Little Worries

When you consider mankind's ever-lengthening roster of public menaces — terrorism, SARS, North Korean nukes — the perils posed by a voracious race of self-replicating robotic organisms might seem pretty low on the list. But the Prince of Wales has let it be known that he is so perturbed by the potential dangers of nanotechnology — the young science that could one day make such creatures possible — and worries that it could reduce the planet to a lifeless "gray goo," that in the next couple of months he will convene a nanotech summit at his country residence, Highgrove House in...