a blog by the NSF Center for Sustainable Nanotechnology
Happy National Chemistry Week! This year's theme is "Sticking with Chemistry," a celebration of the science of glues and adhesives. It's no coincidence that today is also Mole Day, the annual festival honoring Avogadro's Number - the number of molecules or atoms that comprise a mole of a substance: 6.02 x 1023. That's 602,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 molecules …
Continue reading "Sticking with Chemistry on Mole Day!"
Zack Jones, a graduate student in the Center for Sustainable Nanotechnology, gives diamonds to his study organism. But they're nanodiamonds, not jewelry, and after the tiny worms eat them, Zack uses their fluorescent and magnetic properties to see where the material accumulates within the worm's body. This episode of the Sustainable Nano Podcast talks about …
Continue reading "Podcast Ep 37. Shine Bright like a Diamond… Inside of a Worm"
Science communication takes a lot of different forms, including improvisation. In this episode, we interview Center for Sustainable Nanotechnology graduate student Paige Kinsley and alum Liz Laudadio. The episode dives deep into the life skills you can learn from doing improv, how it can make you a better listener, and how it relates to science …
How do you photograph the unphotographable? In this podcast episode we interview MIT research scientist Felice Frankel, who specializes in visualizing science, using pictures to draw audiences in and help scientists more deeply examine their own work, including nanoscale materials that are smaller than wavelengths of light! We also have a mini-interview with graduate student …
Continue reading "Podcast Ep 35. Photographing the Unphotographable"
For many of us, our news feeds and personal conversations have been dominated this week by COVID-19. The disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has been in the U.S. for a couple of months, but public awareness has been increasing rapidly and we have reached the point where many university campuses …
Continue reading "COVID-19, Nano, and You"
Are you looking for the summer research program that will give you the experience you need to consider a career in nanotechnology? Are you interested in chemistry AND sustainability? If so, the Center for Sustainable Nanotechnology Summer Undergraduate Research Program (SURE) might be for you! To give you insight into the program, we made a …
Are you an undergraduate student, or do you know any undergraduate students? If the answer is yes, this blog post is for you! Believe it or not, many summer research programs have application deadlines in January or February, which means that winter break is the perfect time for undergrads to be thinking and planning for …
Continue reading "Itās December ā time to apply for summer research!"
How often do college women in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) experience sexism? And how do these experiences affect their likelihood of staying in scientific fields? In this episode we talk with Majel Baker, a counseling psychologist who investigated these questions in her doctoral dissertation. Spoiler alert: sexism is bad. But there are ways …
Continue reading "Ep. 33 It Just Didn’t Feel Like Me: Belonging and Sexism in Science"
What if every seed you planted could include a sensor to monitor moisture and nutrients? What if every tissue had nanoscale electronics to check for viruses when you blew your nose? Our fourth season of the Sustainable Nano Podcast launches with an interview about the future of nanotransistor technology with Professor Mike Filler from Georgia …
Continue reading "Ep. 32 An Electronic Circuit on Every Seed?"
Happy Mole Day! On October 23 we celebrate Avogadro's Number (6.02 x 1023), an important unit of measurement in chemistry. Every year, the American Chemical Society promotes the week that includes Mole Day as National Chemistry Week (NCW). This year, NCW is October 20-26, and the theme is Marvelous Metals. There are local events being …
Sustainable Nano 