The word “nano” comes from the Greek word for “dwarf”. In physics it describes the billionth part of a unit; a nanometer is one billionth of a meter. Between five and 10 atoms can be accommodated on this length. In terms of size, a nanometer is to a millimeter what a football is to the globe. A human hair, for example, has a diameter of around 50,000 nanometers and the point of a pin encompasses one million nanometers. Nanotechnology is regarded as one of the most significant technologies of the 21st century and is based on particulate materials and/or structures. The size of the particles and structures lies in a dimension between 1 and 100 nanometers (nm).