"The new possibilities that will open up when we can routinely tailor material at the atomic level is something we can only speculate about for the moment..."  Read more

Imagine you're out in space and scanning our solar system with your eyes. There's Eve, down on planet Earth, with an apple in her hand. Obviously you can't see her or the apple. Or can you? Nano scientists face the same astonishing size differences. The difference in size between the Earth and the apple is the same as the difference between the apple and a carbon atom in its peel!  Read more

Nanotechnology is sometimes called atomic carpentry. As if it were just as easy to assemble a new molecule as it is to nail together a box with a few pieces of wood. When these pieces of wood are only millionths of a millimetre in size you realise that it can't be that easy!  Read more

Scientists have a new box of toys. With new 'spectacles' and precision instruments they can not only see into the smallest of things but can also alter what they see. They can build molecules that didn't exist before, change ones that need improving. What does design at molecular level – nanotechnology – actually imply?  Read more

For a long time people thought that graphite and diamond were the only stable forms in which pure carbon could occur. Then fullerenes, carbon balls, rolled into the arena, and nothing's been quite the same since. Absolutely nothing comes stronger than a carbon nanotube!  Read more