The 2016 Nobel Prize for Chemistry was awarded to a group of scientists for the creation of molecular machines with potential application from drug delivery to smart materials and even artificial life. By linking molecules together to design everything from miniature motors to tiny muscles, they opened the way to an even bigger idea — building structures one atom at a time.

I hadn’t planned on watching the Oculus Connect 3 keynote — but half way through my lunch, when the live stream turned up on Facebook, I was hooked.

Fab theft refers to the use of digital scanning and 3D printing to replicate copyrighted designs or patented objects — and it is happening already. On the infamous platform, ‘The Pirate Bay’, there is now an entire new section known as ‘physibles’. Nevertheless, despite the moral panic about 3D printing, the real risk of fab theft is not 3D printed guns or TSA keys, but the sustainability of copyright in a world where everything is available on demand.

This week Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan revealed their plans to dedicate $3 billion to leverage artificial intelligence and other disruptive technologies to solve a seemingly impossible challenge. ‘Can we cure, prevent or manage all disease by the end of this century?’ asked Zuckerberg. He is not the first billionaire to wonder whether technology can extend and preserve life, but maybe one of the few willing to undertake it on behalf of others.

It is fashionable these days to speculate about robots taking jobs. Less well-observed, is the fact that seemingly great companies are being built today with far less jobs to start with. What if you only needed a small number of people to do extraordinary things?