The science of small will get a big boost next year, if President Bush has his way. In his budget proposal released last week, Bush requested $485 million for nanotechnology research in fiscal year 2002, a fifteen percent increase from the $422 million Congress granted last year.

As scientists learn to tinker with matter at the atomic scale, they are realizing that the social implications of nanotechnology will prove just as dramatic and at least as surprising. \"In ten to fifteen years, nanotechnology will enter our lives in a big way,\" declares Mihail Roco, the National Science Foundation\'s senior advisor for nanotechnology. Early payoffs, he predicts, will come in computing and pharmaceuticals, where powerful new tools and methods will benefit industries that already work at, or near, the molecular level.

Fuel cells based on solid acid compounds may offer higher voltages, higher operating temperatures, less system complexity and more fuel options than present-day fuel cells

Nanotechnology will likely affect vast sectors of the economy, from biotechnology and health care to energy but scientists predict that the biggest impact will come first from nanoelectronics, infotech, and medicine.