It's one of the most exciting new frontiers in science -- nanotechnology -- and our state is at the forefront. Now, scientists at the University of Oregon have a new weapon in the battle to keep it that way.

When folks take the campus tour at the U of O, the most interesting building is the one you can't see, but we got a look inside Wednesday morning.

It's the newest addition to the University of Oregon campus...built with the best in green-friendly building materials...filled with the highest of high-technology.

A laboratory above all others -- but below the ground.

"There's a mountain, essentially, underneath Eugene, that comes within ten feet of the surface here," explains John Donovan, the Director of the UO Microanalytical Facility. "By digging down that far, and then digging further down into the mountain, we're actually able to site this building on a very low-vibration foundation. And that gives us the ability to measure things at even finer scales than almost anyone else."

The nanotechnology lab will be filled with such sensitive equipment that as much as a sneeze might throw them off. Here's why: the machines measure and manipulate items at an atomic level, literally looking at their atoms.

How small is that? Cone of your fingernails, and the amount it grows in one single second. That's small.

"We think we can get cheap solar cells that have very high efficiency, by using nano-particles," Donovan says, "and engineering them for the exact characteristics that we're looking for."

Another reason for the unusual placement of the building is that this is one area on campus that's required to remain a green space. So since you can't build up, they built down.

As for the blue glow in the hallway -- well, Donovan admits, that's just for show.

"It's got that CSI look," Donovan explains.

It's a project that is on-time, on-budget, and right on the cutting edge.

"I've had students say to me that they're going to postpone finishing their Ph.D's," Donovan notes, "just so they can do work in this building, they're so excited about it."

A consultant who measures such things has rated the lab the second-quietest in the country, in terms of vibration. The quietest? A lab on a mountaintop in New Mexico, 160 miles from the nearest city.

The building is named for Lorry I. Lokey, the former communications executive and philanthropist who has donated more than $30 million to the university over the past couple of years.