You are very excited as you and your friend approach the naval base. You can see the ships in the distance. The ships look small because you are still far away from them. You hold your thumb out in front of you and you are able to "cover" the ships with your thumb. You know the ships are actually quite large.

You realize how small you are compared to the aircraft carrier when you stand on the pier beside it. If you could stand the aircraft carrier on its end, it would be almost as tall as the Empire State Building in New York City. The sailors standing on the deck are almost a football field length above your head!

The size of the ship compared to you causes you to remember the cool science lesson you studied at school last week. Your teacher taught a lesson about nanotechnology. It sounded hard to understand, at first. Even the name - nanotechnology - was hard to pronounce. It got easier to understand when your teacher told you nanotechnology studies objects that are really small compared to humans.

Your teacher started with simple definitions for big and small numbers. The word nanotechnology was invented in 1981. The Greek word "nanos" means "dwarf." Nano- means "one billionth." A nanometer is one billion times smaller than a meter. You know atoms are so small we can't see them individually with our eyes. A nanometer is actually bigger than an atom. It is as wide as 10 hydrogen atoms placed side-by-side. You need 10,000 nanometers side-by-side to equal the thickness of one of your hairs.

Other ways to understand a nanometer's size are these:

• One thousand times smaller than a bacterium;
• One million times smaller than a pinhead;
• One billion times smaller than your leg is long.
  

Most microscopes can only see objects that are 200 nanometers wide. If we have so much trouble seeing something this small, why should we study nanotechnology? Nanotechnology is basically a method that lets scientists make things by arranging atoms and molecules into certain shapes. Nature has arranged atoms for - well, forever. Man now has the ability to do the same thing.

What have we done so far with nanotechnology? Computers are getting better and faster as we make their parts smaller. You may have seen TV commercials for glasses made of metal frames that bend but will return to their normal shape without damage. Golf clubs can be made of special materials that have atoms arranged in ways that make the metal twice as hard as titanium. One company makes pants that are waterproof and will last a long time before they wear out by using nanotechnology to rearrange the atoms in the material.

The future for nanotechnology sounds as though science fiction may come true. Research is underway to produce nanorobots. These tiny robots could be sent into your body through a needle. Nanorobots could take special medicine through your body to specific locations. They could also be trained to look for and destroy bad cells such as cancer. It is even possible that nanorobots could rearrange atoms in your body that could change your nose, ears, or even eye color. They could also unclog and repair blood vessels.

Manipulating atoms may also allow us to make materials without processes that cause pollution. If we can make such products, the cost to buy them might drop. Some scientists are hopeful we could send nanorobots high into our atmosphere to make more ozone.

Your friend shakes you to take you away from your daydream about nanotechnology. You see (again) how small you are while standing on the pier next to the aircraft carrier. This comparison easily reminds you of nanotechnology - the BIG scientific study of the very SMALL.