Chemists are very good at making small things to an atomic scale. That be about to change. We want to make things chemically rather than using precision machinery. They won the Nobel Prize in chemistry for weaving together nanotubes to create material times stronger than steel and able to conduct electricity better than copper. Now we are going to more serious stage. The playing is over, and well see if something practical can come out of this, says Phaedon Avouris, manager of nanometerscale science and technology at IBMs Yorktown Heights, New York, research center.

Since then, number of top scientists in the United States, Europe, and Australia have followed up with research into using electricityconducting nanotubes as the foundation for much smaller, faster, more powerful, and less expensive computing devices. Rice University professor Richard Smalley and his colleagues won the Nobel Prize and spurred invention of number of similar microscopes. That be about to change. Other nanotechnologylike applications that are in production or soon will be are nanomaterials to make sunscreens transparent, aerosol cans nonclogging, floor waxes harder and longerlasting, and glasses scratchresistant.

That be about to change. In Gerd Binning, Heinrich Rohrer, and team of researchers at IBMs lab in Switzerland introduced the scanning tunneling microscope, allowing scientists to see the atomic and molecular landscapes of objects. Chemists are very good at making small things to an atomic scale. However, the big stuff in the small science is still largely in the research phase. The roots of nanotech date back to when Richard Feynman, California Institute of Technology professor and physicist, gave famous speech, titled Theres Plenty of Room at the Bottom.

They have built molecular switch, major milestone in being able to make entire computer memory chips just nanometers wide and much less costly to produce than silicon chips. Now we are going to more serious stage. The playing is over, and well see if something practical can come out of this, says Phaedon Avouris, manager of nanometerscale science and technology at IBMs Yorktown Heights, New York, research center. The playing Avouris refers to has taken place in many chemistry, physics, engineering, and biology lab over the past years. Chemists are very good at making small things to an atomic scale.