Nature is also no stranger to particles and phenomena on the nanometer-scale. Consider, for example, the colors of a butterfly, or the sticky feet of a gecko: The fine structures in a butterfly’s wings generate attractive interference colors, and the large number of nanoscale protuberances on a gecko’s feet generate sticking forces much greater than the force of gravity. The nanoscale building principles used by nature are the same as used by today’s researchers: Big is divided up into small, and then out of something very small something bigger is built, like for example in the chemical and biological synthesis of atoms and molecules.

Nanoscience and nanotechnology did not, however, result from observing or imitating nature. Their conceptual origins can be found in Fenyman’s vision of 1960 – which was hardly noted at the time – that materials and machines will eventually be manipulated on the level of a single atom. This vision also became known through the saying "There is plenty of room at the bottom." The practical breakthrough into this realm came with the 1986 Physics Nobel Prize-winning scanning tunneling microscope of Gerd Binnig and Heinrich Rohrer and its later developments.

As the materials research institute in the ETH-domain, Empa is most certainly active in nanotechnology and is generating new knowledge, new materials and new applications and is transferring this knowhow to potential users.

You can find more about Empa and nanotechnology here: www.empa.ch/nanotechnology