Nanocalorimetry offers new capabilities to explore previously inaccessible domains of reaction kinetics due to the expanded heating and cooling rates compared to conventional calorimetry methods. With this capability it is now possible to explore ranges of alloy metastability and to examine rapid kinetic reactions such as melting and the competition between crystallization and glass formation. These capabilities are demonstrated for the melting of phases in Pb-Bi alloys, the melting and undercooling of Sn and glass formation in an organic compound D-mannitol. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.