Coined by Taniguchi in 1974 from Greek nanos 'dwarf' + technology, for engineering at the billionth-of-a-meter scale.
The branch of technology dealing with the manipulation of matter on an atomic and molecular scale, typically below 100 nanometers.
Coined by Norio Taniguchi of Tokyo University of Science in 1974 from Greek nanos 'dwarf' + technology. Taniguchi used it to describe precision machining at the nanometer scale. Eric Drexler popularized the concept in his 1986 book Engines of Creation, envisioning molecular assemblers
Richard Feynman's 1959 lecture 'There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom' anticipated nanotechnology by 15 years, proposing that individual atoms could be manipulated directly. He offered a $1,000 prize for writing text small enough to fit an encyclopedia page on a pinhead.