Over the past few decades the concept of miniaturization has been earnestly
applied to chemical and biological problems. For example, much interest has
been focused on the development of lab-on-a-chip or microfluidic technology.
Largely, this has been driven by a need to accomplish rapid analysis of
the small sample volumes that are typical in genomics, drug discovery, highthroughput
screening and medical diagnostics. However, at a basic level, the
appeal of microfluidic technology has been motivated by the fact that
physical processes can be more easily controlled, accelerated and exploited
when instrumental dimensions are reduced to a micron or submicron scale.
The idea of miniaturization, pushed to an even greater extreme, has led to
the emergence of the field of nanotechnology. Approaching the nanometer
scale, bulk properties start to give way to molecular and atomic interactions,
often leading to novel phenomena. The past decade has seen enormous
growth in our understanding of and ability to characterize objects with
nanometer-range dimensions. Importantly, these recent advances in
nanoscience now show great promise in a diverse array of endeavors such
as drug delivery, electronics, optical detection and sensing. The current
issue highlights some of the emerging themes in the fields of micro- and
nanotechnology and provides a glimpse of how the concept of miniaturization
is beginning to impact chemical and biological sciences.