NANOTECHNOLOGY

The number of commercial nanotechnology applications in the consumer sector alone already exceeds 500.

This is according to research published bu the US-based Project for Emerging Nanotechnologies. Meanwhile, projections published by the Center for Economic Growth in New York suggests that the worldwide market could be worth as much as £1,100bn (£558bn) by 2010.

In other words, while nano components are microscopic, the potential revenues are measured in the kind of numbers usually reserved for astrophysics.