Nanotechnology 

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Latest news on nanotechnology, providing comprehensive coverage of nanotech, nanomaterials, nanoparticles, carbon nanotubes, nanotube composites, graphene, fullerenes, quantum dots, nanoscale devices, nanomedicine and the researchers pushing the field forward.

Nanotechnology is the study and control of matter at roughly 1 to 100 nanometres, where a nanometre is one billionth of a metre. At this nanoscale, materials can behave very differently from their everyday forms. Nanomaterials can be stronger, lighter, more conductive or more reactive, which is why the field reaches into physics, chemistry, biology and engineering.

Some of the best-known nanomaterials are carbon-based. Fullerenes, nicknamed buckyballs, were discovered in 1985 and won a Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1996. Graphene, a single layer of carbon atoms, was isolated at Manchester in 2004 and won the 2010 Nobel Prize in Physics. Quantum dots, tiny crystals whose size sets their properties, won the 2023 Nobel Prize in Chemistry and are used in displays, lighting and medical imaging. Nanocomposites add such materials to plastics, metals and coatings to improve strength and conductivity.

Applications reach well beyond the laboratory. Lipid nanoparticles carry mRNA into cells in vaccines, nanoparticles are engineered for targeted drug delivery in cancer treatment, and nanomaterials are being developed for batteries, solar cells, sensors and water treatment. Nanomedicine, nanoelectronics and nanosensors are among the fastest-moving areas of research.

The field also faces hard questions. Researchers are still working out how engineered nanoparticles and nanotubes behave in the body and the environment, and studies in rodents have linked some carbon nanotubes to lung inflammation. Regulation, safe handling, manufacturing at scale and cost all shape which discoveries reach the market.

Nanotechnology has long captured the public imagination, from science fiction visions of tiny nanobots to everyday products that rely on nanoscale engineering. Its modern story is often traced to Richard Feynman's 1959 lecture on manipulating matter atom by atom. The word itself is credited to Norio Taniguchi in 1974 and was popularised by K. Eric Drexler in the 1980s, while universities, start-ups and national programmes such as the US National Nanotechnology Initiative drive the research.

The NewsNow Nanotechnology feed gathers the latest headlines on nanotech, nanomaterials, nanoparticles, nanotubes, graphene, quantum dots and nanomedicine, updated throughout the day from reliable science and technology sources.