The word nano implies extreme smallness.

• A nanometre (nm) is 1 million times smaller than a millimetre.
• A human hair is around 50,000 nm thick, a red blood cell is 2,500 nm wide.

Nanotechnology is the science and engineering of nanometre scale objects. Specifically, nanotechnology allows us to create and manipulate materials and devices with precise size, shape and properties. The ability to make or alter nano-sized structures has the potential to enable the development of new and improved products with valuable industrial applications. Richard Feynman, a Caltech Professor and Noble prize winner described the possibilities and wonders of nanotechnology in 1959 in a famous speech called ”There is Plenty of Room at the Bottom.”

Nanotechnology has come a long way in the past 40 years. In the 1980s the emergence of novel instruments allowed scientists to explore materials on an atomic level not previously possible. Now researchers can look at materials in terms of molecules and individual atoms can be moved in a controlled fashion.

Nanotechnology is truly a multidisciplinary subject, linking physics with chemistry, biology with engineering. It is an enabling technology that will feed into all sectors including electronics, pharmaceutical, IT and biotech. It will allow us to improve the cars we drive, the buildings we live in, the performance of our PCs etc. It will also allow us to create new materials and products not currently possible because of limitations in existing technologies.

Traditionally there are two approaches to making nanostructures

• Bottom-up i.e. building structures using individual molecular building blocks.
• Top-down, making nano-sized structures using machining or etching techniques to give nanometre size design features.

Applications vary from batteries to cosmetics, drug delivery and electronics. The development of these applications is moving at different speeds. Cosmetics containing nanomaterials are already on the market.

L'Oreal have developed nanosize vesicles called nanosomes. They are used to transport active ingredients such as pure Vitamin E through the skin. The nanosomes protect the active ingredients during their "journey" through the skin and release the ingredients on arrival at the target site. Because the interstices of the outer layer of skin measure about 100 nanometres, nanosomes are an excellent solution to the problem of transporting and concentrating active ingredients in the skin

In contrast, electronics are at the other end of the development timescale. It is estimated that nanoelectronic devices will not be commercially available for at least another 10-15 years.

For more information on potential applications using nanotechnology please visit the following links:

The Foresight Institute

Nanotechnology Research Directions: IWGN Workshop Report

Institute of Nanotechnology