Let’s Talk About Responsible Science Communication…

TED talk

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 …

What’s in a Unit Anyway? Part 2: When is a Kilogram Not a Kilogram?

Weights & Measures Office

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 …

How do Scientists Study Complex Chemical Systems?

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 …

Swiss Army Knife of Science – Collaborations & Research Instrumentation

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 …

How the 2013 Government Shutdown Forced a Retreat from the Frontier of Science

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 …

How Do Scientists in Four Different States Work Together?

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 …