15:40 AEST Mon 6 May 2002

AFP - Experts say nanotechnology could revolutionise the way we live and think about science.

Ever-smaller microprocessors, stain-resistant clothing, anti-cancer drugs, even sunscreen; you may not have heard of "nanotechnology," but experts say it could revolutionise the way we live and work.

Born in the 1960s in the research laboratories of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the United States, nanotechnology is science on a small scale, described by one sector watcher as "atomic lego."

"Nanotechnology is all about very small activities, engineering at every small scale," explains Ottilia Saxl, director of the Institute of Nanotechnology, a British non-profit organisation set up to promote the multi-discipline science.

Experts say this science of small things could make a big impact, notably in the fields of information technology, medical research and pharmaceuticals.

" I could compare nanotechnology to the difference between a normal wave and a tsunami," said Saxl.

"We have seen the first wave coming in with real products being commercialised.

"Nanotechnology will not be limited to 20 applications -- the tsunami is going to come," he told AFP ahead of a conference in Edinburgh, Scotland, entitled "Nanotechnology: The Next Industrial Revolution."

Derived from the greek word "nano," meaning dwarf, one nanometre (nm) is the equivalent of one billionth of a metre. One atom equals 0.1 nms, one water molecule equals one nms, one red bloodcell equals 10,000 nms while one hair is equivalent to 100,000 nms.

Nanotechnology is the brainchild of US scientist Richard P. Feynman (1918-1988), the 1965 Nobel prize-winner for physics.

In 1959, Feynman declared: "The principles of physics, as far as I can see, do not speak out against the possibility of manoeuvring things atom by atom."

Nanotechnology was born.

Its proliferation owes much to new technologies such as powerful microscopes that allow scientists to work in nanometres.

For now, nanotechnology is largely limited to university laboratories. But even these are now putting their research to commercial use, through such vehicles as Senseproteomic, a joint venture between Oxford and Cambridge universities.

Grant Cameron, head of Senseproteomic, says that after the sequencing of the human genome, leading to the first mapping in 2001, scientists are now shifting the focus of their work away from genes to the proteins encoded by the genes.

"It's becoming increasingly accepted that diseases are caused by proteins and drugs interact with proteins as drugs targets," he said.

"A lot of proteins which do not work on their own, work in partnership," he told AFP.

"We are taking proteins and we are attaching them to a solid surface, that could be a microscope slide, and that allows us to take another solution, a blood sample or a chemical, and wash it across the surface and it allows us to study the interactions which are so important in drug discovery.

"It's all done on a exceptionally small scale. In one microscope glass we may have 20,000 proteins," Cameron added.

Experts hope that nanotechnology will help them create tailor-made drugs to meet patients' specific needs.

Scientists are not the only ones getting excited about nanotechnology, which is also arousing interest in the financial community.

"We recognise that nanotechnology is an emerging area," said Michael Mitchell, an analyst with venture capitalists Evolution Group. "Within the next decade it will become increasingly important for investors."

Evolution predicts the market for products and processes supported by nanotechnology will be worth 150 billion dollars (160 billion euros) by 2005, and one trillion dollars by 2010.

One firm in which Evolution has invested makes batteries capable of recharging in less than a minute.

Another outfit, Cyprus-based company Rosseter, is seeking to harness nanotechnology to make "nanotubes" which are "50,000 times finer than a human hair, but 100 times stronger than steel," says chief executive Maria Xenophontos.

"Our objective is to become the number one in the world in the production of this material, which can be used in information technology, telecoms or aeronautics," she said. "It's a real material for the third millennium."