Re: nanophysics
Well from science point of view there certainly is an advantage. IBM was one of the leading companies researching on one type of Nano Devices i.e Josephson Junctions right after its development when the market was hit and taken by storm by the transistors. The growth and market economice made it uneconomical for the Josephson Junctions to compete at that point in time. However at present Transistor technolgy is almost at the dead end and instead of making transistors smaller, a new typ eof device is required and that is where Jospehson Junctions come in.
Normal Semiconductors require more power as compared to JJ. JJ needs power in the range od Mili volts to switch and hence they produce less heat and can be packed more densly. At the same time JJ are the basic budiding block of Squids which are being investigated for the production of Quantum COmputing.
Having said that, keep in mind that we require a major breakthrough for the JJ and Squids to operate at room temp and hence there are technological difficulties from converting from Science to Tech.