Scientists have started exploring a new cosmos.

This long-neglected world is on a scale far below that of objects visible under optical microscopes: smaller than bacteria, but larger than individual atoms and molecules. This universe, measured in nanometres – billionths of a metre, reveals a wealth of complex structures, which actually form the foundation of the secret of life itself.

Biologists, chemists, physicists and researchers in material science are all working to understand and shape matter at this level with the aim of designing structures and systems on a nano scale.