The present invention provides fine silicon-containing glass beads each having one or more cavities therein and containing nanoparticles in a glass phase of each of the silicon-containing glass beads, and a method of producing such glass beads, and also provides silicon-containing glass beads containing nanoparticles, which may be identical to or different from the nanoparticles in the glass phase, and a functional material such as pharmaceutical molecules (e.g., materials having fluorescent properties, magnetic properties, drug effects, etc.), and a method of producing such glass beads. The present invention relates to silicon-containing glass beads each having one or more cavities therein and having an average particle diameter of 20 nm to 1 &mu；m, the silicon-containing glass beads containing nanoparticles A in the silicon-containing glass phase, and also containing a functional material in the cavity.
