The whole thing is about smaller, faster, cheaper, says Tom Theis, director of physical sciences at IBM Research. Nanotech also can help in drug delivery, since breaking down drug into tiny particles means theres more surface area, thus better absorption. Again, its smaller and faster. One outcome could be computers with the processing power needed to move to the next level so they can think and anticipate our needs as we use them. While IBM and HewlettPackard have huge research arms developing the technology, there are smaller, purer plays on nanotech in the computing arena, too.

People have known for while that electrons spin up and down, so it is binary effect obviously amenable to memory, says Daniel Baker, the chief executive of Applied Nanotech, subsidiary of NanoProprietary, thinks his companys nanotube emission technology will also be used to make sensors that can detect chemicals for use in security, or devices that will create emissions inside the body to treat cancer.

Thats because, among other things, we dont yet know all the side effects of breaking materials down into tiny pieces. Its called nanotechnology. NVE, spinoff from HoneywellHON, news, msgs, for example, is fairly focused play on novel approach to using nanotech to create new kinds of computer memory and storage. The company holds patents on the way certain types of nanotubes send off emissions.

Company FocusThe next big thing is very, very one day will rearrange atoms to produce computers, medicine and consumer goods at the molecular level. But Nanogen has decent cash levels of 32. 6 million and quarterly cash burn rate of 4. 5 million. If youve dismissed it so far as just another iteration of the Internet craze, youve already missed out on possible gain of 200. His lab is one of few in the country that use nanochips for these applications. Two companies working on this kind of drug delivery are SkyePharma and Flamel Technologies.

He thinks that will help Veeco, which has 70 market share in atomic force microscopes used in nanotech research. These are devices that can see and manipulate atoms and molecules, says Veeco President Don Kania. More importantly, he says, new features can be added as new needs arise. Here are companies at work on the future. Thats the return Josh Wolfe, Lux Capital venture capitalist, has generated in portfolio of nanotech stocks that he put together in 2002. What is nano? Nanotechnology has many definitions, but all of them start with the notion of smallness.