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ARTICLE · 20 APRIL 2004

The Nanotechnology Revolution

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In the world of science, the latest buzz-word is "nanotechnology". Nanotechnology and related "nano" subjects, such as nanoscience, nanostructures, nanobusiness, nanocomposites, and the like, have been the topic of everything from tradeshows and technical papers to Michael Crichton's latest science-fiction bestseller. All this publicity leads many to ask: What is nanotechnology?

United StatesIntellectual Property
Timothy Olson
Timothy Olson

In the world of science, the latest buzz-word is "nanotechnology". Nanotechnology and related "nano" subjects, such as nanoscience, nanostructures, nanobusiness, nanocomposites, and the like, have been the topic of everything from tradeshows and technical papers to Michael Crichton's latest science-fiction bestseller. All this publicity leads many to ask: What is nanotechnology?

Nanotechnology is, in general, any technology involving the characterization and manipulation of matter at the atomic and molecu-lar level. This level has been described to include molecules and structures (nanostructures) having at least one dimension between roughly 1 and 100 nanometers, where a nanometer is one billionth of a meter. To get a sense of the nano scale:

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