NANOSCALE SCIENCE a field of scientific investigation that addresses the development, manipulation, and use of materials and devices on the scale of roughly 1-100 nanometers in length, and the study of phenomena that occur on this size scale. As the highest priority funded science and technology effort since the space race, nanoscale science offers great potential for applications in materials, medicine, optics, electronics, data storage, advanced manufacturing, environment, energy, and national security.

Dr. Heinrich Rohrer, STM co-inventor and 1986 Nobel Laureate in Physics stated in A Conversation with Dr. Heinrich Rohrer: STM Co-inventor and One of the Founding Fathers of Nanoscience, "The nanoscale is the bifurcation point where the disciplines develop. That's where materials have their properties and a cluster of 10 atoms does not yet have the same properties as 100 atoms. That is also where the disciplineds emerge, ant that's why nano has to be completely interdisciplinary".