Small World Nanotechnology will soon mean big changes in the way you do business.

Rick Snyder, CEO of Ardesta, a holding firm in Ann Arbor,Michigan, has a mantra: "Smaller, faster, better,cheaper." He's talking about "small tech," aterm that describes nanotechnology, microtechnology andmicro-electromechanical systems (MEMS). Nanotechnology inparticular has gotten a lot of coverage as big companies likeHewlett-Packard and Intel have begun to introduce nano intocomputing.

It's hard to pinpoint exactly what small tech is because ithas so many wide-ranging applications. "I would call it moreof a revolution than an evolution," says Snyder.Nanotechnology, for example, deals with matter at an atomic andmolecular level--that is, with matter often described as being lessthan the width of a human hair in size. It's appearing ineverything from stainproof coating for fabrics to scratch-resistantcoating for eyeglasses to miniscule computer chip circuits from HPLabs.

Research funding for small tech is enormous. Ardesta is devotedto investing in and helping launch various small tech ventures withan ultimate goal of bringing actual products to market. Manybusinesses in this fledgling technological area are smallentrepreneurial start-ups and spinoffs from research institutions.Life sciences and materials manufacturing are two industries thatwill really feel the early effects of the growing small techmarket.