Nanoscience and nanotechnology -: driving research and applications

Nanoscience and nanotechnology represent scientific-technical areas that in less than twenty years have gone from being in the hands of a small group of researchers who glimpsed their great potential, to constitute one of the recognized pillars of scientific progress for the next decades. This paper illustrates how the irruption of the nanotechnologies will directly affect human beings by substantially improving diagnosis and treatment of diseases as well as our capacities to interact with our surroundings. Governments around the world have realized the important role that nanotechnology deserves, and during the last decade budgets allocated to research and development in nanotechnology have continuously increased.