by Marco Torelli Every day chemists enter their laboratories, intent on making or studying something. For me, my daily task is to think about nanoparticles. At the end of the day the thinking process is …
analogies
Turning Plastic Bags into Carbon Nanotubes
by Merve Dogangun I was surprised to learn recently that plastic bags can be turned into a new material called carbon nanotubes. Prior to this, all I had heard about plastic bags was about the …
Spying on chameleon nanoparticles inside living cells
by Galya Orr If you are exposed to nanoparticles, you might think they would move around inside your body unchanged. However, it would be more accurate to think of them as tiny chameleons, constantly changing …
The Mystery of the Surface: Your Kitchen Table is Far From Simple
by Ariane Vartanian The last time I played with Google Street View, I saw my car in the driveway and could practically count the teeth on a jack o’ lantern on my porch. I thought, …
One of the Most Sensitive Balances on the Planet – Quartz Crystal Microbalance
by Arielle Mensch Take a look at your wrist. Have you ever wonder what makes your watch tick with such precision? What if I told you the same technology that causes your watch to work …
Explainer: How does an LED work?
by Kurt Jacobson An acronym you have probably seen a whole lot of in recent years is LED, or Light Emitting Diode. Long used only for low-intensity illumination (think of the blinking lights on the …
“How do Lasers Work?” or “Not your father’s lightsaber”
by Franz Geiger When Luke Skywalker receives his father’s lightsaber from Obi Wan in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, he learns that it is “not as random or clumsy as a blaster; an …