Kadir Annamalai, 17, who graduated in June from Monta Vista High School, snagged a cutting-edge internship last summer at NASA-Ames Research Center, where he helped advance the fledgling science of nanotechnology. NASA researchers were so impressed with Annamalai's ability to create straight wires that were just two molecules wide that they asked him to stay on through his senior year.

NASA intends to use these wires, which are so small that Annamalai had to "grow" them chemically from the metal germanium, in microminiature robotic equipment that will be launched into space.

"Instead of having manned missions to Mars or Venus, they'll send robots," Annamalai says. "If they can make robots at the nanoscale, it would be a lot less expensive to fly them all out there."

While he wasn't familiar with nanotechnology before he started his internship, Annamalai says it didn't hinder his progress since he was learning right along with more seasoned NASA researchers.

"I thought it would be a neat experience, since the whole industry only started about 10 years ago," he adds. "It's exciting. Everyone around you is at your experience level because nanotechnology hasn't been around long."

Annamalai is considering a career in nanotechnology and says his experience at NASA will serve him well at Princeton University, where he'll study engineering and business management and finance.

"Learning the research process will help me in college because not a lot of people have the opportunity to do research with cutting-edge technology in high school," he adds. "I think it will give me an advantage and allow me to do more research in college and after that."

Annamalai's NASA experience gave him a leg up with the Davidson Institute for Talent Development, which named him a 2005 Davidson Fellow and awarded him a $10,000 scholarship for his nanotech work. Educational software entrepreneurs Bob and Jan Davidson founded the institute in 1999 "to recognize, nurture and support profoundly intelligent young people."

For nanotechnology to advance, Annamalai says, scientists will have to do more than just make straight wires.

"It has numerous applications, but we need a foundation for it," he adds. "Every day, computers get smaller and smaller. [NASA researchers] are trying to pack as much information as they can in smaller packages. They [also] want to make solar cells as small as possible so they can be used to power everyday household appliances."

Once scientists figure out how to build the optimal small package, Annamalai says, the sky's the limit for nanotechnology.

"It may not be as big as the computer industry," he adds, "but it will definitely break out eventually."