a blog by the NSF Center for Sustainable Nanotechnology
With winter and our first snowfall right around the corner where I live in Wisconsin, I am really looking forward to playing in the snow! One of my favorite activities is to throw snowballs up in the air while on a walk with my dog, Ginny. She jumps to catch the snowball on its way …
Even if you didn’t watch the Olympics this summer, chances are you heard something about gymnast Simone Biles dropping out of the team and individual all-round competition. I won’t rehash any of the public discussion that occurred, but I am grateful that some athletes are starting the discussion about mental health. It is long overdue …
Continue reading “Anxiety can make graduate school feel like an Olympic balance beam”
How can creative output at the nexus of art and science help with the much-needed efforts to promote diversity in science? In this post, I’m excited to tell you about one initiative I’ve been involved with, and highlight the amazing artists who have contributed their work to the project.
Autumn is here, which means summer colors are beginning to fade and many leaves are starting to change from green to red and yellow. Although it’s all around us, we might not often think about what color actually is. Color is the characteristic that describes the light waves that are absorbed by, and bounce off, …
On a lovely spring day, as I was lying on the Skinner Green and soaking up the sun, my phone buzzed. It was an email from the Center for Sustainable Nanotechnology (CSN) regarding my application for their Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE) program. My heart dropped a beat when I glimpsed the content of the email and …
Continue reading “Authentic Research Experiences Amid The Pandemic”
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”
Did you know that scientists have used nanotechnology to develop a test for the MERS coronavirus? The results of the test can be seen by the naked eye within 10 minutes of interacting with the viral DNA, which can shorten the analysis and interpretation time.1 Current testing for the COVID-19 virus takes hours or days.2 So, …
Continue reading “Can nanotechnology help make a better COVID-19 test?”
Guess what? Your skin is the biggest organ in your body, with an area of 2m2 (pretty much the size of a beach towel)! Skin plays an important role in the protection of your muscles, bones, and organs, and acts as a physical barrier against pathogens. It also regulates your temperature, and when exposed to the …
Continue reading “Nanotechnology for Younger & Healthier Skin?”
The size of the materials in nanotechnology is one of the most important factors that power and define the properties of the nanomaterials. But there are many different techniques for measuring that size, and depending on the measurement methods, the results may vary! It doesn’t mean the actual lengths or diameters of the materials change: …
Continue reading “How do we measure the size of nanoparticles in a solution?”
Imagine you work at a grocery store and you need to figure out how many shopping carts will fit in a certain space. You know that each shopping cart is 33 inches long, but you might decide to round that up to 36 inches (3 feet) for your estimation: That rounding is just one example …
Sustainable Nano 