
Inventive materials: nanowires
Nanowires are just one of many new technologies that could revolutionise electronic devices
Nanowires are extremely narrow threads (less than 50 nm wide), which have the potential to be used in nanoscale electrical devices. The vision is of electronic chips so small and cheap they could be used in almost any way.
In biology, they could form the heart of extremely sensitive biosensors, identifying molecules associated with disease or the binding of chemicals to a drug target.
Lead image:Sandia Labs/Flickr CC BY NC ND