by Cathy Murphy If you’ve read this blog before, you are likely to know what nanoparticles are: bits of matter on the 1-100 nm scale that have unique properties different from bigger sizes of the …
Cathy Murphy
A Love Letter for Black History Month: St. Elmo Brady, the first Black Ph.D. chemist in the United States
by Cathy Murphy As we come to the end of Black History Month for 2022, I find myself contemplating the banner that hangs year-round in front of Noyes Chemistry Lab to celebrate one of the …
Celebrating the 150th Anniversary of the Periodic Table: Nano-Style!
by Cathy Murphy Did you know that 2019 is the International Year of the Periodic Table? We chemists in the Center for Sustainable Nanotechnology are happy to celebrate this all year long!
Electrocuting a Pickle: Demonstrating Major Concepts in Science
by Cathy Murphy 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. It’s pretty smelly, but it is worth …
How can you calculate how many atoms are in a nanoparticle?
by Cathy Murphy Two years ago, I wrote a blog post called Two Ways to Make Nanoparticles, describing the difference between top-down and bottom-up methods for making nanoparticles. In the post I commented, “we can estimate, knowing how gold atoms pack …
Nanotechnology and Climate Change: Finding Connections
by Cathy Murphy A couple of weeks ago I was fortunate enough to go the Hanse Institute for Advanced Study (“HWK”) in Delmenhorst, Germany, for a round-table discussion called “Finding Common Ground: Interdisciplinary Teaching of …
Gold Nanotechnology Featured on Academic Minute
by Cathy Murphy Last month, I was featured on The Academic Minute, a segment produced by radio station WAMC in the northeastern US. The Academic Minute presents 300-word essays by professors and academics around the …
Nano in the Movies
by Cathy Murphy Science and engineering topics appear in many movies – think of the gadgets in the James Bond series. Star Trek, Star Wars, and other long-standing science fiction series, of course, are full …
Two Ways to Make Nanoparticles
by Cathy Murphy In Marco’s previous post, you can read how making nanoparticles is like baking – different proportions of ingredients and different processing conditions (time and temperature) can turn your batter into a pancake, …
The Atomic Difference Between Diamonds and Graphite
by Cathy Murphy Everything is made of atoms. Usually these atoms are strongly connected to one another, in an amazing variety of configurations. But atoms are so tiny, how can we possibly understand the structure …