What is Nanoscience?

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Nanobots
Nanomedicine
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Nanotechnology
 Nanomedicine
Nano:
Nano-Produ

Nanobots
Nanoscience
A prefix that means very,

Nano-
very, small.

stuff
The
Theword
wordnano
nanois
isfrom
fromthe
theGreek
Greek
word
word‘Nanos’
‘Nanos’meaning
meaningDwarf.
Dwarf. ItItisisaa
prefix
prefixused
usedto
todescribe
describe"one
"onebillionth"
billionth"
of
ofsomething,
something,or
or0.000000001.
0.000000001.

Nanometre
Nanotechnol
 Nanomedicine
Nanoscience
Nano-Produ

Nanobots
Nanoscience
A part of science that studies small stuff.

Nano-

stuff
It’s
It’s not
not biology,
biology, physics
physics or or
chemistry.
chemistry. It’s
It’s all
all sciences
sciences that
that
work
workwith
with the
thevery
verysmall.
small.

Nanometre
Nanotechnol
 Nanomedicine
Nanotechnology
Nano-Produ

Nanobots
Nanoscience
The art and science of making useful stuff that

Nano-
does stuff on the nanometre length scale.

stuff
Nanometre
Includes
Includesadvances
advancesinin
all industries,
all industries,
including
includingthe
the
electronic,
electronic,chemical,
chemical,

Nanotechnol
and pharmaceutical.
and pharmaceutical.
Understanding Size
• 1 metre

source: CERN http://microcosm.web.cern.ch/microcosm

Understanding Size
• 10 centimetres

source: CERN http://microcosm.web.cern.ch/microcosm

Understanding Size
• 1 centimetre

source: CERN http://microcosm.web.cern.ch/microcosm

Understanding Size
• 100 micrometres

source: CERN http://microcosm.web.cern.ch/microcosm

Understanding Size
• 10 micrometres

source: CERN http://microcosm.web.cern.ch/microcosm

Understanding Size
• 1 micrometre

source: CERN http://microcosm.web.cern.ch/microcosm

Understanding Size
• 100 nanometres

source: CERN http://microcosm.web.cern.ch/microcosm

Understanding Size
• 10 nanometres

source: CERN http://microcosm.web.cern.ch/microcosm

Understanding Size
• 1 nanometre

source: CERN http://microcosm.web.cern.ch/microcosm

 Top-down

microelectronics Nanotechnology
Nanotechnologyis is the
the next
next
step
step after
after miniaturisation.
miniaturisation.

nanoelectronics
 Bottom-up
Arranged
Arrangedone
oneway,
way,
atoms
atomsmake
makeupupsoil,
soil,air
air
and
andwater.
water.Arranged
Arranged
another
anotherway
waythey
theymake
make
up
upstrawberries
strawberriesor
or
smoke
smoke. .

Ultimate Nanotechnology would be to build at

the level of one atom at a time and to be able to
do so with perfection.
Nature’s Toy box.
ATOMIC LEGO
Molecular assembly is like a Lego set of 90 atoms that we
can use to build anything from the bottom up! You just
use every atom that you want. All of the elements in the
periodic table can be mixed and matched,
 Nanoscience
Nanoscience would
would probably
probably be be boring
boring ifif small
small
things
things were
were just
just like
like big
big things.
things.

But they aren’t. Pencil lead, for example takes on all sorts of shapes if kept
from becoming a solid .
When carbon is a pure solid it is found as graphite or diamond.
On the nano scale. Carbon takes on very different structures.
Size Matters
• It’s not just how big you are

• It’s what you can do with it