As a life-long nerd and science-lover, it is hard to imagine a laboratory that could get me more excited than Galya Orr’s lab at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). Galya is a collaborator within the Center for Sustainable Nanotechnology. I had the great opportunity to travel to her lab at the Environmental Molecular Sciences …
Publication Summary: Dark Field Microscopy Makes Nanoparticles Light Up
This post is part of our ongoing series of public-friendly summaries describing research articles that have been published by members of the Center for Sustainable Nanotechnology. Katie Hurley and Nathan Klein, a doctoral mentor/undergraduate mentee team at the University of Minnesota, were co-first authors on this paper. Katie says, “In this post I want to point …
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How Can You See an Atom? – ACS Reactions Video
Here at Sustainable Nano, we've published several posts talking about the instrumentation used by researchers in the Center for Sustainable Nanotechnology to visualize nanoparticles and cell membranes, such as atomic force microscopy and super-resolution fluorescence microscopy. For this week's post, we're sharing a video produced by the American Chemical Society's Reactions series, called "How Can You See an Atom?" The …
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Nano-Crystalline Metals and Sustainability
You’ve read a lot on this blog about how nanoparticles provide amazing opportunities for developing new materials. Over the next few years, we will have incredible advances in sustainable energy, biology, and more based on these new substances that never existed before. But what about the old, structural materials used in our buildings and cars? …
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Designing a Simple, Easy-to-Build Reactor for Making Nanoparticles
This post is part of our ongoing series of public-friendly summaries describing research articles that have been published by members of the Center for Sustainable Nanotechnology. Sam Lohse, the first author on this paper, was a post-doctoral student at the University of Illinois and is now an assistant professor at Colorado Mesa University in Grand Junction, CO. He …
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The Atomic Force Microscope – Probing to “See” at the Nanoscale
Take a look around – do you see a surface that looks a little bumpy? Now close your eyes, reach out your hand, and feel that surface. Got an idea of what it feels like? Great! Now, could you use what you’ve learned with your sense of touch to draw a picture of this bumpy …
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Celebrating St. Patrick’s Day with Fluorescence
Our last blog post featured lighting technology powered by algae, and this week is all about a different example of green-colored water: the Chicago River. Every year since 1962, the Chicago River has been dyed green for the downtown St. Patrick’s Day parade. So how does this amazing color transformation relate to the Center for Sustainable …
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Sustainable Lamps Powered by Algae
Have you ever thought about lighting up the streets using algae? I know I certainly hadn’t before researching for this post, but there are some scientists who have been working on the idea for a long time. There is even a prototype street lamp that’s been built using algae as its power source! This streetlamp …
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From Soldier to Scientist: The CSN’s Role in a Veteran’s Return to Civilian Life
With Operations Iraqi Freedom/New Dawn having ended and Enduring Freedom drawing to a close a new push is underway to retrain our returning veterans. The wars have produced 2.5 million veterans and the Center for Sustainable Nanotechnology (CSN) is part of the push to help veterans retool their skillsets for civilian life through participating in …
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How Many Molecules Can Fit On the Surface of a Round Nanoparticle?
This post is part of our ongoing series of public-friendly summaries describing research articles that have been published by members of the Center for Sustainable Nanotechnology. Marco Torelli, a doctoral student at the University of Wisconsin - Madison, was the first author on this paper and collaborated on the study with CSN researchers at the University …
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