Mr Richard Feynman is the master of the nano-universe. In 1959 he gave a lecture exploring the idea of building things at atomic and molecular scale.

In 1981 the first breakthrough was made by IBM scientists who built the first scanning tunnelling microscope (STM) which allowed them to see single atoms by scanning a tiny probe over the surface of a silicon crystal. They later developed this process to move single xenon atoms around on a nickel surface (they quirkily spelt ‘IBM’ by using 35 atoms)

The science of nano stormed ahead in the years to follow. In 1985 they developed a buckminsterfullerene (or bucky-balls) which is soccer-ball shaped molecule of 60 carbon atoms and in 1991, tiny super-strong rolls of carbon atoms known as carbon nanotubes. These were six times lighter, yet 100 times stronger than steel (remember they used these in the Spiderman suit we featured on the site a few months ago?).

Both of these are important nanoscale building blocks used in nifty inventions like molecular pistons, superconducting quantum dots, tough plastics, Spiderman suits and even a space elevator…Watch this space!

Source: New Scientist