Nanotech's Tiny Focus Has Far Reaches : "
FOX & FriendsDaytimeYour WorldBig StorySpecial ReportFOX ReportO'Reilly FactorHannity & ColmesOn The RecordWeekend"

WASHINGTON — Chemistry professors Phil DeShong and Bryan Eichhorn are separated physically by only one floor in their classroom building in College Park, Md. But their research into the uses, applications and possible health effects of nanotechnology are essentially worlds apart.

Nanotechnology is the broad term used to describe both the materials constructed at the atomic and molecular levels and the research and development of those materials.

Nanotech is grabbing greater attention in Washington, D.C., and around the world as products featuring the scientific developments are hitting store shelves, forcing a debate over how to limit health and safety risks.

But in the laboratory, the focus isn't on how to limit nanotechnology, but finding out if its reach has any limits.

Sitting at a desktop computer in his chemistry department office at the University of Maryland, DeShong scrolls through a slide show, stopping on something that looks like a round sponge, or a balloon. But in reality the photo is of something much, much smaller, and maybe one day in the near future, something a lot more important.

The miniature globe is actually so small, about one/10,000th of a millimeter wide, it can only be seen with the most advanced electron microscopes. Upon further inspection, it's not even just a simple globe. It's made of even tinier globes: Imagine a perfectly round, invisible balloon with a dozens of even smaller balloons attached to the surface — something on the order of marbles stuck on a basketball.

(Story continues below)