We introduce a new activity of the Julio Palacios Chair (CSIC). The Third “Julio Palacios” International Symposium is oriented as a Summer Course in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology. Since the publication of K. Eric Drexler's book Engines of Creation: The Coming Era of Nanotechnology in 1986 and especially at the beginning of the second decade of the 21st century, we are witnessing a vertiginous development concerning the so-called nanoscopic dimension: a nanometer (10^-9 meters) is one millionth of a millimeter, or one thousandth of a micron. The diameter of a cell is of the order of 10 microns, which is equivalent to 10,000 nanometers; in a dihydrogen molecule H-H the distance between the hydrogen atoms is 0.074 nanometers! In other words, the foundations of nanoscience and nanotechnology are established in the control and prediction of the dynamics of systems that range from one nanometer (atom-molecule) to thousands of nanometers (cell).

It is within these dimensions where very interesting things take place from a scientific and technological point of view. Without any doubt, we are direct witnesses of the Nano Revolution that began at the end of the 20th century, with scientific and technological aspects that were unthinkable a few decades ago. Original and innovative research fields such as drug biotransport, the interpretation of biomedical images or the food of the future, materials science with the design of solar cells, the preservation of the environment with the conversion of CO₂ into sustainable agents, as well as the use of water resources in a sustainable way, and molecular modeling are just a few examples of the multiple scientific and technological disciplines of this Nano Revolution, the basis of the III Julio Palacios International Symposium: Summer Course in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology.