What is nanotechnology?

Nanotechnology is the science, engineering, and technology conducted at the nanoscale, which is about 1 to 100 nanometers (nm). A nanometer is one-billionth of a meter; to put this in perspective, a single sheet of paper is about 100,000 nm thick.

The core idea of nanotechnology is that materials can exhibit unique and different properties at this tiny scale compared to their "bulk" (normal-sized) counterparts. These new properties emerge for two main reasons:

1. Increased Surface Area: A material broken into nanoparticles has a vastly larger total surface area compared to the same volume of the material in a single block. This makes nanomaterials much more chemically reactive.
2. Quantum Effects: At the nanoscale, the laws of classical physics begin to break down, and the strange rules of quantum mechanics take over. This "quantum confinement" can alter a material's optical, electronic, or magnetic properties.

Therefore, nanotechnology is an interdisciplinary field that involves manipulating individual atoms and molecules to create new structures, materials, and devices with novel functions.