Most of the press releases announcing laboratory-based breakthroughs in nanotechnology are peppered with " could haves " or " may one day lead tos " . That doesn' t undermine the value of these advances - most revolutionary materials on the market today began their life in the laboratory and were unveiled with similar caveats about their future applications. But if you' re the type that wants results now, you may be frustrated by the constant barrage of laboratory developments and the relative lack of real applications.

Well here' s the latest best guess at when some of those lab advances may reach the marketplace, courtesy of the Interdisciplinary Center for Technology Analysis and Forecasting (ICTAF) at Tel-Aviv University. They have released a report on " Envisioned Developments in Nanobiotechnology " based on a survey of 139 experts from 30 countries.

Here are some of their predictions:

2008: Nano-agents for analysis inside cells
2013: Nanotools for manipulation inside cells
2015: Self-repairing in artificial systems
2018: In vitro construction of human organs
2021: Nanomachines inside the body