Nanotechnology is all about manipulating atoms and structures at the nanoscale. Nanostructured materials and nanoparticles are often synthesised using chemical methods. Nanotechnology overlaps significantly with many disciplines within chemistry, physics, and materials research. These are the fields that discovered the atom and understood its inner workings, developed the science of combining atoms in precise structures, and developed tools with which these nanostructures are probed and visualised. However, nanotechnology can be fundamentally different from traditional materials science because it deals with manipulation and physical control at the atomic level of materials. Materials synthesis with nanotechnology could actually mean building it atom by atom. Traditional biology involves the study of living systems, ranging from bacteria to insects to humans. All of these organisms rely on nanometre-sized protein machines (molecular motors) to do everything from whipping flagella to flexing muscles. An application of nanotechnology would be, for example, isolating one of these molecular motors from a living system and using it to construct a nanoscale device. A nanotechnology-derived molecular motor might be fuelled by sunlight and produce a rotational force that could pump minute volumes of fluids (e.g. pharmaceuticals) or open and close valves in nanomechanical devices.
The International Conference on Enabling Science and Nanotechnology 2012 (ESciNano 2012) was the second international conference organised by the Nanotechnology Research Alliance of UTM (Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Johor, Malaysia). More than 100 oral papers along with another 42 posters were presented in the conference with presenters from 13 different countries. The presenters covered a wide range of topics including Nano Tools for Cell Nano Surgery System, label-free biosensing with Si nanowires, the role of semiconductors in IC design of nanometre technologies, and went on from synthesis, characterisation, cancer detection and nanoelectronics/devices.
This special issue is a selection of the best papers presented during “ESciNano2012” the Second International Conference on Enabling Science and Nanotechnology 2012, January 5–7, held in Johor Bahru, Malaysia. All the papers have been reviewed according to the Journal of Experimental Nanoscience (JEN) requirements.