1. The Scale of the Biological World
100 mm
1x10-4 m
Plant & Animal
Cells
Bacterial
Cells
10 mm
1x10-5 m
1 mm
1x10-6 m
Viruses
100 nm
1x10-7 m
Proteins
Another thing that affects cells is nanostructure. The reason that cell are so affected by the nano world is that they are made up of proteins that are on the nanoscale and the proteins they interact with in their environment are that same scale. The cells world is on the micro and nanoscale.
10 nm
1x10-8 m
Small Molecules
DNA
1 nm
1x10-9 m
Atoms
1 Å
1x10-10 m
All images from Google Images

2. Nanoscale Fits the Molecular World
One 5’5” Student
A 8’ desk?
A 2’ 6” desk?
Or a 5’ desk?
Here we have an example of how having things at the proper scale can affect an environment. In this case the environment of a student. The student can only sit functionally at a properly scaled desk. This is how micro and nanostructure change the way cells react with their environment.
Compared to what we can see, an atom scale is about a million times smaller!
Imagine a desk a million times too big!

3. Micro and Nano-materials Have More Atoms on the Surface
Materials of the micro (1x10-6m) and especially nano (1x10-9m) size have more atom exposed on the outside then inside
Volume = 18x19x1 nm3 or
15x8x16 atoms = 1920 atoms total
976 or 51% of the atoms are at the surface
Nanomaterial
A 1x1x1 cm3 cube will have %
of the atoms
exposed to the surface
Volume = 3x3x0.7 mm3 or
~4 million atoms total
976 or 4% of the atoms are at the surface
Micro-scaled Material

4. Surface Atoms Interact more with the Environment
Light
Temperature
Heat
Cold
Sound
The forms of energy that affect us in the environment can affect molecules.
Energy comes from the environment to affect molecular nature. Since more molecules are on the surface, the affect is more pronounced.
All images from Google Images