The term "nanotechnology" is derived from the Greek word "nanos," meaning "dwarf." A nanometer is one thousand millionth of a meter or, in other words, one millimeter equals a million nanometers. Measurements of this scale are hard to imagine. For comparison purposes, the size of a red blood corpuscle is approximately 7,000 nm. Bacteria are even smaller, measuring about 1,000 nm, whereas a ball-shaped virus measures some 60-100 nm. A flea, on the other hand, at 1 million nm is close to gigantic.
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