2015 - According to the National Science Foundation, in 2015 half of new products will be made using nanoscale engineering. Nanotechnology involves molecular machines that can build with atomic precision. In 1981, a scanning-tunneling microscope let scientists see and manipulate atomic structures. Between 1997 and 2000, NASA began work in computational nanotechnology, the first nanotech company formed, the first DNA-based nanomechanical device was built, and the U.S. National Nanotechnology Initiative was launched. (National Science Foundation)