WHAT IS NANOTECHNOLOGY AND WHY IS EVERYONE SO EXCITED ABOUT IT?
, ordinary materials change their properties: colour, and conductivity. Nanotechnology makes carbon nanotubes 100 times stronger than ; it turns red wine into white, makes transparent, and replaces milk lactose with other sugars.

IT SOUNDS LIKE SCIENCE FICTION.
Do you remember Charlie and the Chocolate Factory? In the Roald Dahl story Willy Wonka’s tastes like . Do you remember the miniature bio-mission in the 1960s film ? Or the replicator in Star Trek that creates anything you want? Nanoscience promises to turn such science fiction into science fact, revolutionising food, clothing, health and manufacturing.

CAN SCIENTISTS REALLY CHANGE THE FLAVOUR OF FOOD?
Yes. Researchers are creating consumer-designed drinks. You choose , caffeine, ; release the relevant chemicals from nanocapsules; other ingredients pass through your body unused.
Chefs will one day design food at molecular level, prolonging fragile herbal flavours, to complement your wine and at the right moment.
Food will be . Samsung fridges kill bacteria with nanosilver. remove micro-organisms and viruses with nanofilters. Unilever hopes nanoencapsulation will produce ice cream with 1 per cent fat instead of 15 per cent.

HOW CAN NANOSCIENCE AFFECT CLOTHING?
An Oxford company , while Cornell University scientists designed and never need washing. “This is one of the first times nanotechnology has entered the fashion world,” says Professor Juan Hinestroza. , though: nanocotton costs $10,000 per square metre.

WHAT ABOUT NANOTECH'S IMPACT ON HEALTH?
. Miniature processors make artificial body parts : , retinas, even nerves. Soon nanosensors will monitor diabetics’ blood sugar, call ambulances for , and for sportsmen and soldiers.
, Japanese scientists have developed a 2cm electronic with .
Chemotherapy’s side effects have always been risky, but nanoencapsulation delivers lethal poisons directly to tumours. Other nanoparticles infiltrate tumours, and are then heated by infra-red to cauterise cancers.
Ultimately, nanocapsules could deliver medicines to any part of the body.

ARE THERE ANY DANGERS?
We simply don’t know the risks. Supporters of nanotech insist that it is natural, uses no new substances (just old ones smaller) and promises .
. Particles smaller than 100nm can cross the body’s barriers, entering . Metals that kill nanobacteria are being developed for food packaging; but what if they go from the packaging and enter our bodies? “Free nanoparticles can go straight to the brain,” says Dr Qasim Chaudhry of the UK Central Science Laboratory. “”.
Animal studies show that nanoparticles may cause inflammation similar to that caused by .
“Nanoparticles are highly reactive,” reports the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. “It is not yet clear whether they have a toxic impact on the body.”

WHAT'S NEXT?
By 2014, over $2 trillion will be spent on consumer nanotech worldwide, if it is not rejected by the public. , it may become as controversial as Genetically Modified products. In Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Violet Beauregarde Willy Wonka’s chewing gum. He that it was still being tested. So that she turned purple and blew up like a balloon?