About Nanotechnology

Imagine being able to observe the motion of a red blood cell as it moves through your vein, or being able to watch as a type of white blood cell (called a “T-cell”) destroys an invading microbe by engulfing it. What would it be like to observe the vibration of molecules as the temperature rises in a pan of water? To observe sodium and chlorine atoms as they get close enough to actually transfer electrons and form a salt crystal? New scientific tools, developed and improved over the last few decades, make such observations possible. These are examples of the effort to view, measure and manipulate materials at the molecular or atomic scale – this effort is the major focus of nanotechnology.

The prefix “nano” comes from a Greek word, νᾶνος, that means “dwarf”. This prefix is used in the International System of Units (SI) to denote a factor of 10⁻⁹. If we have the “nano” prefix attached to a meter (m) then 1 nm (nanometer) = 10⁻⁹ meter (one billionth of a meter, according to the “short scale” definition of a billion used in various countries). If the prefix is attached to a second (sec) then 1 ns =10⁻⁹ second (1 biilionth of a second).

The tools that have allowed us to observe the previously invisible world of the nanoscale objects include special sophisticated microscopes such as the Atomic Force Microscope and the Scanning Tunneling Microscope.