a blog by the NSF Center for Sustainable Nanotechnology
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"
Bassam Z. Shakhashiri Professor of Chemistry The William T. Evjue Distinguished Chair for the Wisconsin Idea Director, Wisconsin Initiative for Science Literacy Department of Chemistry University of Wisconsin-Madison It was a privilege and a great honor to serve as president of the American Chemical Society in 2012. Only two other UW-Madison faculty members have served …
Continue reading "Exhortations for Responsible Action*"
Half a century ago, a Soviet scientist was tucked away in a top-secret facility. The results of his experiments are critical to our work here the Center for Sustainable Nanotechnology. Find it hard to believe? Read on!Why We Use NanodiamondsOne of the materials that we are using in our research is nano-sized diamond. We also …
Continue reading "Nuclear Proliferation & Sustainability: the History of Nanodiamonds"
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 āScience the Endless Frontierā. 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"
The University of Minnesota'sĀ Office for Equity and Diversity awarded Kadir Hussein with theirĀ Scholarly Excellence in Equity and Diversity (SEED) Award. Kadir is an undergraduate student who does research as part of the Center for Sustainable Nanotechnology under the guidance of Professor Christy Haynes at the University of Minnesota. He participated in our Research Experiences for …
Continue reading "Kadir Hussein Wins a Scholarly Excellence in Equity and Diversity Award"
As an emerging scientist, I often canāt help but conclude that the public must think science is a bad thing.Ā After all, thatās the view I get every time I do my weekly groceries.Ā Take a stroll through your grocery store and you will find products that have labels such as āchemical-free,ā ānon-GMO,ā āall-natural,ā ārBST-free,ā …
Continue reading "What do People Think of Science?"
Last week, we scientists from the Center for Sustainable Nanotechnology, who usually use our weekly video conference calls to discuss science, spent time discussing the recently published book āLean Inā by Sheryl Sandberg. This is not standard reading for chemists; in fact, itās written for business people, but I was inspired to read it because …
Continue reading "āLeaning Inā ā Scientistsā Thoughts on Gender Equity"
Not too long ago, a team of frustrated scientists glanced up from their computer screens and saw the untapped potential beyond their lab doors. They had spent years trying to unravel the mysteries of protein folding, but some just couldnāt seem to be solved. Why not harness the brainpower of the public? The biochemists disguised …
Continue reading "Citizen nanoscientists: Can you design nanomaterials from the couch?"
When you think about a scientist, what picture pops into your head? Iāll bet youāre 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 youāre a scientist one of the best parts of …
Continue reading "Teamwork Wins! Why Science Is Not an Individual Sport."
Firstly, there are lots of scientists and very few lab coats or safety gogglesĀ ā as they come to talk science instead of do science.Ā There are lots of seminarsĀ ā from the mind-shatteringly awesome to the "pretty OK". There are also "poster sessions" where people quickly describe their research to one another, and those can be great …
Continue reading "What Are Science Conferences Like?"
Sustainable Nano 