a blog by the NSF Center for Sustainable Nanotechnology
Have you ever heard the phrase “walking on eggshells”? The phrase is usually meant to convey the message that you should take care in not disrupting or offending someone. It turns out, though, that you can actually walk on eggshells without breaking them. This is achievable because the person’s weight is equally distributed over the …
Continue reading "Charged Chains and How They Interact with Model Biological Interfaces"
Have you ever thought about what you’d be like without a skeleton? Our skeletons give us our structure and also allow us to move. Without the bones that make up our skeleton we’d just be a mass of tissues that couldn’t move. In much the same way, cells have something called a cytoskeleton to give …
Continue reading "Snapshots of the Cytoskeleton"
One major type of output from university research labs is the publication of scientific results in scientific journals. When we write these papers, our target audience is not the general public; rather, we are writing for experts in our area to tell them what we've accomplished so that they can build on our work in …
Continue reading "Bright Nanoparticles + Glowing Bacteria = Beautiful, Useful Pictures"
Anyone who has watched CSI, Bones, or Breaking Bad on television has had the opportunity to see how chemistry can be important in solving (or committing) a crime. The popularity of forensics drama inspired scientists within our Center for Sustainable Nanotechnology to develop a set of outreach activities where middle school students can use chemistry …
Continue reading "The Mysterious Inspiration of Future Scientists"
When you think about a scientist, what picture pops into your head? I’ll bet you’re picturing a lone scientist with wild hair, toiling away on some world-changing problem in lab. You know the one - that classic, crazy picture of the scientist. The truth is, when you’re a scientist one of the best parts of …
Continue reading "Teamwork Wins! Why Science Is Not an Individual Sport."
Sustainable Nano 