If you’ve read any science fiction books, watched any science fiction movies, or played any science fiction video games in the past ten years, you’ve probably heard of nanotechnology. So, what is nanotechnology?

Nano is an International System of Units (SI) prefix which means 10 to the negative 9th power, or 0.000000001. When such a small number is applied to technology, it simply means very tiny technology, so tiny in fact that thousands of nanotech molecules could fit on the width of a single human hair.

A Universe of Uses

Still, what is nanotechnology? It’s hard to define in the same way that, for example, books are hard to define, since nanotechnology covers such a wide range of scientific research in the same way that there are cook books, novels, collections of short stories, etc. They’re all lumped together under the term nanotechnology, but it doesn’t help explain what is nanotechnology.

Basically, nanotechnology is the manipulation of atoms and creation of molecules. Recently, scientists created a new material called graphene paper, which is reportedly ten times stronger than steel but, more importantly, easy and cheap to reproduce. According to its researchers, it is “completely recyclable,” and can be used in industrial, consumer, and military applications.

Just imagine a new space shuttle that weighs half as much as the old one, meaning a fraction of the fuel is needed to get it into orbit. Police officers may be able to wear bulletproof vests the thickness and weight of a normal t-shirt. Buildings could become far more earthquake resistant. These examples are just a few of the many possible applications waiting for graphene paper, and it was all made possible by nanotechnology.

Understanding the importance of nanotechnology, the federal government even has a program dedicated to the field of research. You can access the National Nanotechnology Initiative’s website at www.nano.gov. This brief overview only began to describe what is nanotechnology, but hopefully it sparked your imagination with the possibilities it offers for the future.