What does the prefix 'nano-' mean?
AnswerOne billionth
Nano means 10 to the power of -9, so a nanometre is a billionth of a metre.
Science · Facts & stats
Nano facts & stats
7 fact-checked facts about nanoscience, each with the reason behind it. 5 more are in today's round and join this page after it closes.
The basics
The prefix 'nano' comes from a Greek word meaning what?
AnswerDwarf
Nanos is Greek for dwarf.
Going deeper
Which physicist's 1959 talk 'There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom' helped inspire nanotechnology?
AnswerRichard Feynman
Feynman imagined manipulating individual atoms decades before the tools to do it existed.
Carbon nanotubes are essentially what, rolled into a cylinder?
AnswerSheets of graphene
A carbon nanotube is like a one-atom-thick sheet of carbon rolled into a seamless tube.
Geckos can climb smooth glass mainly thanks to what?
AnswerMillions of tiny hairs using van der Waals forces
Gecko toe pads have huge numbers of tiny branching hairs that cling by weak intermolecular forces.
Expert level
Which microscope, invented in Zurich in 1981, images surfaces using a current between a sharp tip and the sample?
AnswerScanning tunnelling microscope
The STM measures quantum tunnelling current and can resolve individual atoms on a surface.
Who coined the term 'nanotechnology' in 1974?
AnswerNorio Taniguchi
Japanese engineer Norio Taniguchi used the term in 1974 for precision machining at the nanometre scale.
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