Ann. Pak. Inst. Med. Sci. 2011; 7(1): 37-41                 

Introduction:

With the revolutionary development of tools that drive manipulation of particles at the atomic level, nanotechnology is considered the biggest engineering advancement since the industrial revolution.[1,2] It began as a vision of the late Nobel physicist Richard P Fayman in 1959 who spoke at the annual meeting of the American Physical society to say, ‘The principles of physics, as far as I can see, do not speak against the possibility of manoeuvring things atom by atom’. This lay largely undiscussed until the mid 1980s when an engineer published a book to popularise the potential of molecular nanotechnology, ‘Engines of Creation’.[3] Today, research into nanoscience is developing rapidly with new nanotechnological advancements holding limitless possibilities within the field of medicine and beyond. By 2015 it is estimated that the worldwide market for products produced by nanotechnology will reach US$1 trillion.[4] With the ever expanding realms of nanotechnology in all applicable fields, this review attempts to provide only a general summary of recent technological advancements.