Nanotechnology -- Small Things for Big Changes

That is a nano, and nanotechnology is the thing you'll being hearing a lot about in coming years. The science of working at atomic dimensions to engineer materials and machines out of individual molecules will transform industry and medicine.

In time -- and not too much time -- nanotechnology "will produce batteries that allow your laptop computer or cellphone to go for weeks, not hours, without recharging," says Jeffrey DePinto, business development manager for Air Products & Chemicals Inc., which invests in nanotech venture capital funds to gain access to new technology for its industrial gas and chemicals business.

Eli Yablonovitch, a director of UCLA's center of the California NanoSystems Institute, has an even more futuristic prediction: "Nanotechnology will produce cellphones with the power to automatically translate conversations in several languages."

California's programs are mirrored at universities in other states and are part of a multibillion-dollar U.S. effort. Just last week, Congress passed the Nanotechnology Research and Development Act, authorizing $3.7 billion in nano research and development spending over the next four years. As it is, there are 104 research institutes in this country devoted to nanotechnology, according to Cientifica Inc., a European consulting firm.

Private industry is not standing back. Major companies in many industries -- Boeing Co. in aerospace, Germany's Bayer in chemicals, Japan's Canon Inc. in office equipment -- are backing U.S.-based venture funds to promote small companies here and abroad that are coming up with innovations. But the U.S. leads the world in commercial nanotechnolgy, with 430 infant companies working in the field.

The efforts of a few of them reflect the scope of possibilities.

Imago Scientific Instruments Corp. in Madison, Wis., has developed a microscope that works at nano levels -- displaying spaces just five atoms apart on a wafer of silicon. Imago, which is backed by California venture capital firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson, is getting $2 million apiece for its microscopes, underscoring the need of the electronics industry to figure out how to etch ever more finely imprinted circuits on microchips.