Today, researchers are increasingly interested in how the properties of different materials change when the constituent elements are reduced in size. This opens new possibilities for tailoring materials to different needs.

In the future we will have materials with totally new physical properties. With neutrons it is possible to analyse how molecules arrange themselves spontaneously into larger units. This process can be useful both within pharmaceuticals and in the creation of tiny building blocks for sensors or computer chips. Researchers in nanotechnology are hoping to construct structures smaller than 100 nanometres – 1/10,000 of a millimetre – and assemble them into materials today unknown.

With nano technology and neutrons it will be possible to construct new materials, create light-weight nano-composite materials and molecule-sized magnets.

The electronics of tomorrow will have circuit components built with nano technology. They will be so small, that we need neutrons to help us understand what is happening in the tightly packed and complex circuits. We need this knowledge for the laptop computers, video recorders and mobile communication networks of tomorrow. This is an excellent example of how small science can have a big potential!