Nanotechnology is the technology of working with matter at the level of individual atoms. Traditional methods of production work with portions of matter consisting of billions of atoms and more. This means that even the most precise instruments created by humankind so far look like a disorderly jumble at the atomic level. The transition from manipulating matter to manipulating individual atoms is a qualitative leap, providing unprecedented precision and efficiency.
The term “nanotechnology” was first used by Norio Taniguchi, a professor at the University of Tokyo, in 1974: he used it for the production of articles a few nanometres in size.
As early as 1959 the Nobel laureate Richard Feynman predicted in a talk that in the future, once it had learned to manipulate individual atoms, humankind would be able to synthesise anything at all.