Up close & personal with atoms & molecules

Nature is the best example of a system functioning on the nanometer scale, where the involved materials, energy consumption and data handling are optimized. Opening the doors to the nanoworld the emergence of the scanning tunneling microscope in 1982 and the atomic force microscope in 1986 led to a shift of paradigm in the understanding and perception of matter at its most fundamental level. As a consequence new revolutionary concepts stimulated already a number of new technologies in meeting the somewhat still mechanistic top down approach with the bottom-up approach of self-assembly and self-organisation that has been so successfully implemented in the natural world. However to keep this worldwide effort alive the interdisciplinary structure of Nano requires a new breed of scientists educated in all science disciplines with no language barriers ready to make an impact on all the global challenges ahead where Nanotechnology can be applied.**Nano-Curriculum at the University of Basel, www.nccr.nano.org/NCCR/study, email: Katrein.Spieler@unibas.ch