Just reading a paper where the need to reduce computers and related appliances to the smallest possible size, such that their components (e.g., wires and circuits) will be strictly in the nano-size range was advocated for. A nanomaterial is defined as any material with a size in one of its dimensions, of 1 to 100 nanometers (nm). To put you into perspective, note that 1000 nm = 1 micrometer (the size of a bacteria cell, which you cannot see with your na-ked eyes) and 1000 micrometer = one millimeter (which you can see with your nak-ed eyes if you have good eyes).  The corollary is that if cells of biological systems (humans, plants, bacteria, fungi, etc) can harbor components in the nano-scale (namely DNA, RNA and proteins) that contain all the information directing the activities of these macro-scale entities, then components that drive computers should be able to exist wholly at a similar size scale as the biological molecules.

One of my small worries about this, however, is that for a country such as Nigeria, how will our roadside computer repairers for e.g., be able to cope at the nano-scale, seeing that they will then require high resolution microscopic techniques (AFM, SEM, TEM, etc) to be able to look into these miniaturized systems and attempt to fix them when they go bad? It seems to me that as the West progresses in nanoscience and  nanotechnology, there could be skill/job losses for developing country engineers and para engineers who do not have the atomistic capabilities that working at the nano level require. Or are we going to be stuck with the present  milli-scale technologies as the developed world (+ India, Singapore and China) continue to move into the nano world; or we would have to be shipping our computers and such things back to the West/East for repairs? Will the Zinox(es) (the Nigerian computer assembly companies) of this world go nano too?