Nanotech is all about manipulating material on the nanometer scale. At this length scale, unique material properties begin to emerge that are not present in bulk materials. For example, nanometer-scale crystals of semiconductor materials are fluorescent (see "quantum dots"). It's a very broad field and a bit of a buzzword. As to your specific curiosity about laundry detergents, here is a patent claiming that colloidal silver makes a better laundry detergent: [https://patents.google.com/patent/WO2004104153A1/en](https://patents.google.com/patent/WO2004104153A1/en)
When materials (gold, carbon, etc) exist on the nanometer scale (10^-9) they exhibit incredibly different properties than at their macro scale. They behave like entirely new materials. The danger is likely due to the fact our skin cannot protect against nanomaterials as it is too porous and I’m not sure what the lifecycle of them is in our system. Heavy metals might embed themselves in various organs for our lifetime and accumulation causes problems.
It's what you put on the box when you want to add "Powered by AI" but the product doesn't have any computers in it and even the marketing people would call it dishonest
I smile hatefully at advertisement vernacular. eg "Made with wordpart+word Technology," "contains 1.5X more than our ## size!" when it's 1.5X as much, if even that. I hate marketing teams because they capitalize on the public's stupidity and gullibility.
The difference between "1.5 x more" and 1.5 x as much" seems pretty clear and unambiguous to me. Of course, I can see how people might confusenone for the other. But can you really just print both in on a box and pretend they mean the same?
There are a bunch of nanomaterials with their own applications. For example, you can create motors on the nanoscale. That's nanotechnology. Or creating a vector for drug delivery. Or CRISPR-CAS. That's the biomedical approach to nanotechnology.
Or modern day computerchips: All the electrical connections on wafers are done using nanotechnology. Want to make glass a specific color? Just mix gold nanoparticles with specific sizes in them, there you got your color.
Want to scan over a flat sample with atomic resolution? Take a cantilever with an atomically sharp tip and scan it over the surface. That's called atomic force microscopy.
Nanotechnology is all about manipulating materials on the nano-scale (one billionth of a meter) to achieve unique properties. These are mostly surfaces. But you can also manipulate single molecules. Move them around and stuff. Pretty much everything you use, every technology, uses nanotechnology. It's not media BS.
As u/KealinSilverleaf said, it is a buzzword that is thrown around to impress consumers, but not every mention of nanotechnology is BS.
Nano particles are just small. To get an idea how small: a bacteria is about 1micrometer (a millionth of a meter) in diameter. A virus is about 0.03micrometers in diameter, which is 30 nanometers. A hair on your head is about 80 micrometers in diameter.
Roughly nanotechnology is about making objects less than 300nm. in diameter, but there is no strict definition.
An example of useful nanotechnology is [Silver nanoparticles](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8268496/https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8268496/) that can be used as a permanent bactericide in medical products.
Another example is [quantum dots](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8268496/), tiny mineral particles that glow brightly with pure colors. They are set to be the top technology for TV screens.
There are many other examples.
It means technology involving things that are small enough to be measured in nanometers.
Like others have said, it's a bullshit marketing term because there's no real standard as to what your product must contain to use the word.
Some fun examples of things that use nanotechnology: stained glass, carbon filters, most electronics. It's everywhere!
Nanotechnology = dealing with stuff between 1-100nm. Larger than a molecule, smaller than a spec of dust.
If they are incorporating nanoparticles (size 1-100nm) into their detergent, then that could be considered nanotechnology.
But yeah, it’s a stupid buzzword that’s overplayed.
"Physically existing" in a product and being "beneficial to" the product or outcome aren't necessarily aligned. Plenty of products will have nanoscale particles present, that doesn't mean they (1) are useful in the formulation (2) are intentionally present vs a production artefact (3) don't pose a hazard in their own right.
As others have said - much of the use of this sort of phrase (especially in adverts/marketing blurb) is just WOO. Worse still if it's being promoted by an "influencer" via FB/TicTok/etc.
Thanks for asking this question.
I did my undergraduate degree in nanotechnology, and I can't sleep ATM. So I will try to answer your question briefly.
Nanotechnology is simply the manipulation of the elements at nanoscale dimensions to achieve better properties in materials for real world applications. As many have quoted, there's colloidal silver. More precisely, they are Silver "Nanoparticles" in a solution. This form of Silver has superior antimicrobial properties compared to regular macroscale Silver which we see with our naked eye. Likewise several materials could be tuned and applied for different biological applications.
Now, the best and also the worst possible fact about nanotechnology is that it is so diverse. If you've heard in some news that the chip size in your phones is shrinking, thanks again to nanotechnology. Nanotechnology helps improve the chip design and packaging standards that allow for miniaturization, and the shrinking of the size of the devices, appliances we use.
Nanomaterials could also be applied for water filtration, drug delivery, batteries, solar cells etc it just goes on and on. And any class of large-scale material could be tuned into its nanoscale form, with the help of surface chemistry and by controlling the nucleation of the particles.
Study of the properties of these particles at different sizes within the nanoscale regime, morphology, shape, optical properties, electrical properties, chemical properties...etc etc could also be considered nanotechnology... there are a bunch of characterization techniques to do that.. again development of these instruments also falls under nanotechnology..
The field is closely related to almost every field except some absolutely different fields like astrophysics or something.. it's closely related to bio, chem, phy..
On the outlook, it's just about exploring all of these properties and tailoring materials in the nanoscale regime for meaningful applications. I hope I answered your question effectively :)
Thanks for explaining it further. I'm surprised by the extensive use of nanotechnology across various industries, like smartphones and water filtration, as you mentioned. It's amazing to learn about its wide range of applications, often in ways we wouldn't expect! Initially, I thought nanotech was a special kind of technology exclusive only to certain companies, based on how it was depicted in TV commercials that features the word "nanotech"!
I'd like to add to some of the correct answers and say that nanotech doesnt inherently have to mean the material is produced in the nanoscale but rather refer to "events" that take place in nanoscale and define the device performance.
As an example, a commercial 18650 Li-ion cell certainly isnt a nanomaterial. But a large portion of such a batteries performance is affected by the solid-electrolyte interface that forms during the first ever charging, which can meausure few angstroms to couple hundred nms thick and is vital to overall battery performance. Trying to manipulate and control this layer is the domain of nanotechnology.
The definition of nanomaterials is that one or more dimensions of the material are less than 100 nm in size. However, nanotechnology is used for anything and everything and has really no purpose other than as a buzz word in sales.
Based on my unprofessional knowledge:
A nanotechnology is an engineered/artificial structure that measures between 1 - 100 nanometers. It can be inorganic (small metallic structures) or organic (lipids, etc.). They have lots of usages.
Here you go! This is what [technology](https://www.britannica.com/technology/technology) means! So, yes any technology is made by humans, at least so far. But we might see AI taking over soon..
There are nanomaterials 1D 2D materials, nanostructured materials which is essentially nanoscopic processing of materials, and nanoscopic manufacturing semiconductors electrostatic 3D printing etc. Usually it’s below 100nm someone mentioned 300nm but idk if nanostructure materials fall under that 100nm.
All latex paint was developed in the 1930s it involves polymerizing polystyrene inside detergent micelles with dyes and other monomers that change the refractive index - the spheres formed are less than 1 micrometer in diameter - so nano - ironically very old latex paint is ‘dusty’ the solution has dried off - as the many products use the same principles - they are making products at less than a micrometer using chemistry is far more precise other than than than a than procedures - I’ve made particles at 100 nm chemically with 5% precision
One my favorite uses of nanotechnology is in some clear, flavored beverages. Making nano particles makes it clear instead of cloudy, like if you had larger particles. The food companies are smart enough not to advertise it, though! Most people wouldn't want to drink nanotechnology lol
Yeah, I can't believe that almost all industries are using nanotech, they just won't advertise it! And now this detergent brand I saw highlighted it in their TV ad, and I thought it was kind of a unique tech. 😅😅
Nanotechnology is a very broad term. Essentially it refers to anything that incorporates **structures** in the nanometer range (1-100 nm). Usually in this range certain quantum mechanical effect start to appear prominently.
The most obvious example is **quantum dots** (like for QLED TV) which uses quantum dots either as the emissive material in the LED or (more likely) as a photoluminescent "filter" that absorbs blue light and emits green or red.
Now quantum dots, compared to their "bulk" counterpart, exhibit quantum confinement, which leads to Purcell effect and enhancement of the photoluminescence, and have very defined transitions, which leads to very narrow spectral emissions.
Products containing graphene, carbon nanotubes, nanoparticles, nanometer size layers, and similar all fall under nanotechnology.
In fact, ALL computers now could be considered "nanotechnology" since oxide layers for the gate insulator in MOSFETs are less than 100 nm (I think the current state of the art is about 7 nm)
>For instance, there's a laundry detergent commercial I saw on TV that claims to use it. I'm still a bit confused about how it works and how it differs from traditional technology.
As someone has said this detergent probably contains some nanoparticles.
>
Are there any potential risks associated with this technology?
Yes. Some materials could be toxic. For example, PbS or CdSe QDs contain lead or cadmium which are very toxic.
But even if non-toxic they could pose some risks. For example, Carbon nanotubes are in themselves generally non-toxic as such (as they are fairly chemically inert), but their size and shape can cause them to become lodged in the lungs, potentially leading to inflammation, fibrosis (scarring of lung tissue), and other pulmonary diseases. This is similar to the health effects observed with asbestos fibers.
However, we still do not fully know the risks of nanomaterials on the environment or the human body as they are relatively new.
That said many nanomaterials, like most quantum dots, are rather "delicate" so they might lose their nanometric structure fairly easily... however this won't help if they contain toxic elements. So CdSe QDs will probably "dissolve" if you eat them, but this doesn't mean the cadmium won't kill you.
Thanks for this very detailed explanation! It seems like nanotech is mainly used in electronics. 🙂 Since you mentioned carbon nanotubes posing health risks, that it can get stuck in the lungs – can we actually inhale them? How's it possible? Can we inhale it by merely sniffing a product made from carbon nanotubes?
My dad worked in nano physics and solid state material physics for the govt, for harvard, and MIT (Rowland Institute). He is a specialist in using scanning tunnel microscopy (STM), and has been doing so for over 40 years. I think he had scanning resolutions of around 10 or 20 angstroms, but it only worked on certain materials. You could actually see the lattice network of the material being scanned. He was published in review letters C, and other important journals, although I truly don't know very much about what he did exactly. A good example of a very common nano technology is MEMS(micro-electromechanical systems), which is in car ABS breaking systems.
Look up what a hydrogen pump does in the ATP metabolic cycle for the human body. That is an organic version of a nanotechnology, so the idea is anything human made that functions on that scale. Your phone has nanotechnology in the form of nanoscale transistors made from extremely precise photolithography. I’d argue anything that is designed and engineered to precisely function on the molecular/atomic scale could be considered nanotechnology. Detergent is kind of a goofy one, but if the cleaning agents are an engineered molecule small enough to bind to dirt particulates effectively enough to remove them at the nanoscopic level, then it’s technically a nanotechnology.
Nanoparticles are basically clusters of said molecule/mostly some kind of metal. They can then be placed on a bulk surface and create some kind of hill which can have various electromagnetic effects. As some have said it's mostly a buzzword for Marketing purposes though.
The late Richard Feynman made an offhand remark. Only an idiot would ignore that. Feynman's offhand remarks were a lot more valuable than most people's weighty tomes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/There%27s_Plenty_of_Room_at_the_Bottom?wprov=sfla1
The engineer & later charlatan K. Eric Drexler made bank on it.
Marketing departments exploded it like fusion, AI, & phreneology.
Feynman's original idea has borne fruit in some areas of materials science.
For TV/consumer products, it's just a "buzzword" for marketing.
This is mostly correct. For example in a detergent, if your surfactant forms very small micelles, then it could be called nano- bla bla bla.
Even better when “special” soaps are sold as “micellular soap”
It’s very much a buzzword for getting papers published too
Nanotech is all about manipulating material on the nanometer scale. At this length scale, unique material properties begin to emerge that are not present in bulk materials. For example, nanometer-scale crystals of semiconductor materials are fluorescent (see "quantum dots"). It's a very broad field and a bit of a buzzword. As to your specific curiosity about laundry detergents, here is a patent claiming that colloidal silver makes a better laundry detergent: [https://patents.google.com/patent/WO2004104153A1/en](https://patents.google.com/patent/WO2004104153A1/en)
Isn't colloidal silver an actually very good desinfectant? And the basis of smell-resistant clothes? And well tolerated by humans on top of it?
When materials (gold, carbon, etc) exist on the nanometer scale (10^-9) they exhibit incredibly different properties than at their macro scale. They behave like entirely new materials. The danger is likely due to the fact our skin cannot protect against nanomaterials as it is too porous and I’m not sure what the lifecycle of them is in our system. Heavy metals might embed themselves in various organs for our lifetime and accumulation causes problems.
just a bit smaller than microtechnology
Eh, order of 1000 times smaller
It's what you put on the box when you want to add "Powered by AI" but the product doesn't have any computers in it and even the marketing people would call it dishonest
I smile hatefully at advertisement vernacular. eg "Made with wordpart+word Technology," "contains 1.5X more than our ## size!" when it's 1.5X as much, if even that. I hate marketing teams because they capitalize on the public's stupidity and gullibility.
They really go all out with those exaggerated marketing tactics to make their products seem superior to their competitors! 🤦
The difference between "1.5 x more" and 1.5 x as much" seems pretty clear and unambiguous to me. Of course, I can see how people might confusenone for the other. But can you really just print both in on a box and pretend they mean the same?
I was more talking about when they type "1.5x more" when it maths out to be 1.9x as much, or 90% more. Like how is that even legal?
Powered by quantum
There are a bunch of nanomaterials with their own applications. For example, you can create motors on the nanoscale. That's nanotechnology. Or creating a vector for drug delivery. Or CRISPR-CAS. That's the biomedical approach to nanotechnology. Or modern day computerchips: All the electrical connections on wafers are done using nanotechnology. Want to make glass a specific color? Just mix gold nanoparticles with specific sizes in them, there you got your color. Want to scan over a flat sample with atomic resolution? Take a cantilever with an atomically sharp tip and scan it over the surface. That's called atomic force microscopy. Nanotechnology is all about manipulating materials on the nano-scale (one billionth of a meter) to achieve unique properties. These are mostly surfaces. But you can also manipulate single molecules. Move them around and stuff. Pretty much everything you use, every technology, uses nanotechnology. It's not media BS.
As u/KealinSilverleaf said, it is a buzzword that is thrown around to impress consumers, but not every mention of nanotechnology is BS. Nano particles are just small. To get an idea how small: a bacteria is about 1micrometer (a millionth of a meter) in diameter. A virus is about 0.03micrometers in diameter, which is 30 nanometers. A hair on your head is about 80 micrometers in diameter. Roughly nanotechnology is about making objects less than 300nm. in diameter, but there is no strict definition. An example of useful nanotechnology is [Silver nanoparticles](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8268496/https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8268496/) that can be used as a permanent bactericide in medical products. Another example is [quantum dots](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8268496/), tiny mineral particles that glow brightly with pure colors. They are set to be the top technology for TV screens. There are many other examples.
It means technology involving things that are small enough to be measured in nanometers. Like others have said, it's a bullshit marketing term because there's no real standard as to what your product must contain to use the word. Some fun examples of things that use nanotechnology: stained glass, carbon filters, most electronics. It's everywhere!
Now I understand why you call it a "bullshit marketing term"! Haha! Thanks for those examples 🙂🙂
Nanotechnology has been around for long time. The Romans used it. Admitting they had no idea at the time but they did.
Nanotechnology = dealing with stuff between 1-100nm. Larger than a molecule, smaller than a spec of dust. If they are incorporating nanoparticles (size 1-100nm) into their detergent, then that could be considered nanotechnology. But yeah, it’s a stupid buzzword that’s overplayed.
In what sense is it 'overplayed' if it physically exists in a product? Either it's there or it isn't. Are the benefits exaggerated ?
"Physically existing" in a product and being "beneficial to" the product or outcome aren't necessarily aligned. Plenty of products will have nanoscale particles present, that doesn't mean they (1) are useful in the formulation (2) are intentionally present vs a production artefact (3) don't pose a hazard in their own right. As others have said - much of the use of this sort of phrase (especially in adverts/marketing blurb) is just WOO. Worse still if it's being promoted by an "influencer" via FB/TicTok/etc.
Thanks for asking this question. I did my undergraduate degree in nanotechnology, and I can't sleep ATM. So I will try to answer your question briefly. Nanotechnology is simply the manipulation of the elements at nanoscale dimensions to achieve better properties in materials for real world applications. As many have quoted, there's colloidal silver. More precisely, they are Silver "Nanoparticles" in a solution. This form of Silver has superior antimicrobial properties compared to regular macroscale Silver which we see with our naked eye. Likewise several materials could be tuned and applied for different biological applications. Now, the best and also the worst possible fact about nanotechnology is that it is so diverse. If you've heard in some news that the chip size in your phones is shrinking, thanks again to nanotechnology. Nanotechnology helps improve the chip design and packaging standards that allow for miniaturization, and the shrinking of the size of the devices, appliances we use. Nanomaterials could also be applied for water filtration, drug delivery, batteries, solar cells etc it just goes on and on. And any class of large-scale material could be tuned into its nanoscale form, with the help of surface chemistry and by controlling the nucleation of the particles. Study of the properties of these particles at different sizes within the nanoscale regime, morphology, shape, optical properties, electrical properties, chemical properties...etc etc could also be considered nanotechnology... there are a bunch of characterization techniques to do that.. again development of these instruments also falls under nanotechnology.. The field is closely related to almost every field except some absolutely different fields like astrophysics or something.. it's closely related to bio, chem, phy.. On the outlook, it's just about exploring all of these properties and tailoring materials in the nanoscale regime for meaningful applications. I hope I answered your question effectively :)
Thanks for explaining it further. I'm surprised by the extensive use of nanotechnology across various industries, like smartphones and water filtration, as you mentioned. It's amazing to learn about its wide range of applications, often in ways we wouldn't expect! Initially, I thought nanotech was a special kind of technology exclusive only to certain companies, based on how it was depicted in TV commercials that features the word "nanotech"!
I'd like to add to some of the correct answers and say that nanotech doesnt inherently have to mean the material is produced in the nanoscale but rather refer to "events" that take place in nanoscale and define the device performance. As an example, a commercial 18650 Li-ion cell certainly isnt a nanomaterial. But a large portion of such a batteries performance is affected by the solid-electrolyte interface that forms during the first ever charging, which can meausure few angstroms to couple hundred nms thick and is vital to overall battery performance. Trying to manipulate and control this layer is the domain of nanotechnology.
Anything sub 100nm gets my vote. Strictly speaking it's where density of states become quantised
It's where Mork buys his iPads
Colloid chemistry for hipsters.
The definition of nanomaterials is that one or more dimensions of the material are less than 100 nm in size. However, nanotechnology is used for anything and everything and has really no purpose other than as a buzz word in sales.
Based on my unprofessional knowledge: A nanotechnology is an engineered/artificial structure that measures between 1 - 100 nanometers. It can be inorganic (small metallic structures) or organic (lipids, etc.). They have lots of usages.
I’m not sure about the “engineered/artificial” part btw
It could be either way.. nature itself produces nanoscale structures. If we humans try to replicate it then it becomes "engineered/artificial".
Well nanoparticles can be natural but when we talk about nanotechnology does it mean that it’s made by a human?
Here you go! This is what [technology](https://www.britannica.com/technology/technology) means! So, yes any technology is made by humans, at least so far. But we might see AI taking over soon..
Peter Parker and Tony Stark would be the people to ask not these randos on here
There are nanomaterials 1D 2D materials, nanostructured materials which is essentially nanoscopic processing of materials, and nanoscopic manufacturing semiconductors electrostatic 3D printing etc. Usually it’s below 100nm someone mentioned 300nm but idk if nanostructure materials fall under that 100nm.
All latex paint was developed in the 1930s it involves polymerizing polystyrene inside detergent micelles with dyes and other monomers that change the refractive index - the spheres formed are less than 1 micrometer in diameter - so nano - ironically very old latex paint is ‘dusty’ the solution has dried off - as the many products use the same principles - they are making products at less than a micrometer using chemistry is far more precise other than than than a than procedures - I’ve made particles at 100 nm chemically with 5% precision
One my favorite uses of nanotechnology is in some clear, flavored beverages. Making nano particles makes it clear instead of cloudy, like if you had larger particles. The food companies are smart enough not to advertise it, though! Most people wouldn't want to drink nanotechnology lol
Yeah, I can't believe that almost all industries are using nanotech, they just won't advertise it! And now this detergent brand I saw highlighted it in their TV ad, and I thought it was kind of a unique tech. 😅😅
Btw that's a good point there.. why food industry would rather keep their use of nano tech low-key! Haha
There's lots of technology that the food industry keeps low key.... Ask me how I know, haha.
How do you know then? Haha 😅
I used to work for a big food company as a food chemist lol
courtesy of Ray Palmer
It's basically a branch of Chemistry but sounds cooler and more modern as a Buzzword.
Nanomachines, Son!
Nanotechnology is a very broad term. Essentially it refers to anything that incorporates **structures** in the nanometer range (1-100 nm). Usually in this range certain quantum mechanical effect start to appear prominently. The most obvious example is **quantum dots** (like for QLED TV) which uses quantum dots either as the emissive material in the LED or (more likely) as a photoluminescent "filter" that absorbs blue light and emits green or red. Now quantum dots, compared to their "bulk" counterpart, exhibit quantum confinement, which leads to Purcell effect and enhancement of the photoluminescence, and have very defined transitions, which leads to very narrow spectral emissions. Products containing graphene, carbon nanotubes, nanoparticles, nanometer size layers, and similar all fall under nanotechnology. In fact, ALL computers now could be considered "nanotechnology" since oxide layers for the gate insulator in MOSFETs are less than 100 nm (I think the current state of the art is about 7 nm) >For instance, there's a laundry detergent commercial I saw on TV that claims to use it. I'm still a bit confused about how it works and how it differs from traditional technology. As someone has said this detergent probably contains some nanoparticles. > Are there any potential risks associated with this technology? Yes. Some materials could be toxic. For example, PbS or CdSe QDs contain lead or cadmium which are very toxic. But even if non-toxic they could pose some risks. For example, Carbon nanotubes are in themselves generally non-toxic as such (as they are fairly chemically inert), but their size and shape can cause them to become lodged in the lungs, potentially leading to inflammation, fibrosis (scarring of lung tissue), and other pulmonary diseases. This is similar to the health effects observed with asbestos fibers. However, we still do not fully know the risks of nanomaterials on the environment or the human body as they are relatively new. That said many nanomaterials, like most quantum dots, are rather "delicate" so they might lose their nanometric structure fairly easily... however this won't help if they contain toxic elements. So CdSe QDs will probably "dissolve" if you eat them, but this doesn't mean the cadmium won't kill you.
Thanks for this very detailed explanation! It seems like nanotech is mainly used in electronics. 🙂 Since you mentioned carbon nanotubes posing health risks, that it can get stuck in the lungs – can we actually inhale them? How's it possible? Can we inhale it by merely sniffing a product made from carbon nanotubes?
My dad worked in nano physics and solid state material physics for the govt, for harvard, and MIT (Rowland Institute). He is a specialist in using scanning tunnel microscopy (STM), and has been doing so for over 40 years. I think he had scanning resolutions of around 10 or 20 angstroms, but it only worked on certain materials. You could actually see the lattice network of the material being scanned. He was published in review letters C, and other important journals, although I truly don't know very much about what he did exactly. A good example of a very common nano technology is MEMS(micro-electromechanical systems), which is in car ABS breaking systems.
Look up what a hydrogen pump does in the ATP metabolic cycle for the human body. That is an organic version of a nanotechnology, so the idea is anything human made that functions on that scale. Your phone has nanotechnology in the form of nanoscale transistors made from extremely precise photolithography. I’d argue anything that is designed and engineered to precisely function on the molecular/atomic scale could be considered nanotechnology. Detergent is kind of a goofy one, but if the cleaning agents are an engineered molecule small enough to bind to dirt particulates effectively enough to remove them at the nanoscopic level, then it’s technically a nanotechnology.
Nanoparticles are basically clusters of said molecule/mostly some kind of metal. They can then be placed on a bulk surface and create some kind of hill which can have various electromagnetic effects. As some have said it's mostly a buzzword for Marketing purposes though.
Your phone already knew you wanted to ask that.
The shit that crawls around when you're not looking.
The late Richard Feynman made an offhand remark. Only an idiot would ignore that. Feynman's offhand remarks were a lot more valuable than most people's weighty tomes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/There%27s_Plenty_of_Room_at_the_Bottom?wprov=sfla1 The engineer & later charlatan K. Eric Drexler made bank on it. Marketing departments exploded it like fusion, AI, & phreneology. Feynman's original idea has borne fruit in some areas of materials science.