New Materials & Nanotechnology

Definition: Research, development, manufacture and analysis of materials with features between 100 nanometers and a tenth of a nanometer in size. In this science, manipulating materials near the atomic/molecular level is critical to the material's purpose.

Meaning / Related Industries: Nanotechnology will impact almost every industry because the ability to manipulate materials at the nano level has the potential to improve almost every aspect of materials used in electronics, biology, construction, and essentially every other field. In the semiconductor field, most new products and research are being done at the nano level.

Companies / Research Institutions: Micron Technology, Hewlett-Packard Co., NanoSteel, Positron Systems, Boise State University, Idaho State University, University of Idaho.