Introduction
Tennis rackets a hundred times stronger than steel but one-sixth the weigh? Mini-cameras that can be swallowed like capsules, returning video footage of parts of the intestine that x-rays and endoscopy cannot hope to reach? Stain-repellant clothing? Things that, until just a few years ago, belonged to the realm of science fiction have today entered the world of reality - in the present, in today's everyday world. The technology that enables this super revolution to become part and parcel of our daily lives is called nanotechnology.
Nanotechology - Definitions
Wikepedia defines Nanotechnology as: "Nanotechnology, sometimes shortened to nanotech, refers to a field of applied science whose theme is the control of matter on an atomic and molecular scale. Generally, nanotechnology deals with structures 100 nanometers or smaller, and invoves developing materials or devices within that size."
Understanding the Nanometer
The next logical question: what is a nanometer? A meter is defined by the International Standards Organization as 'the length of the path travelled by light in vacuum during a time interval of 1/299,792,458 of a second'. A nanometre is, by definition, 10^-9 of a millimeter.
Effectively we can try visualizing a nanometer as the size of 10 hydrogen, or 5 silicon atoms in a line. Using this scale, an average human hair would be around 80,000 nanometers in cross section! An the head of a pin would be 100,000 nanometers in diameter!
In the next post, we will start to explore the working of the nano world.
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