Yesterday, we talked about the impossibility of shrinking people and other things down to tiny size. But did you know that scientists are now trying to make really tiny machines, using actual atoms and molecules as the building blocks? Scientists also have an instrument called a scanning tunneling microscope, which lets them pick up and mover individual atoms around. They have even spelled words and drawn pictures using this tool! This is all part of a science called nanotechnology, and some pretty amazing things have been done.
But how small are nano-machines? The head of a pin is about 1mm (millimeter) across. The sizes of nano-machines are measured in nanometers. One nanometer is 1/1,000,000 (one-millionth) as the size of a pin head! It's much smaller than even the cells in your body. Now, that's tiny!
What will these machines be used for? It's still very early in the development of these devices, but some people believe that they will be very important in medicine, computers, and environmental science.
Here are some websites and videos that give you more information about nanotechnology:
KQED Quest (video)
Center for Responsible Nanotechnology (website)
National Cancer Institute Journey into Nanotechnology (video)
IBM Atom Gallery (website)
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