In January 2000, President Bill Clinton announced the creation of a National Nanotechnology Initiative. "Just imagine," he said, "shrinking all the information at the Library of Congress into a device the size of a sugar cube." Clinton intended the initiative-whose funding the Bush administration has continually increased, requesting $982 million for fiscal 2005-to stimulate scientific progress and economic growth in the United States.

But the biggest beneficiary instead may be Japan.