By the time you have finished reading this sentence your fingernails will have grown by about a nanometre! A nanometre is one million times smaller than a millimetre or one billion times smaller than a metre. A human hair, for example, is about 80,000 nanometres wide, a red blood cell about 7,000 nanometres across, a typical virus about 100 nanometres wide, and a strand of DNA a mere 2 nanometres long. The prefix 'nano' derives from the Greek word for dwarf.

Nanoscience is concerned with the study of objects ranging in size from about 100 nanometres downwards. This often involves looking at and working with individual atoms and molecules or minute particles.

Nanotechnologies involve the design, characterisation, production and application of structures, devices and systems by controlling shape and size at the nanometre scale. In fact, by creating nanometre-scale structures, it is possible to control fundamental characteristics of a material, including its melting point, magnetic properties, and even colour, without changing the material's chemical composition.

Most things of interest in the nanoworld are 100 times smaller than the wavelength of visible light. This means scientists needed to develop new types of non-optical microscopes to see their way around and experiment.

The Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) works just like a record player needle bumping over the surface you want to see. As its tiny tip is attracted or pushed away from the surface, it moves the arm of the record-player, and the movement is picked up by a laser.

In the image you can see the tip of the Atomic Force Microscope. You will have to use this to piece together the nanocar from the Buckyballs and Nanowires you collected.

Tip: If you want to practice playing part of the game you can skip to it in training mode by holding down the shift key and pressing 1 to 5 for each game level.

The element Carbon comes in several differ forms, each with exciting properties. Carbon atoms bond to each other with very strong covalent bonds. This explains why diamond (image: bottom centre) is one of the strongest materials we know.

In the 1990s scientist discovered that common soot contained some interesting new forms of Carbon. Firstly a football shaped molecule (image: top left) made from 60 atoms of Carbon was identified. The molecule was named the Buckyball by Sir Harry Kroto, Robert Curl and Richard Smalley who went on to win the 1996 Nobel Prize for its discovery.

A cylindrical shaped molecule (image: top right) was also identified. This was called the Carbon Nanotube. Nanotechnologists are very interested in the amazing properties of Carbon nanotubes and Buckyballs. Even though nanotubes are only a few nanometres wide they can grow to a few millimetres in length. For such a fine structure they are also incredibly strong; as much as 100 times stronger than steel. They can also conduct electricity, not in the usual way but ballistically. THis means that when a high voltage is applied electrons fire out of the nanotubes like a ray gun. Watch out for a ray gun like this in the game!

In 1965 George Moore, a co-founder of Intel, predicted that computer processors will double in speed and power every 18 months. So far he's been right but soon conventional technology will reach its speed limit. Nanotechnology researchers are currently looking into ways of making smaller, faster circuits that will become the processors of the future.

In the picture Orla is standing next to the Quantum Processor. This is a touch of science fiction however nanotechnology researchers are currently using Quantum properties such as spin to build the electronics components of the future.

Trinity's Centre for Research on Adaptive Nanostructures and Nanodevices, CRANN, is an internationally recognised centre of excellence in nanoscience research based in Trinity College Dublin. CRANN researchers work in several fields including, spintronics, cell biology and self assembly of nano structures. Intel, the world's leading processor manufacturer, is one of CRANN's industrial research partners.

One field of nanotechnology focuses on cells. This is because in many ways cells are the most amazing and complete nanomachines. Consider all the different jobs cells perform in the body:

• Brain cells process and store information
• Liver cells manufacture complex chemicals
• Red blood cells transport oxygen and carbon dioxide
• White blood cells defend the body from viruses and bacteria
• Muscle cells expand and contract when triggered by electricity
• Nerve cells transmit information and signals through the body

As if this wasn't amazing enough, consider that each different type of cell develops from one source, the stem cell. At a very early stage of life stem cells receive a chemical signal which converts them into a particular cell type. This process is not full understood, but is of great interest to researchers.

Nanoquest game will soon include a new 3D section in which you can explore inside a cell.

Nanotechnology is already having an impact on novel foods, medical devices, personal health testing kits, sensors for security systems, water purification units for manned space craft, displays for hand-held computer games, and high resolution screens.

Nanotechnology has been used to develop a new type of sun screen that offers excellent protection against harmful UV rays. The sun screen contains tiny Zinc Oxide nano particles that block the sun's rays

In medicine nanotechnology research is exploring the use of nanoparticles to deliver drugs to particular locations of the body. This approach could be used to attack cancer cells without harming healthy cells nearby.

Like many new areas of science there is a debate surrounding the safety of nanotechnology. To address this governments are producing guidelines to regulate research and the use of the new technology as it develops.