a blog by the NSF Center for Sustainable Nanotechnology
I am a TED enthusiast. TED is an organization that describes itself as a “nonpartisan nonprofit devoted to spreading ideas, usually in the form of short, powerful talks.” Chances are you’ve seen a TED talk at some point – maybe Meg Jay's advice for 20-somethings or Bryan Stevenson’s talk about the issues in our criminal justice system? They …
Continue reading "Let’s Talk About Responsible Science Communication…"
In this episode, we talk about a recent research study that looked at how one type of battery nanomaterial affects bacteria called Shewanella oneidensis. We interview Mimi Hang and Ian Gunsolus, who were co-first authors of the study as graduate students in the Center for Sustainable Nanotechnology.
On this first episode of our brand new podcast, we talk with the Director of the Center for Sustainable Nanotechnology, along with students, faculty, and a few complete strangers about some questions related to our Center's research: What is nanotechnology? What is sustainability? And what does it mean when we put the two terms together?
In my last post, I told you about how scientists measure amazingly cool things that can be vastly different in size, like elementary particles or very distant dwarf planets and their moons. Thinking about all the units to describe length got me thinking again (uh oh)... How do scientists know that the nanometer they measure …
Continue reading "What’s in a Unit Anyway? Part 2: When is a Kilogram Not a Kilogram?"
Much of our work in the Center for Sustainable Nanotechnology lies in the realm of chemistry. That is to say, our work seeks to understand phenomena at the molecular level. For example, we want to know what molecules we can add to the surface of a nanoparticle to control how stable it is and how …
Continue reading "How do Scientists Study Complex Chemical Systems?"
This blog post comes at a time when our center is probing the nano-bio interface (see prior blog entries below) with one of the largest collection of scientific research instrumentation to which I have ever had access. The Center for Sustainable Nanotechnology has researchers at 5 universities across the Midwest as well as the Pacific …
Continue reading "Swiss Army Knife of Science – Collaborations & Research Instrumentation"
Federal science funding is at the heart of the American enterprise. Sustained science funding was first established as the core of US science policy in July 1945, when Vannevar Bush, Science advisor to President Roosevelt, wrote “Science the Endless Frontier”. That laid the foundations for government agencies like the National Science Foundation and the National …
Continue reading "How the 2013 Government Shutdown Forced a Retreat from the Frontier of Science"
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?"
Sustainable Nano 