Angstrom: one-tenth of a nanometer — for measuring atoms and wavelengths of light

Bottom-up: the construction of devices starting with individual atoms

Buckminsterfullerene: carbon 60 (C60, Buckyball) the third form of carbon, after graphite and diamond, discovered in 1985 by Richard Smalley, Harold Kroto, and Robert Curl for which they won the 1996 Nobel Prize in chemistry. Named to honor the architect of the geodesic dome, Buckminster Fuller, because the dome's shell resembles the fullerenes' hollow-core construction.

Micromachining: fabricating silicon by photolithographic etching

Carbon nanotube: cylinders as small as 1 nm in diameter grown from fullerenes to resemble a rolled-up sheet of graphite; exhibits desirable semiconductor characteristic such as ballistic electron transport, plus is structurally 100 times stronger than steel of the same weight

Covalent bond: the molecular force holding two atoms together that share a pair of electrons

CVD: chemical vapor deposition (standard chip making procedure in which elements are deposited in thin layers in a vacuum)

Etching: removal of material from a substrate, usually with potassium hydroxide (wet etching,) or with a stream of gas or plasma particles (dry etching)

Fullerene: the third form of carbon, after diamond and graphite

Hydrophobic effect: the force that causes oil and water to separate, (from the Greek for "water fearing"). Its opposite is the hydrophilic effect.

MEMS: Microelectromechanical systems usually micromachined from silicon substrates

Microfluidic channels: microscopic channels (about 100 microns wide) that separate the elements in a fluid

Micron: micrometer, one-millionth of a meter

Nanometer: one-billionth of a meter (from the Greek word for "dwarf")

Nanotechnology: the creation of nanoscale devices (up to 100 nanometers)

Quantum dot: an atom so confined and isolated that the removal or addition of a single electron can be detected

Semiconductor: a substance through which the flow of electricity can be controlled — its conductive properties are between those of a metal conductor and an insulator

Superconductor: a material through which electricity flows with zero resistance.

Surface micromachining: a MEMS fabrication process, based on standard CMOS microelectronic processes, in which tiny polysilicon parts are photolithographically patterned with surrounding layers of silicon dioxide that can be etching away "releasing" the part

Top-down: the building of materials and devices by carving, molding, or machining bulk materials with tools and lasers