Drexler's problem is that he did it backwards. He wrote the popular book
first, and then when he got ignored/flamed by academia, he went back
and got his PhD and then wrote the technical book.
And the technical book is itself an affront to the academic tradition,
aggressively interdisciplinary to the point that no specialist
He will continue to be a pariah unless he decides to play the game of
academic politics.
Hal