NANOTECHNOLOGY

Nanotechnology, sometimes shortened to “nanotech,” refers to a field of applied science whose goal is to control matter on an atomic and molecular scale. Nanotechnology is an extremely diverse and multidisciplinary field, ranging from novel extensions of conventional-device physics to completely new approaches based on molecular self-assembly and to developing new materials with sizes ranging from 0.1 to hundreds of nanometers. A nanometer is one-billionth of a meter (10−9 m), which is about ten times the size of the smallest atom, hydrogen, and approximately 1/80,000 the width of a human hair. As Richard Feynman's famous statement that “there is plenty of room at the bottom” [1] portends, nanotechnology has the potential to create new materials and devices in the nanoscale range with wide-ranging applications in medicine, electronics, and energy production.

The human cell is 10,000 to 20,000 nm in diameter. Cellular proliferation and replication operate at the nanometer scale, thus demonstrating the need to translate molecular-based science into machines or devices matching the size of molecules in biology. There are several advantages to designing devices of this size in every industry imaginable. The computer chip industry has vastly expanded computational speed by decreasing the size and increasing the number of transistors per chip. The reduction in the size of key elements, down to about 100 nm, is possible because of improvements in photolithography that characteristically reduce the cost of production.