ABSTRACT
Because of their size and unique material properties, nanomaterials such as semiconductor nanowires
(NWs) and carbon nanotubes (CNTs) interact with and influence biological entities in entirely unique
ways. Of course, these ways are well known to nature, as many interactions that occur in the natural
world arise through hierarchical ordering of molecules and minerals into larger structures through
assembles that occur on the nanometer length scale. Nature provides rich examples of elegantly
organized functional nanomaterials in biological systems. Among these are bacteria that sense the
Earth’s magnetic field through the use of nanosized ‘‘bar magnets.’’ We are on the cusp of understanding
the driving forces, associated chemistries, and assembly strategies for the integration of artificially
prepared nanoparticles into functional nanobiosystems. This knowledge has been hampered in the
recent past by difficulties associated with the synthesis and fabrication of such materials with defined
and reproducible physical and chemical properties. It is this precise and reproducible control of size and
chemistry that will enable the ‘‘bottom-up’’ development of engineered devices and systems that exploit
the nanoscale.
