a blog by the NSF Center for Sustainable Nanotechnology
Transcript & summary by Emma Bublitz Graduate school applications can be difficult to navigate under the best of circumstances. Each department, program, and institution often requires a different set of materials and has different, often unspoken, expectations for how students should navigate the system.1 However, for LGBTQ+ students there are additional challenges in the process. …
Continue reading "Applying to Graduate School: Advice for LGBTQ+ students from the community"
December 7-12, 2020 is #BlackinNano week! This week-long celebration is just one facet of the Black in Nanotechnology organization, co-founded by Olivia Geneus, a Physical Chemistry Ph.D. Candidate, and Jarriaun D. Streets M.S., a Senior Biological Scientist. Black in Nanotechnology aims to: Highlight Black scientists advancing the field of nanotechnologyBuild partnerships and networks to push innovative …
Continue reading "It’s #BlackinNano Week!"
As I write this, I first want to acknowledge the land the University of Minnesota is on. These are the original homelands of the Dakota and Ojibwe Nations. It is important for us to note and respect the Indigenous peoples who were forcibly removed from this land and those who are still connected to this land. But …
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"
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, …
Continue reading "The Chemistry of Color Tests"
Today is the first day of our Center for Sustainable Nanotechnology “Phase IIb” renewal! This means that the National Science Foundation (NSF) has renewed our grant funding so the Center can continue for another five years. As the Director of the CSN, I have given a lot of thought to the legacy of our work …
Continue reading "Renewed for 5 More Years!"
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 …
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"
Note: There has been much public discussion recently around preservation of public monuments. This blog post is about how science can play an important role in preserving historical monuments. Although people, including scientists, must make judgments about historical preservation, nothing in this post is intended to express any opinion on recent public discussions about those …
Continue reading "How can nanotechnology preserve stone cultural heritage sites?"
Sustainable Nano 