Nanotechnology. Science or fiction?

The paper can be treated as a short introduction to nanotechnology and nanoscience bearing in mind evolution of these terms over years. We will introduce basic ideas of nanotechnology like bottom-up versus top-down philosophy, assemblers and nanomachines. Finally, critics of nanotechnology from physical and chemical points of view will be presented leading to hardcore and pragmatic definitions of nanotechnology and nanoscience. The second part of the paper stands on the pragmatic definition of nanotechnology. The basic obstacles to a further miniaturization of conventional semiconductor devices and application of 0D, 1D and 2D semiconductor quantum devices in electronics will be addressed. Basic principles of operation of molecular electronic devices based on self-assembled molecules will be addressed. The author's scanning tunnelling microscopy and spectroscopy results on self-assembled molecules and derivative adducts to C-60 molecules will be presented and discussed.