At the request of the chat room, I am starting this thread. Some background - I am currently at the University of New South Wales and am in my 4th and final year in a Bachelor of Science degree, with honours in nanotechnology.
Nanotechnology is a field that crosses between physics, chemistry, materials science and biology. Throughout my degree I have studied these things roughly equally, up until last year when physics and biology were less emphasised, and this year is almost entirely chemistry (by my choice). Or, to put it another way...
Nanotechnology is the science of manipulating things where at least one of the scales is less than 100 nanometres. A wanky definition, but apt enough. Better put into layman's terms as working with molecules to build stuff.
My thesis topic is called "Biocompatible Sensors based on Quantum Dots". This makes sense if you break it down...
Biocompaible = wont kill you if you are exposed to it
Sensors = detects stuff
Quantum Dots = microscopic particles of semiconductors. Have weird physical properties somewhere in between classical and quantum physics. Among these physical properties is high fluorescence - basically, they glow at particular colours when exposed to energy.
In other words, I am working on tiny glowy particles that will detect stuff but not kill you.
Any questions?