Nanotechnology deal with devices on a molecular scale (10E-9 m). This is a rapidly emerging field whose influence will be as wide and as great as that of the computer revolution. See also my blog posts on nanotechnology.

## Visualize a Nanometer

One nanometer
= 1 nm
= 10-9 m
= 0.000 000 001 meters
= 1/1,000,000,000 (1 billionth) of a meter
= 1/1,000,000 (1 millionth) of a millimeter
= 1/1,000 (1 thousandth) of a micron
= 10 Angstroms.

One meter
= 103 mm (1 thousand millimeters)
= 106 µm (1 million microns)
= 109 nm (1 billion nanometers)
= 1010 Å (10 billion Angstroms).

One inch = 25,400,000 nm.

The scale of some small things:

• The head of a pin is roughly 2 mm = 2,000 µm  = 2,000,000 nm.
• A human hair is roughly 1/10 mm = 100 µm = 100,000 nm in diameter. The size of a human hair is actually [§] from 17-181 µm.
• A typical cell or the size of the smallest individual items perceptible to the average naked eye is 1/40 mm = 25 µm = 25,000 nm.
• A red blood cell is roughly 10 µm = 10,000 nm.
• An Escherichia Coli O157:H7 bacterium (associated with food poisoning) is roughly 2 µm = 2,000 nm.
• A Vaccina virus (associated with Cowpox) is roughly 0.2 µm = 200 nm.
• A T4 bacteriophage is one of the largest bacterial viruses (it attacks E. Coli) and is roughly 0.1 µm = 100 nm all around.
• A Marburg virus (a.k.a. Ebola) is cane shaped and roughly 75 nm x 650 nm. Nature has been using biological "nanotechnology" for millions of years.
• A Rhinovirus (often associated with colds) is sphere shaped and is roughly 25 nm.
• A DNA strand is roughly 2 nm wide.
• A typical atom is roughly 0.1-0.2 nm = 1-2 Angstrom. "Another way to remember their size is this: if an apple is magnified to the size of the earth, then the atoms in the apple are approximately the size of the original apple." -Lectures on Physics (1963) by Richard Feynman.

## Keywords

Keywords in alphabetical order.

• buckyball fullerenes, C60. One of the earliest manifestations of nanotechnology. Wacky properties!
• CNT (Carbon NanoTubes). Arose from buckyball concepts. Strange properties, including stronger than steel by a factor of 20+.
• DNA assemblage, DNA computing. 330 trillion operations per second, super computer in the size of a drop of water, self-powered by chemical bond breakage, a million times more energy efficient than silcon computers, pre-rigged for parallel processing. See Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel.
• FEDs (Field-Emission Displays). Nanotubes used to make very large sized, high image quality screens.
• MEMS (Micro Electrical Mechanical Systems)/NEMS (Nanometer-scale EMS)
• Millipede by IBM. "a data storage density of a trillion bits per square inch -- 20 times higher than the densest magnetic storage available today. ... -- enough to store 25 million printed textbook pages on a surface the size of a postage stamp...."
• molecular biology, nanobiotech, nanomedicine
• nanowires, nanomaterials, nanostructures, nanoelectronics, nanodevices, nanocantilevers, nanolithography. Think single electron transistors.
• nanosensors. Capable of detecting even a single molecule.
• Organic Electro-Luminescent displays (aka Organic Light Emitting Devices). Heat free lighting.
• quantum computing
• self assembling/reproducing
• self healing, self cleaning, self adjusting materials
• space elevator. Space shuttle substitute using nanotube cabled elevator to outer space. Such an elevator would reduce the cost of delivering space satellites from $10,000 per pound to$10 per pound. Originally proposed in 1895, Konstantin E. Tsiolkovsky, a Russian visionary. Re-popularized by The Fountains of Paradise (1978) by Arthur C. Clarke. [HighLiftSystems.com  and others]

## Cool Nanotechnology Pictures

[via wikipedia.org]

• bbBlogs
• Investment specific sites