Nanotechnology has become a word of common use and is attracting a lot of interest since it promises revolutionary applications and technological breakthroughs in many areas, from electronics to medicine, from information and communication technology to environmental and energy solutions, and several others. The term itself has acquired a broad meaning and encompasses a wide range of elds in many disciplines, but a common denominator of whatever falling within the scope of nanotechnology exists: it concerns the design, characterization and production of structures, devices and systems by controlling their shape and size at the nanometer scale. Many nanotechnology applications have already been realized or are on their way. Some examples are nanomaterials, materials which acquire novel properties and desired functionalities thanks to an atomic scale processing (obtained for instance by \functionalization" of coatings or paintings with nanoparticles); nanolithography in electronics; nanomedicine (nanosensors, drug delivery procedures); bottom-up approaches such as molecular self-assembly for DNA technology, and so on.
