excited states of the individualnucleons that make up the atomic nucleus (protons andneutrons) are considered, ostensibly to tailor the behavioral properties of these particles.
The most advanced form ofmolecular nanotechnology is often imagined to involveself-replicatingmolecular machines, and there have been some speculations suggesting something similar might be possible with analogues of molecules composed ofnucleons rather than atoms. For example, theastrophysicistFrank Drake once speculated about the possibility of self-replicating organisms composed of such nuclear molecules living on the surface of aneutron star, a suggestion taken up in thescience fiction novelDragon's Egg by thephysicistRobert Forward.[1] It is thought by physicists that nuclear molecules may be possible,[2][3] but they would be very short-lived, and whether they could actually be made to perform complex tasks such as self-replication, or what type of technology could be used to manipulate them, is unknown.
Practical applications of femtotechnology are currently considered[by whom?] to be unlikely. The spacings between nuclear energy levels require equipment capable of efficiently generating and processing gamma rays, without equipment degradation. The nature of thestrong interaction is such that excited nuclear states tend to be very unstable (unlike the excited electron states inRydberg atoms), and there are a finite number of excited states below the nuclear binding energy, unlike the (in principle) infinite number of bound states available to an atom's electrons. Similarly, what is known about the excited states of individual nucleons seems to indicate that these do not produce behavior that in any way makes nucleons easier to use or manipulate, and indicates instead that these excited states are even less stable and fewer in number than the excited states of atomic nuclei.
Femtotechnology plays a critical role in the 2005 science-fiction novelPushing Ice. It also features in various stories byGreg Egan such asRiding the Crocodile,[4] where he proposes the idea of a "strong bullet" which overcomes the instability of high atomic weight femto-structures by being accelerated to near light speed, letting it travel interstellar distances before impacting a target and constructing a stable nano-scale structure as it decays.