Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain
the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in
Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles
and JavaScript.
The prefix nano, which is based on the Greek word for dwarf, became part of scientific nomenclature in 1960. Chris Toumey explores the role of language and languages in science.