a blog by the NSF Center for Sustainable Nanotechnology
Most of us are familiar with the concept of “side effects.” This is when something that is designed to be helpful ends up having some harm that goes along with it. For patients with cancer, anti-cancer drugs can be life-savers – literally. The benefits of using these drugs are apparent to anyone whose cancer has …
Continue reading "Can We Make Nanoparticles More Sustainable?"
Remember all those great Black Friday deals on QLED televisions? You may not realize it, but they were all about nanotechnology! The Q in QLED stands for quantum dots, which are not only being used to enhance the displays of TVs, but also are used in solar cells, medical imaging, and sensing.1-3 However, the disposal …
Continue reading "Quantum Dots and Lipid Rafts: Analytical Chemistry Solves a Nanoscale Mystery"
What is the color of “typical” carbons? As black as charcoal, or as clear as diamond (Fig. 1)? Can we imagine any other answers, such as blue, green, or red? You may think I am crazy, but actually, the answer is “Yes”! To explain the idea of multi-colored carbon, I’m going to tell you about …
Continue reading "Have you ever seen colorful “carbon”?"
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!"
As a fan of sci-fi, I recently watched two classic movies: the original Star Wars (which you’re probably familiar with) and Ghost in the Shell (a post-cyberpunk Japanese animation). Both movies had a very interesting commonality: human-machine hybrids. But what does this have to do with nanotechnology? In the Star Wars movies, the only thing …
Continue reading "Bacteria in the Shell: A Nano-bio Hybrid for Solar Energy Capture"
Advertisements for bigger and better technology gadgets bombard us daily. It seems like there is always a more advanced cell phone or television that you need to get your hands on. Though color TV was made mainstream in the 1960s, the race to advance screen technology for color enhancement is ongoing. In this post (in …
Continue reading "Enhancing Color: Quantum Dot Televisions"
Sustainability is a hot topic these days, even making its way into advertisements for one of the world’s biggest companies (see below). I would guess that on this very day, you have thought about sustainability, or at least encountered the idea. Maybe you saw a commercial that told you to “go green”, or read an …
Continue reading "What Does Sustainable Have To Do With Nano?"
Science doesn't always look like this: Sometimes it looks like this! We have scientists in Wisconsin, Illinois, Minnesota, and even Washington! Every week we get together for a videoconference to coordinate all the different kinds of research happening here at the Center for Sustainable Nanotechnology. Above is a series of screenshots Franz Geiger took during …
Continue reading "How Do Scientists in Four Different States Work Together?"
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 …
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