Nanotechnology: the science of the very small

A Nanoscience and nanotechnology have become very fashionable in recent times. Their prominence has inspired science fiction and raised a lot of hope and hype about the possibilities. But what exactly is nanotechnology? Most definitions agree that it is the manufacture of structures that measure up to 100 nanometres (nm). The diameter of an atom is typically only two or three tenths of a nanometre while that of the human hair is around 1,000,000 nm. Essentially, we are now able to build new...