The world is shrinking. This week two free programs on nanotechnology explain how advancements in the science of structures smaller than one billionth of a meter promise revolutionary change in many fields, from drug delivery to electronics. The events take place tonight and Tuesday at the University of Washington, the first school in the nation to offer a PhD. in the field. Both are held in UW's Bagley Hall, Room 154.

Tonight at 6:30, the Northwest Science Writers' Nanotech-O-Rama features talks by Francois Baneyx, director of the UW'S Nanotech center; bioengineering professors Xiaohu Gao and Patrick Stayton, who will talk about applications for cancer diagnosis and treatment; and Valerie Daggett, professor of medicinal chemistry, who will speak about computer simulation methods.

Tuesday afternoon, Intel Senior Fellow Robert Chau, who directs nanotechnology research at the world's largest semiconductor company, will speak from 12:30 to 1:20 on "Extending Moore's Law Using Nanotechnology."