Nanotechnology, the buzzword most commonly heard when referencing
the technologies associated with the small tech industry, has so
many potential applications that it has been labeled "the next
industrial revolution". With the U.S. government currently
appropriating $679 million annually to nanotechnology research and
development (according to the National Nanotechnology Initiative)
and industry analysts projecting a $1 trillion industry for small
tech products by 2015, it may very well be the next big thing.

Nanotechnology can be loosely defined as technological developments
and manipulations of nano-sized matter towards a commercial
application. This matter is typically measured in terms of a
nanometer, or one-millionth of a millimeter. In short, it describes
our ability to arrange atoms and molecules exactly the way we want.
Some of the most common disciplines of nanotechnology as they exist
today include nanodevices, self assembly, and bionanotechnology.

There are two basic methods of fabricating nanodevices -the top-down
approach, which involves molding or etching materials into smaller
components and the bottom-up approach, which works by assembling
structures atom-by-atom or molecule-by-molecule. A typical
nanodevice may include tiny robotic tools, perhaps photon powered,
that are able to travel in and around human cells to perform
molecular-scale surgery or deliver drugs directly to a cell.

The idea of self assembly describes the ability of microscopic
matter to automatically assemble into a pre-defined shape or order
due to its programmed atomic structure. Just as the force of nature
utilizes laws of physics to construct materials, nanotechnology will
be the force that allows humans to apply some of the same laws of
physics to create our own unique self-assembling materials.

Bionanotechnology includes technologies such as tissue engineering,
DNA manipulation, peptide sequencing, and protein-substrate
adherence. Much of this technology is also derived from duplicating
the forces of nature, and this particular field provides a big first
step in creating "living machinery" or devices capable of being
interfaced with living tissue.

The uses of nanotechnology are being defined as we speak, but one
thing is for certain: it will touch a wide array of aspects of our
lives. Some of the applications will impact us profoundly, such as
with regenerative medicine and the bio-organic nanotechnology used
to repair human tissues. And some of the uses will hardly be
perceivable -making us unable to pinpoint when they entered out
lives. Consider applications of nanotechnology already in use, such
as tire compounds, some cosmetics and sunscreens, even special
tennis balls. The point being that the applications of
nanotechnology should not be confined merely to ultra technical
devices or tiny robots. One of the very premises that nanotechnology
operates on -the mimicking of nature's building blocks (officially
called biomimetics), means that there realistically may be no limit
to its uses.

SMALL TECH BUZZWORDS: nanotechnology, microelectromechanical systems
(MEMS), nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS), molecular
nanotechnology (MNT), nanomotors, nanotransistors, nanoactuators,
nanosensors, nanotubes, molecular engineering, molecular logistics,
sub-micron technology, positional-assembly, self-assembly and self-
replication, quantum computing, quantum mechanics, quantum physics,
nanolithography, nanomachining, nanomaterials, nanodevices, smart
materials, microtechnology, microscopy, bionanotechnology, protein
engineering, nanomedicine, nanobots.