Tiny Is Beautiful: Translating 'Nano' Into Practical

[RedEarth]

In the hip science of ultrasmall nanotechnology, fantastical future possibilities like rampaging nanorobots capture the most attention, but the first fruits of the field have been more mundane: tiny bits of mostly ordinary stuff that just sit there.

Yet these bits - nanoparticles - gain wondrous new capabilities simply because they are so small.

Nanoparticles of various sorts are already found in products like sunscreen, paint and inkjet paper. More exotic varieties offer promise in medicine for sensitive diagnostic tests and novel treatments: the detection of Alzheimer's disease by finding a protein in spinal fluid, for instance, or nanoparticles that heat up and kill cancer cells.

Some nanoparticles are not even on the cutting edge. Medieval artisans unknowingly became nanotechnologists when they made red stained glass by mixing gold chloride into molten glass. That created tiny gold spheres, which absorbed and reflected sunlight in a way that produces a rich ruby color.

Nanotechnology, nanoparticles and all of the other nano words derive from nanometer, a billionth of a meter, or about one 25-millionth of an inch. That is far smaller than the world of everyday objects described by Newton's laws of motion, but bigger than an atom or a simple molecule, particles ruled by quantum mechanics

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/22/science/22nano.html?pagewanted=print&position=

[rkc3]

1. Nanotechnology is too difficult to understand and explain.

Are you sure this isn't another instance of intelligent design?

On edit: It's actually an interesting article.

[Igel]

2. And they say size doesn't matter.

It's a oft-predicted mini-revolution. Can't wait for nanobots.