1. Quantum corral of 48 iron atoms on copper surface
The Scale of Things -- Nanometers and More
Things Natural
Things Manmade
The Microworld
0.1 nm
1 nanometer (nm)
0.01 mm
10 nm
0.1 mm
100 nm
1 micrometer (mm)
10 mm
100 mm
1 millimeter (mm)
1 cm
10-2 m
10-3 m
10-4 m
10-5 m
10-6 m
10-7 m
10-8 m
10-9 m
10-10 m
Visible
The Nanoworld
1,000 nanometers =
Infrared
Ultraviolet
Microwave
Soft x-ray
1,000,000 nanometers =
Ant
~ 5 mm
Head of a pin
1-2 mm
Dust mite
200 mm
21st Century Challenge
Combine nanoscale building blocks to make novel functional devices, e.g., a photosynthetic reaction center with integral semiconductor storage
MicroElectroMechanical devices
mm wide
Fly ash
~ mm
Human hair
~ mm wide
Red blood cells
with white cell
~ 2-5 mm
Red blood cells
Pollen grain
Zone plate x-ray “lens” Outermost ring spacing ~35 nm
ATP synthase
~10 nm diameter
Nanotube electrode
Nanotube transistor
Quantum corral of 48 iron atoms on copper surface
positioned one at a time with an STM tip
Corral diameter 14 nm
Carbon nanotube
~2 nm diameter
DNA
~2-1/2 nm diameter
Nanoscale science, engineering, and technology are emerging fields in which scientists and engineers are beginning to manipulate matter at the atomic and molecular scales level in order to obtain materials and systems with significantly improved properties. Ten nanometers is equal to one-thousandth the diameter of human hair. 
For decades, microstructures – which are thousands of times larger than nanostructures – have formed the basis for our current technologies, e.g., ceramics and alloy fabrication and electronics. Although microstructures are small on the scale of direct human experience, their physics is still largely the same as that of macroscopic systems. 
However, nanostructures are fundamentally different. Their characteristics – especially their electronic and magnetic characteristics – are often significantly different from the same material in the bulk. Nanostructures are, in a sense, a unique state of matter – one with particular promise for new and potentially very useful products.
Exploring the science of nanostructures has become, in just a few years, a new theme common to many disciplines. In electronics nanostructures represent the limiting extension of Moore's law and classical devices to small devices, and they represent the step into quantum devices and fundamentally new processor architectures. In catalysis, nanostructures are the templates and pores of zeolites and other vitally important structures. In condensed matter physics, the nanometer length scale is the largest one over which a crystal can be made essentially perfect. In materials sciences, fabrication using nanostructures results in alloys and composites with radically improved properties. In molecular biology, nanostructures are the fundamental machines that drive the cell – histones and proteosomes – and they are components of the mitochondrion, the chloroplast, the ribosome, and the replication and transcription complexes. The ability to precisely control the arrangements of impurities and defects with respect to each other, and the ability to integrate perfect inorganic and organic nanostructures, holds forth the promise of a completely new generation of advanced composites. 
As part of the National Nanotechnology Initiative, DOE’s Office of Science is supporting investigators in universities and national laboratories in various areas of nanoscience. In addition, new Nanoscale Science Research Centers will provide critically needed user facilities for synthesis, processing, fabrication, and analysis of materials at the nanoscale.
More philosophy:
Humans are temporary collection of recycled atoms. In a strange coincidence, atoms make us a temporary as well as an eternal entity.
Atoms of silicon
spacing ~tenths of nm
Office of Basic Energy Sciences
Office of Science, U.S. DOE
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