a blog by the NSF Center for Sustainable Nanotechnology
As we come to the end of Black History Month for 2022, I find myself contemplating the banner that hangs year-round in front of Noyes Chemistry Lab to celebrate one of the shining stars of my own department at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC): St. Elmo Brady. Dr. Brady was the first African-American …
“Whoa!” “We didn’t have anything like this when I was a kid!” “This is awesome!” I heard these three phrases repeated while attending the USA Science and Engineering Festival. What is the USA Science and Engineering Festival, you ask? This festival is knowledge for your child who has any interest in science. This festival is …
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As many of you may have witnessed, on August 21st there was a total solar eclipse (where the view of the sun was entirely blocked by the moon) across much of the continental U.S for up to 2 minutes and 40.2 seconds in the most ideal locations (see the dark band in the image below).1 …
Continue reading "Solar Eclipse 2017 – A Multi-Sensory Experience"
It's National Chemistry Week! This year's theme is "Solving Mysteries Through Chemistry," so today we have a roundup of past blog posts about how nanotechnology is used in forensics. Investigating crime is only one example of "solving mysteries," but it is an important one and there are many examples of how nanotechnology is contributing to forensic science. Here …
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Fluorescence is a favorite topic here at Sustainable Nano - we've written about quantum dots, fluorescein in the Chicago River, glowing bacteria, and many other topics, but one of our most popular blog posts of all time is about how highlighters and blacklights work. Well, now our colleagues at ACS Reactions have made two amazing new videos …
Continue reading "Fluorescence is Awesome: New CSN Videos!"
Now that spring semester is coming to an end, a lot of scientists are getting ready to go to scientific conferences over the summer. During spring break I had the opportunity to participate in the American Chemical Society conference held in San Diego. This national conference attracts thousands of chemists from all over the country …
Continue reading "How to Survive Your First Professional Conference"
It's Recommended Reading Day here at Sustainable Nano! There's so much great stuff out there on the internet that it's impossible to catch it all, so we thought we'd offer you a little sampling of 10 cool things we shared on Twitter and Facebook over the last couple weeks. Undark: Deborah Blum (director of the Knight Science Journalism Program at MIT and most recently …
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There was a time when book stores and libraries were the places where you met others. Like in today's universities, in which librarians can't get rid of books fast enough, students still go to libraries to study in their carrels. Unfortunately, the flattening of the printed word through electronic delivery is decreasing the need or …
Continue reading "Chemistry’s Community Spaces"
Next week, over ten thousand people will converge on the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center for the fall 2015 meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS). The ACS was founded in 1876 and has grown to 158,000 members, making it the largest scientific society in the world. Attending such a big conference can seem a little …
Continue reading "Seven Tips for Attending Your First Big Conference"
A couple weeks ago, over 300 scientists and engineers with an interest in nanotechnology met together in Minneapolis at the American Society for Mechanical Engineering Nanoengineering in Medicine and Biology meeting. If the title seems like a mouthful, that’s because it is. We just called the conference NEMB (prounounced "N-E-M-B"). Although it seems like I …
Continue reading "Scientists Gather in Minneapolis to Talk Nanoengineering in Biology"
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