a blog by the NSF Center for Sustainable Nanotechnology
Have you ever been to a presidential library? Each site is located in the home state of the president and they are maintained by the National Archives and Records Administration. The libraries contain exhibits, historical documents, and relics that reveal aspects of a former president’s personal life and professional career. Taken all together, the contents …
Continue reading "An engineer as President??"
Did you know that over a third of graduate students experience mental health concerns?1 Graduate school and Master’s or PhD level careers in any field may naturally attract perfectionists; specifically, the strenuous and demanding nature of many STEM fields draws a crowd of highly intelligent and creative minds, but that often comes with being very …
Continue reading "Mental Health and the Diversity of Minds"
Two weeks ago (on the 47th annual Earth Day), about 150,000 people across 600 cities around the world gathered together for the March for Science. Our last blog post included a list of interesting pre-march readings, and you can check out more thoughtful reports and analyses from afterward at the bottom of this post. In the meantime, here's a gallery of …
Continue reading "The March for Science: A CSN Photo Album"
This Saturday, many scientists and supporters of science will attend the March for Science in Washington D.C. or at marches in their local area. To understand why scientists across the globe are taking to the streets, let’s play a guessing game. I’ll describe a political issue centered around the widespread use of a controversial scientific topic …
Continue reading "Book Review: The War on Science"
Artist Peter Krsko uses his background in physics and materials science to study and communicate about nature. He is described as a "bioinspired artist whose approach combines science and art, participatory, interactive and community arts, and play with hands-on education." On this episode of the podcast, we interview Dr. Krsko about art, science, community building, …
As a woman in science who has experienced significant success along with a few obvious gender-specific barriers during my career, I try hard not to view my professional world through the lens of gender bias. However, in honor of International Women’s Day today and Equal Pay Day approaching, it seems timely to write about an important issue …
Art and science are often though of as completely separate pursuits, but what happens when artists and scientists actually talk to each other? In this episode of the podcast, we interview Dr. Cathy Murphy about her experiences inviting art students to spend time in her chemistry lab at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
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?"
The most exciting moments of my pre-college education were from a field trip to the geology department of Augustana College where I was shown around the facilities by Dr. Michael Wolf. He showed me tools that scientists use to experiment with rocks under intense heat and pressure. This visit where I met Dr. Wolf, with …
Continue reading "The Educational Impact of Meeting Real Scientists"
Attending Spelman College helped me to realize my potential as a scientist and as a scholar. Sitting in a room full of women, the pressure of impressing members of the opposite sex removed, I was able to come into myself, build confidence and explore my role in scientific discourse. I did not realize how comfortable …
Continue reading "Girls-in-STEM Programs & My Single-Sex Education Experience"
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