Short answers, pulled from the story.
Richard Feynman delivered the talk titled There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom in 1959. This presentation described the possibility of synthesizing matter through direct manipulation of atoms.
Gerd Binnig and Heinrich Rohrer developed the scanning tunneling microscope at IBM Zurich Research Laboratory in 1981. They received a Nobel Prize in Physics in 1986 for this invention.
Scientists utilize bottom-up and top-down approaches to build materials at the nanoscale. The bottom-up approach builds materials from molecular components that assemble themselves chemically through molecular recognition.
Over 800 manufacturer-identified nanotech products were publicly available as of the 21st of August 2008 according to Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies estimates. New items hit the market at a pace of three to four per week during that period.
Some forms of carbon nanotubes could be as harmful as asbestos if inhaled in sufficient quantities. When rats breathed in nanoparticles, particles settled in their brains and lungs leading to significant increases in biomarkers for inflammation.