A decade ago, 'nano' was a word of tomorrow, signifying the promise of a future enhanced and streamlined by the torrent of possibilities that would come from single-atom control over the material world. Apple had just blazed a now well-worn path of cashing in on this cultural sentiment, releasing its first-generation iPod Nano in September 2005. Nanotechnology was hailed as a panacea to the economic and ecological malaise of the early 2000s, with the promise of cost-effective and relatively easy-to-produce solutions to problems as diverse as the energy crisis, chemotherapy and cybersecurity.
