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Nanotechnology is an applied science focussing on design, synthesis, characterisation and application of materials and devices at the nano-scale.

‘Nano’ is the metric prefix meaning 0.000,000,001, 1 E-9, or one billionth, therefore a nanometre is about one thousandth of the diameter of a human hair.

At this scale, the ratio of surface area to volume is vastly increased, playing a significant role in changing the behaviour and properties of materials.


Bioengineering, on the other hand, deals with biological processes in general.

It is a broad-based engineering discipline also involving product design, sustainability and analysis of biological systems.