Wednesday, November 4, 2026Updated every morning at 5:30 AM ET
NanotechProgress
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Nano or just marketing?

“Nano” sells, and big promises travel fast. We test claims against the evidence, with verdicts in fixed words that can never overstate, and we check whether the nanoscale really does the work.

2 claim checks

Claims, checked

“A half-liter bottle of nano urea can replace a 45 kg bag of ordinary urea.”

IFFCO, Maker of nano urea, India's farmers' fertilizer cooperative, 1 June 2021. At launch, IFFCO said a 500 ml bottle could replace at least one 45 kg bag of ordinary urea and cut urea needs by half. ICIS, 1 June 2021

Not yet shownNothing on record shows it yet: the support is company statements, forecasts, or studies that didn't find the claimed effect.

The support is the maker's own statement. A two-year independent field trial found lower wheat and rice yields when nano urea replaced part of the ordinary fertilizer.

  • A two-year field experiment by Punjab Agricultural University found wheat yields 21.6% lower and rice yields 13% lower with nano urea than with ordinary nitrogen fertilizer. Independent Down To Earth, 3 Jan 2024

What we don’t know: How nano urea does on other crops, soils and climates. One university's trial is strong evidence, not the last word.

On the record:Nano urea fertilizer

“Commercial carbon nanotube microprocessors could be available in less than five years.”

Max Shulaker, MIT researcher who led the nanotube processor work, Aug 2019. In 2019, after his team built a 16-bit processor from carbon nanotube transistors, Shulaker said commercial versions could follow within five years. Smithsonian Magazine, Aug 2019

Not yet shownNothing on record shows it yet: the support is company statements, forecasts, or studies that didn't find the claimed effect.

The five years ran out in 2024. Our record shows a lab processor and a first foundry wafer, both from 2019, and nothing yet showing a nanotube processor on sale.

  • MIT researchers reported in Nature a 16-bit microprocessor built from carbon nanotube transistors. Independent Smithsonian Magazine, Aug 2019
  • MIT and SkyWater made the first wafer of 3D chips combining carbon nanotube transistors and memory in a commercial US foundry. Independent IEEE Spectrum, 19 July 2019

What we don’t know: Whether nanotube chips are being made out of public view, for example for defense customers. We go by what has been published.

On the record:Carbon nanotube transistors

The nano check

Does the tiny scale do the work?

For everything we track: is the nanoscale structure what makes it work, or one ingredient among others?

6 tracked

Partly nano

It uses nanomaterials, but they are one ingredient among others.

28 tracked

Truly nano

Its nanoscale structure is what makes it work.