Nanotechnology

Nanotechnology is sometimes shortened to "nanotech". 

The prefix nano- comes from the Greek word nanos, which meant "little old man" or "dwarf".

It is the science and technology of precisely manipulating the structure of matter at the molecular level. The term Nanotechnology deals with many different fields such as Engineering, Chemistry, Electronics and many others.

 A nanometer--a billionth of a meter-- is about the size of six carbon atoms in a row.  (The average human hair is about 25,000 nanometers wide). 

There are two main approaches that bare used in nanotechnology, the "bottom-up" approach and the "top-down" approach. 

In "bottom-up" approach, the materials and devices are built from molecular components which assembles themselves chemically by principles of molecular recognition. Dual polarisation interferomerty is one tool suitable for characterization of self-assembled thin films. While in "top-down" approach, nano-object are constructed from larger entities without atomic level control. Scanning probe microscopy is an important technique both for characterization and synthesis of nanomaterials. 

As of August 21, 2008, the Project on Emerging Technologies estimates that over 800 manufacturer-identified nanotech products are publicly available, with the new ones hitting the market at a pace of 3-4 per week. The project lists all of the products in a publicly accessible online database.