What is Nanotechnology?

Nanotechnology is the understanding and control of matter at dimensions of roughly 1 to 100 nanometers, where unique phenomena enable novel applications. Encompassing nanoscale science, engineering and technology, nanotechnology involves imaging, measuring, modeling, and manipulating matter at this length scale.

At the nanoscale, the physical, chemical, and biological properties of materials differ in fundamental and valuable ways from the properties of individual atoms and molecules or bulk matter. Nanotechnology R&D is directed toward understanding and creating improved materials, devices, and systems that exploit these new properties.

One area of nanotechnology R&D is medicine. Medical researchers work at
the micro- and nano-scales to develop new drug delivery methods, therapeutics and pharmaceuticals. For a bit of perspective, the diameter of DNA, our genetic material, is in the 2.5 nanometer range, while red blood cells are approximately 2.5 micrometers. Additional information about nanoscale research in medicine is available from the National Institutes of Health.

A nanometer is one-billionth of a meter; a sheet of paper is about 100,000 nanometers thick. See The Scale of Things for a comparative view of the sizes of commonly known items and nanoscale particles.

A Tale of Two Cities Charles Dickens

Great Expectations Charles Dickens

Anna Karenina Leo Tolstoy

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Lewis Carroll

Around the World in 80 Days Jules Verne

Crime and Punishment Fyodor Dostoevsky

Three Ghost Stories Charles Dickens

Aesop's Fables Aesop

Emma Jane Austen

Andersen's Fairy Tales Hans Christian Andersen

Ulysses James Joyce

A Christmas Carol Charles Dickens

Vanity Fair William Makepeace Thackeray

The Lost World Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Dracula Bram Stoker

Erewhon Samuel Butler

For the Term of His Natural Life Marcus Clarke

Frankenstein Mary Shelley

Treasure Island Robert Louis Stevenson

Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad

Jane Eyre Charlotte Bronte

Kidnapped Robert Louis Stevenson

Little Women Louisa May Alcott

Madame Bovary Gustave Flaubert

Middlemarch George Eliot

Moby Dick Herman Melville

Nostromo: A Tale of the Seaboard Joseph Conrad

Notes from the UndergroundFyodor Dostoevsky

Grimm's Fairy Tales The Brothers Grimm

Of Human Bondage W. Somerset Maugham

Oliver Twist Charles Dickens

Paradise Lost John Milton

Pollyanna Eleanor H. Porter

Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen

Robinson Crusoe Daniel Defoe

Sense and Sensibility Jane Austen

Sons and Lovers D. H. Lawrence

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Mark Twain

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer Mark Twain

The Hound of the Baskervilles Arthur Conan Doyle

The Idiot Fyodor Dostoyevsky

The Iliad Homer

The Island of Doctor Moreau H. G. Wells

The Brothers Karamazov Fyodor Dostoevsky

The Jungle Book Rudyard Kipling

The Last of the Mohicans James Fenimore Cooper

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow Washington Irving

The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood Howard Pyle

The Metamorphosis Franz Kafka

The Odyssey Homer

The Picture of Dorian Gray Oscar Wilde

The Portrait of a Lady Henry James

The Prince Nicolo Machiavelli

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Robert Louis Stevenson

The Thirty-Nine Steps John Buchan

The Time Machine H. G. Wells

The War of the Worlds H. G. Wells

The Red Badge of Courage Stephen Crane

The Scarlet Letter Nathaniel Hawthorne

The Way of All Flesh Samuel Butler

The Works of Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe

Utopia Thomas More

War and Peace Leo Tolstoy

Wuthering Heights Emily Bronte

Beyond Good and Evil Friedrich Nietzsche