Using barcodes to label and identify everyday items is
as familiar as a trip to the supermarket. Imagine shrinking those
barcodes a million times, from millimeter to nanometre scale, so
that they could be used inside living cells to label, identify and
track the building blocks of life or, blended into inks to prevent
counterfeiting. This is the frontier of nanoengineering, requiring
fabrication and controlled manipulation of nanostructures at atomic
level—new, fundamental research, published in Nature
Communications, shows the possibilities and opportunities
ahead.
