How small again is a Nanometer????

Here are some interesting measurements I have found while browsing around. It really helps to put in perspective just how small these things are we are talking about. I have also discovered there seem to be two distinct strands in this field and If I understand it correct it is as follows.
1 Big Machines make little machines........not to much to worry about there.
2 Little machines make little machines........this lead to the grey goo theory which has since been discounted but the thought was that nano machines would gain enough intelligence to either recreate or perhaps even reproduce. Daft thought really until you think it's been the basis for many a StarTrek series.
Right back to basics. What is a nanometer and why it is important. Well here's the explanation.....One billionth of a meter, 100 to 10,000 times smaller than a human cell
Each nanometer is only 3 to 5 atoms wide


A meter is about the distance from the tip of your nose to the end of your hand (1 meter = 3.28 feet).

One thousandth of that is a millimeter.

one thousandth of that, and you have a micron: a thousandth of a thousandth of a meter. Put another way: a micron is a millionth of a meter, which is the scale that is relevant to - for instance - building computers, computer memory, and logic devices.

Ah but hold it, because that is not nano scale, we are not there yet

A nanometer is one thousandth of a micron, and a thousandth of a millionth of a meter (a billionth of a meter).

Basically 75 to a hundred times smaller than a virus. 1 inch = 25,400,000 nanometers

So you can see why eventually, even though if it happened slowly and you lost your nano machine somewhere in the forest, that the possibility of this grey goo was considered.
Q1. What is nano technology?

"A1. Nano refers to the length scales involved, the nanometer or 10-9 meters length scale, where systems consist of only a few hundred or so atoms. Nanotechnology is a fundamentally new and different way of thinking about the creation of devices and systems. It is really a building of functionality from the most fundamental level of matter upward to the macroscopic system. More specifically, nanotechnology is the creation and utilization of materials, devices, and systems through the control of matter on the nanometer-length scale - the ability to engineer matter at the level of atoms, molecules, and supramolecular structures - and the generation of larger structures with fundamentally new molecular organizations exhibiting novel physical, chemical, and biological properties and phenomena."

Sorry but those of you who visit here will know that this is not my writing style, unfortunately I have misplaced the nano link to the person who wrote it. Suffice to say you guys in Nano tech may know what you doing but you sure as hell find the longest winded way in world to say it. As for some of the press releases? Well I did come across one from a certain governer's office where obviously a very well intending typist, who clearly never heard of nanotechnology changed nm to mm. Now I don't know about you but I wouldn't want something 300mm wide put into my blood stream. (while you here do feel free to click on the adds ) All questions and comments will be gladly answered.
Collie