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> how could you smell the scented candles if they weren't producing nanoparticles?

By smelling a gas?

Gases are also made of particles. Molecules that you can smell are easily a nanometer across.

Nanoparticle as a term has a specific technical definition that does not include a random gas made of organic small molecules, which include most molecules we perceive by smell.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanoparticle#Definitions ?

Sure, and most small organic molecules are an order of magnitude smaller than that definition.

What? Not an a whole order of magnitude.

I thought most orderants were around 0.5 to 1nm in diameter.

The nanoparticles that are the subject of the article are not single molecules.

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