Nanotechnology has the potential to change the way all sorts of things work. This article about building computer memory using nano-size buckytubes is a perfect example. Memory is one of the most expensive parts of any digital device, and for little computers like iPods and other MP3 music players, the solid state memory or hard drive usually accounts for about half the cost of the components.
By using carbon buckytubes, which are very small hollow tubes to build a kind of mechanical on-off switch, scientists have been able to show how to build computer memory that is ten times faster than current semiconductor-based memory and that requires no power to preserve the current state--a big headache with much of the current memory designs.
The carbon bucktubes are so small that they can make use of Van der Waal forces--intermolecular forces that attract one molecule to another. It's the same principle that allows geckos to walk upside down on glass. Geckos don't have sticky feet. They have tiny hairs on the pads of their feet--millions of hairs--that are so small they actually interact on a molecular level with whatever material they are walking across.
A lot of nano-based materials are made of carbon molecules. We have plenty of carbon in the United States--it's called coal. If I was an economic developer in a coal region, I'd be looking closely at how to turn coal into the gold of the Nano Economy.
Disclaimer: No geckos were harmed in the writing of this article.