With uses ranging from the practical to the inane, nanotechnology, the science of the small, may be the next big thing.
In fact, things are getting so small that scientists need multi-million dollar microscopes to see what they are building.
For example, in 1989 an IBM scientist succeeded in writing the letters of his company using individual atoms.
Researchers in this growing field often manipulate objects that are a hundred thousand times smaller than the width of a human hair.
Although such an accomplishment may seem pointless, futurists such as Eric Drexler say nanotechnology will become the center of a new-age revolution.
Drexler's book "Engines of Creation" envisions a future where tiny machines are capable of building any object from scratch - whether it be food, cars or even more tiny machines.
Nano-hype?
Drexler's vision of a world filled with machines probably won't be realized for a very long time, if ever. Many of Drexler's own contemporaries don't take him seriously, claiming he is more a prophet than a scientist.
"Maybe if there weren't people out there proposing these supposedly crazy things, we'd all be much more conservative in what we do," Materials Science and Engineering Prof. Robert Hull says.
Chemistry Prof. Paul Weiss of Penn State is also skeptical of the science: "Trying to get atoms in particular places doesn't make chemical or physical sense."
Yet many researchers share Drexler's belief that the science of the small may lead to big technological advances. New ideas for practical applications of nanotechnology are born daily.
One idea is to make little robots that can slip through the smallest blood vessels in the human body. The robots might deliver drugs to specific cells, attack cancerous tissues or even kill viruses.
Some even tout nanotechnology as a way to revive people who have been cryogenically frozen. They say nanomachines would help repair tissue damaged by frostbite and make the defrosting process practical.
Nanotechnology now
Many of these ideas seem like material for a science fiction novel. But nanotechnology is already a part of daily life.
Most personal computer disk drives use nanoscale layering, allowing the hard drive to store more information in less space than older models.
Cars use gasoline that has been refined by catalysts with nano-sized pores, and the silicon chips that run computers soon will become small enough to enter the nano-world.
Advances in nanotechnology even have grabbed the attention of Congress, which approved the establishment of the National Nanotechnology Initiative in 2000.
This year federal support for the NNI is expected to exceed half a billion dollars.
Nano-Hoos
Last September the University received $5 million from the NNI to establish the Materials Research Science Engineering Center.
Robert Hull, who serves as the center's director, says the MRSEC is funded to explore how to build nanoscopic machines.
The MRSEC brings together faculty and students from all over the University to work on current efforts, including the Nanoprinting Program.
"We literally create, using focused ion beams, little stamps," Hull said.
The stamps are little indeed, containing letters that measure only hundreds of nanometers in length. Special ink transfers the stamp's image onto a film.
Hull's research group hopes its work will translate into progress for other nanotechnologists.
"You need a map for atoms to know where to disappear or assemble," Hull said. This process, called lithography, is one of the fundamental building blocks of the nanotechnology revolution, Hull added.
Another MRSEC project is to make tiny electronic circuits, composed only of clusters of atoms. Conceivably the new circuits could lay the groundwork for a new generation of computers and other electronic devices.
"They'll be faster; they'll be smaller; they'll be everything ... if they work," Hill said.
New developments
Researchers at Osaka University in Japan just announced they have sculpted a "micro-bull" out of resin. They created the beast, which is about one-tenth the width of a human hair, by striking a drop of resin with a finely tuned laser beam.
On the other side of the globe, a team of biological engineers at Cornell University has fashioned a molecular motor. To make the motor, the researchers attached a protein propeller to an enzyme called ATPase that already exists in virtually all organisms.
The motor spun at about three to four revolutions per second for almost an hour, demonstrating that "nano-engines" actually work.
In another development, Paul Weiss and his team at Penn State succeeded in fashioning very thin wires out of gold. The special wires may aid in the development of a new wave of ever-smaller electronic devices.
The final frontier
Weiss says he predicts researchers will make rapid progress in the next few years.
The budget for the NNI is expected to increase by 23 percent for next year, indicating more growth in an already growing field.
Hull says he firmly believes nanotechnology will "drive the next 15 years of human progress."
Hull's personal vision for the future of nanotechnology is a poignant one that speaks for all of science.
"What we're doing is making the world a better place. That's what science is about, and that's what nanotechnology is about," Hull said.
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