Scientific prefix meaning “one - billionth” (1/1.000.000.000). It comes from the Greek word “nanos” (dwarf).

Material whose components are mixed at a nanometer scale.

Crystalline particle with at least one dimension measuring less than 1000 nanometers (=1 micron). Nanocrystals are aggregates of anywhere from a few hundred to tens of thousands of atoms that combine into a crystalline form of matter known as a "cluster".

 A unit of length in the metric system equal to one billionth of a meter (10-9m).

A unit of length in the metric system equal to one billionth of a meter (10-9m). A sheet of paper is about 100.000 nanometers thick. A human hair measures roughly 50.000 to 100.000 nanometers across. Our fingernails grow one nanometer every second.

 A microscopic particle whose size is measured in nanometers (nm). It is defined as a particle with at least one dimension less than 100nm.

A material with a porous structure, where pores are by definition roughly in the nanometre range.

Relating to or occurring on a scale of nanometers. Nanoscale is usually referring to measurements of 1 – 100 nanometers (nm). A virus is about 70 nm long. A cell membrane is about 9 nm thick. Ten hydrogen atoms lined up in a row would be about 1 nm long.

Τhe manipulation of materials that are a few nanometres long. As a nanometre is a millionth of a millimetre, this often means working with individual molecules. “Nano” is often used as shorthand to refer to nanoscience, nanoengineering and similar activities applied to the nanoscale. The nanoworld is a bridge between the world we live in and the world of atoms, where unexpected things happen. At the nanoscale, many common materials exhibit unusual properties, such as remarkably lower resistance to electricity, or faster chemical reactions. Designing and building things on a nanoscale makes design more precise and products which use nanotechnology more effective. For example, wires can be put closer together, and chemicals become more reactive. Norio Taniguchi (Tokyo Science University) was the first to define nanotechnology, in 1974. His definition still stands as the basic statement today: "Nanotechnology mainly consists of the processing of separation, consolidation, and deformation of materials by one atom or one molecule".

Cancer that forms in tissues of the nasopharynx (upper part of the throat behind the nose).

Inert gas which was referred to by the chemist Antoine Lavoisier as “mephetic air” or “azote”, from the Greek word “azotos” meaning lifeless.

The very dense region consisting of protons and neutrons, at the center of an atom. Atoms’ nuclei are positively charged (the number of positive charges is the atomic number of the atom, also known as the proton number).