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

Jumpers that never smell of sweat, windows that never get dirty, transparent concrete, carpets that change colour and act as indoor air cleaners, scratchproof car paint – with nanotechnology we'll soon be able to manufacture the most spectacular materials. But what materials are we actually going to need in the years to come?  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

An incredibly small electrical switch, a nano relay, has been built in Göteborg, Sweden. It's a million times thinner than an ordinary switch. But how can we use this new technology when we have no chance to see what's happening?  Read more