a blog by the NSF Center for Sustainable Nanotechnology
Did you know that scientists have used nanotechnology to develop a test for the MERS coronavirus? The results of the test can be seen by the naked eye within 10 minutes of interacting with the viral DNA, which can shorten the analysis and interpretation time.1 Current testing for the COVID-19 virus takes hours or days.2 So, …
Continue reading "Can nanotechnology help make a better COVID-19 test?"
In a previous post, Can gold melt at room temperature? Melting temperature depression!, we talked about how the color of gold changes from shiny yellow to dark red when it is shrunk down to the nanoscale. We know that lots of materials have interesting properties when they get that small, but why do gold nanoparticles have …
Continue reading "What gives gold nanoparticles their color?"
Have you ever used a poem or song to help yourself remember a complicated concept or a list that you were sure to forget? (Figure 1) As I sat and thought about the many times that songs and clever poems helped me to remember things like the history and progression of the atomic model or …
Continue reading "Have You Ever Heard a Lemon Sing? Music and Chemistry"
Have you ever made lightning in a pickle? I have. It involves putting two iron nails in a pickle and applying 110 volts of electricity. Itās pretty smelly, but it is worth it to see what looks like yellow-orange lightning in the pickle. Whatās going on? The principle of āput in electricity ā get out …
Continue reading "Electrocuting a Pickle: Demonstrating Major Concepts in Science"
In the 1930s, microscope designer Royal Rife made a splash with reports that he had designed a new microscope that could view nanoscale objects such as viruses!1 The only problem was that it didnāt work. In fact, it couldnāt work, based on the basic physics of light. Rife was attempting to improve upon the optical …
Continue reading "Royal Rife’s Universal Microscope (and Why It Can’t Exist)"
Why do glaciers sometimes look blue? Hint: it's not for the same reason we see blue as the color of the sky!
On this episode of the podcast, we have an interview with Dr. Robert Hamers, following up on his recent blog post. Bob is the Director of the Center for Sustainable Nanotechnology, and he tells us about a recent family trip to Alaska that got him wondering about why some glaciers have an amazing blue color.
Recently I had the fortune to visit the state of Alaska. While there, I took a boat trip around the Kenai Peninsula, where there are glaciers moving from the Harding Icefield toward the ocean. As our tour boat approached Holgate Glacier, I was awed by the immense size of this giant wall of ice, but …
Continue reading "Bobās Beautiful Blue Glacier"
Last July, IBM announced that it had developed a new computer chip that could boost computer speeds by 50%.1 The company achieved this performance boost by building their chip with transistors a mere 7 nanometers in diameter. To put this incredible feat of engineering into perspective, the building blocks of these new chips are smaller …
Continue reading "Sunburns and Circuits: How Nanotechnology is Pushing the Boundaries of Computing"
Itās Sunday night and I am watching one of my favorite shows, which of course revolves around food. In this particular episode, competitors were challenged to incorporate blue into their baked delights without using artificial coloring. That may not seem to be much of a challenge, but there are actually very few naturally occurring blue …
Continue reading "How the Fruits Got Their Colors"
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