There are already a huge number of products on the market that make use of nanotechnology, the science of “engineering systems at a molecular scale”. Some uses of this technology appear in what are likely to be the products you would least expect! For example, the sports industry has made wide use of nanotechnology by developing advanced golf balls that fly in a straighter line, tennis balls and racquets that are stronger and last longer, and bowling balls that are harder. All of these examples make use of nanomaterials to improve their performance. In the clothing industry, someone has developed a pair of trousers that repels water! Perhaps a more common example is a DVD. The standard DVDs that you have at home have been using nanotechnology for years. If you magnified the surface of a DVD millions of times, it would appear to be covered in raised bumps. Each of these bumps is where the information of the disc is actually stored, and each one is only 320 nanometres across! Other areas where you might expect to see nanotechnology include the mobile phone and computer industries. Consider the difference between old arcade games that took up so much space and the new, next generation games consoles. Computers of the size we know today would not be possible without the use of nanotechnology. Some other nanotech products include teeth whitening toothpaste, lip gloss with sun protection without having the consistency of standard sun-screen, household wall paint that resists mould and razors that take much longer to go blunt. Scratch resistant glass has recently become available and is being used mainly in sunglasses. Cosmetics such as moisturising face cream uses nanotechnology to make skin appear smoother.

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