ABSTRACT
Since 1989, when IBM researchers whimsically demonstrated a scientific breakthrough by constructing a 35-atom depiction of the company’s logo, the ability to manipulate individual atoms has spawned a tidal wave of research and development at the nanoscale (from the Greek word for “dwarf”). Nanomaterials are defined as having at least one dimension of 100 nanometers or less-–about the size of your average virus. Nanotechnology-–the creation, manipulation, and application of materials at the nanoscale-–involves the ability to engineer, control, and exploit the unique chemical, physical, and electrical properties that emerge from the infinitesimally tiny man-made particles.
