When people in the tech industry talk about "convergence", they're usually talking about cramming the features of one device onto another device. This NY Times article, though is talking about a very different kind of convergence. It's a convergence of scientific practices to allow formerly separate areas of science to work together in reaching some interesting breakthroughs. All of the focus surrounds nanotechnology, but the idea is to take that nanotech, and pass it off to biotechnology, electronics and brain researchers. They've even given the "converged" group an acronym: NBIC (for nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technology and cognitive science). The people involved with NBIC say that it's important for scientists from various fields not to pigeon-hole themselves, but to work collaboratively.