ABSTRACT
Since the landmark lecture by Feynman in 1959 entitled ‘‘There’s plenty of room at the bottom,’’ the
concept of nanotechnology has been influencing all different fields of research involving chemistry,
physics, electronics, optics, materials science, and biomedical sciences. The concept led to the new
paradigm that size and shape dictate the function of materials. This distinguishes the emerging
nanoscience from other conventional technologies, which have some aspect at the nanosize range.
Especially in the field of biology and medicine, the 1 to 100 nm size range encompasses the dimensions
of biomolecules like proteins and DNA. The size-dependent properties as well as the dimensional
similarity with biological macromolecules allow for cross talk between nanotechnology and biology,
leading to great potentials for advances in medical diagnostics and targeted therapeutics as well as for
molecular and cell biology. The biomedical application of nanomaterials will revolutionize medicine in
the same way that materials science changed medicine in the 1970s with the invention of artificial heart
valves, nylon arteries, artificial joints, etc. The correction of genetic defects that cause diseases such as
cystic fibrosis or muscular dystrophy is only one of the possible medical advances that we can hope will
come from nanotechnology in the near future.
