Nanotechnology manipulates particles and systems on the scale of nanometers, or billionths of metres.

At this level, materials can change their properties dramatically, paving the way for new processes.

Take silver and gold. As bulk materials, we prize them as jewellery in part because they react slowly with the atmosphere and don't tarnish quickly.

But mill down to particles of 50 nanometers and gold is a powerful catalyst while silver is a killer anti-microbial agent.

Designing and processing electronics on a scale of nanometres also means that electrons don't have to move very far, resulting in smaller, faster devices with potentially enormous data storage capacity.