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Nanotechnology

Explorer · ages 7 and underAdapted from Wikipedia
An animated model of C60, also called a buckyball, a soccer-ball-shaped molecule made of 60 carbon atoms that slowly rotates so we can see its shape from every side.

What is nanotechnology?

Nanotechnology is the work of handling very tiny things. These things are between 1 and 100 nanometers in size. This tiny size range is called the nanoscale, and things can act in special ways at this size.

An older idea was moving tiny atoms and molecules carefully to build bigger things. Today this idea is called molecular nanotechnology. Scientists also use nanotechnology to help with nanomedicine and nanoelectronics.

Famous helpers

In 1959, the physicist Richard Feynman gave a talk called There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom. He shared ideas that helped start nanotechnology. In 1974, Norio Taniguchi first used the term "nano-technology." In 1986, K. Eric Drexler wrote a book called Engines of Creation: The Coming Era of Nanotechnology, which many people read.

Tools and discoveries

The scanning tunneling microscope was invented in 1981. It let scientists see single atoms. In 1985, scientists discovered fullerenes, and they later won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. In 1991, Sumio Iijima discovered carbon nanotubes.

Everyday uses

Nanotechnology helps make many things we use. It can help tennis balls last longer, golf balls fly straighter, and bowling balls stay strong. Some socks and trousers are treated with nanotechnology to keep people cooler in summer. It also helps make a lithium-ion battery work better, and it can help with drug delivery in medicine.

Quiz time!

3 questions about Nanotechnology

Question 1 of 3

What is nanotechnology?

Pictures

Computer simulations of fullerene nanogears, tiny gear-like devices made from carbon molecules, studied by NASA researchers at Ames Research Center as possible building blocks for future self-repairing machines.
A computer model of a DNA tetrahedron, a small pyramid-shaped structure built from DNA strands. Each edge is a short piece of DNA double helix, and the corners are junctions where three strands meet.
A diagram comparing the sizes of tiny nanomaterials with everyday materials, helping show how incredibly small nanoscale objects are.
Harold Kroto, a chemist who shared the 1996 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, photographed after giving a talk at the Teatro de la Paz in San Luis Potosí, Mexico.
A diagram of a typical atomic force microscope (AFM). A tiny cantilever with a sharp tip moves across a sample's surface, and a laser beam bouncing off its back shows how much it bends.
A computer simulation showing how a tiny nanowire transistor forms a channel for electricity to flow, and the voltage (about 0.45 volts) at which this happens.
A diagram showing how tiny nanowire lasers can send information very quickly using pulses of light.
A scanning tunneling microscope image of a clean gold surface, showing individual atoms arranged in columns with small pits between them. This surface arrangement, called reconstruction, differs from the regular pattern inside the metal.
Sumio Iijima, a Japanese scientist who helped discover carbon nanotubes.
Richard Smalley, a chemist who helped discover buckyballs, a special molecule shaped like a soccer ball.
An animation showing how a ribosome builds a protein, with helper molecules called tRNAs bringing in the building blocks, and the new protein being sent into a part of the cell called the endoplasmic reticulum.
A cartoon drawing showing the structure of a rotaxane, a molecule shaped like a ring threaded onto a rod.

Keep exploring

Richard Feynman
K. Eric Drexler
Nobel Prize in Chemistry
Lithium-ion battery

This article is a child-friendly adaptation of the Wikipedia article on Nanotechnology, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

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