In the near future nanotechnology will play an increasingly important part in all our lives. it has the potential to help solve our energy problems, food shortages, clean water access and health issues etc. but it also threatens to reduce the planetary biosphere to nano-dust. science and technology finds itself at a crucial crossroad, in which one wrong move can destroy the planet and all life on it. stan grant and his new (new ethical world) group set out to promote an ethical nano-science, 'for the good of all' but there are those who want a regulation-free nano industry to invent nano-weapons that make nuclear bombs pale in comparison. and they will do anything to achieve their goal.