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.