NanoFacts
• Nanotechnology uses a basic unit of measure called a “nanometer.” Nanometer is a metric word derived from “nano,” the Greek word for “midget.”
• Did you know that one nanometer equals one millionth of a millimeter? That means there are one billion nanometers to a meter.
• Each nanometer is only 3-5 atoms wide!
• One nanometer is approximately 40,000 times smaller than the width of an average human hair.
• The first mention of nanotechnology (not yet using that name) occurred in a speech given by Richard Feynman in 1959 that was entitled, “There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom.”
• The term “nanotechnology” was created by Tokyo Science University Professor Norio Taniguchi in 1974.
• One inch equals 25,400,000 nanometers.
• A human red blood cell is over 2,000 nanometers long – that is almost too long to be on the nanometer scale!
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