My venture partners invest in, write about, and live in the realm of mesoscale physics, or, by its more popular nomenclature, nanotechnology. Once poorly understood as an ill-defined amalgamation of disparate, atomic-level sciences, nanotechnology is now a young media darling whose time has come. Sophisticated investors and corporate executives grasp that this is no passing fad. Five years ago, we saw salient advances in materials science being neglected as the herds stampeded toward enterprise hardware and software and optical networking. We were convinced that Nicholas Negroponte would have it wrong, and that soon enough people would be trading in their bits for atoms. When our research arm, Lux Research, released its first annual "Nanotech Report" in 2001, 98 percent of Fortune 1000 executives were unable to define "nanotechnology." Today, nanotechnology has become a presidential priority, has taken center stage on CNBC, and has even surfaced as a subject of activist chatter and environmental concern. Just as plastics revolutionized the structural properties of matter - entering into industries as various as communications, electronics, food and beverage, and entertainment - now, nanoscale advances offer the ability to control the structural and functional properties of matter. This includes electric, thermal, magnetic, and optical properties, which are applicable to every industry imaginable.