Nanotechnology

====Intro video: We'll watch this silly, but informative UC Video, When Things Get Small, from 2:10 - 4:40 today, and probably the whole video next Friday ([|this video] is silly, yet informative, too.)====

NEWEST LINKS (12.21.12)

Microscopy links (see nanoprobe table below):
 * ‪Overview of the Types of Microscopes (we'll watch from 4:15 - 6:40 about electron microscopes and beyond)
 * The World's Most Powerful Microscope‬ (‪KQED QUEST‬) - Lawrence Berkeley National Labs turned on (in 2009) a $27 million electron microscope (8:52)
 * 25 Amazing Images With An Electron Microscope ‬(2:51))
 * A Journey to the Nanoworld - using a Scanning Tunneling Microscope (2:56)
 * Macro Concerns in a Nano World (2008) - KQED QUEST (9:25)
 * Oski gets a tour of the clean room at UC Berkeley's Marvell Nanofabrication Lab or Discovery News takes a tour of Draper Labs' clean room where stuff is manufactured. (1:58)
 * Degrees that work: Nanotechnology (28:39) - The 30-minute presentation explores the technology and the related career opportunities with experts in the field, and it follows a former Penn College student, Mark A. Atwater, as he completes his education at one of the nation's top nanotechnology education facilities, The Pennsylvania State University's Center for Nanotechnology Education and Utilization. (we'll watch from 13:12 - 15:34 and 17:10 - 21:23)

Cool stuff:
 * Cornell's Nano guitar (article) - Each silicon “string” of the nano-guitar is roughly 100 atoms wide, so you can’t exactly use a pick. Instead, a Cornell University research team used laser light to set the strings in motion, setting off a 40-megahertz twang. That’s 17 octaves higher than a normal guitar’s sound — put another way, a factor of 130,000 higher.
 * Trans-dermal micro-needles (2011) - (1:28)

ACTIVITIES (12.17.12)

__**STATION 1: Gecko's foot & biomimicry**__

"The gecko's amazing ability to cling to vertical or inverted surfaces is due to the interaction between nanoscale structures on its feet and tiny crevices on the wall or ceiling. soles of gecko feet are made up of overlapping adhesive lamellae covered with millions of superfine hairs, or setae, each of which branches out at the end into hundreds of spatula-shaped structures. These flexible pads—each measuring only a few nanometers across—curve to fit inside unseen cracks and divots on the surface. The combined adhesion of these millions of pads holds the gecko in place. This striking property is being studied for use in the creation of new kinds of adhesive tapes, self-dissolving bandages, and high friction materials that can support loads on smooth surfaces."
 * 1) Watch video: search "Stanford Stickybot" (this is a good one)
 * 2) Look for other examples of biomimicry?

__**STATION 2: Thin films**__ **- can download files** **here)** see procedure sheet

__**STATION 3: Probing what you can't see (magnet activity)**__ **(****[|pdf of lesson])** see procedure sheet

INTRO TO SCALE & NANOTECHNOLOGY:

Scale of the Universe (from the whole universe to quantum strings) Plus this "Scale of the Universe 2" was created by Cary Huang, a 14-year-old ninth grader from Moraga, Calif., with technical help from his twin brother Michael (article)



Introductory video (2:19): media type="custom" key="21824862" align="center"

Nano links for class:
 * Ms Mytko's (incomplete) nano blog (summer 2012) - I had good intentions :) - I recommend all the links at the bottom of the first post to learn more!
 * I am amazed at the wide array of consumer products that already incorporate nanotechnology. You can visit the [|Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies site], then choose Topics >> Consumer Projects >> [|Consumer Products Inventory] >> Analysis to learn more.

Cool nano projects (feel free to add to this list):
 * Read about Cornell's nano-guitar!
 * Mark Cutkosky, a Stanford mechanical engineer, is [|using the biology of a gecko's sticky foot to create a robot] that climbs! Awesome! Sticky Bot.

Novels w/ nano sci-fi (check for age-appropriateness - feel free to add to the list):
 * The Diamond Age (Neil Stephenson)
 * Prey (Michael Crichton)
 * Micro (Michael Crichton & Richard Preston)