a blog by the NSF Center for Sustainable Nanotechnology
This amazing movie was made using a microscope that can visualize atoms at 100 million times magnification. This microscope, known as a scanning tunneling microscope, can also move atoms around. For more, see Bob's post about Heinrich Rohrer, the late nobel prize winner who helped design the scanning tunneling microscope. Using this type of microscope, scientists …
Continue reading "A Boy and His Atom: The World’s Smallest Movie – Friday Video"
The idea that an image is worth a thousand words applies just as much in science as it does in other contexts. Using images, scientists can convey complex information more quickly and often more clearly than is possible using words—which do you prefer: words (left) or a picture (right)? Today I want to talk about …
Continue reading "Zooming in on the Nano World: Limitations and Breakthroughs in Light Microscopy"
Awesome video, no further comments necessary. Happy Friday! 🙂
Heinrich (“Heini”) Rohrer, a nanotechnology pioneer, Nobel Prize winner, and personal mentor to me and many other scientists, has died. The field of nanotechnology was largely enabled by Heini’s co-invention of the scanning tunneling microscope along with his collaborator, Gerd Binnig, in the early-1980s. This microscope scans an atomically sharp tip across a surface to …
Continue reading "A Giant of Nanotechnology Falls – Heinrich Rohrer"
Some cells in our body have elongated structures or microvilli at their surface. These microvilli have many functions that help the cell to survive, and some features that make them act like train tracks that shuttle substances along them. We recently captured a movie of nanoparticles hitching a ride on these cellular train tracks. Nanoparticles …
Continue reading "Surfing Particles: taking a ride using living cell machinery"
Nanodiamonds are far too small to be seen by the naked eye, but everything changes if you make them glow! We at the Center for Sustainable Nanotechnology have developed a new way to make nanodiamonds absorb and then release light—a property known as fluorescence (see this explainer post). I just made these fluorescent nanodiamonds and …
Continue reading "Fluorescent Nanodiamonds – the movie!"
Prepare to embark on a colorful and illuminating journey. Before we begin: Did you know that there is a secret world that exists right in front of your eyes? Did you know that we scientists have tapped into this secret world and are exploiting it to push the boundaries of knowledge? Do you have a …
Sustainable Nano 