Day 4 Nano Institute

Becky started the morning with a discussion about what graduate students do. Michael and Vicky shared their unique perspective but overall I marveled at how dedicated they are to their education.

Becky moved into teaching about scanning tunnel microscopy (STM). The basis in STM is that electrons have wavelength properties. It's the wavelike property of that allows them to tunnel. There is a probability that an electron can penetrate a barrier without the required amount of energy. The measurement is actually the measure of the amount of electrons that jump from surface to tip. There are two modes for STM, constant height mode and constant current mode. In constant height mode the tip stays at the same height . The problem with this is that the tip might crash into an obstruction. Most of the time constant current mode is used. In constant current the tip moves when it comes to an obstruction.

According to Becky you must be clever when interpreting STM data. STM maps out information about electron density of the surface-you are not actually looking at the topography, Your data is how much the tip moves up and down. STM can also be used to move atoms around. Becky showed two examples of atoms that had been moved.

The program continued with Lynda presenting her summer research. This was followed by the presentation of work being done by local high school students. At the start of the afternoon Becky presented the project that she is working on. The remainder of the day was spent working on our reflections and symposium presentations.

Day 1 Nano Institute for Teachers

What a great start to the NANO K-6 Summer Institute! Becky, Mike and Val are terrific at getting essential information across to those, like me, are virtually uninitiated to nanotechnology. We did scale projects where we had to place items where we believed they belonged on a number line by length and then by mass. Those items I am familiar with weren't difficult but those that were very small like viruses and blood cells or very large like the Earth and the sun were a different story! This would be a great activity to do with students. Perhaps begin with those things they are familiar with and then add in microscopic items like blood cells, bacteria and viruses after they've been studied. At a later time in the morning we watched "The Powers of Ten" video.

Mystery boxes were a great way to introduce what we can learn through the use of touch. We then learned about different kinds of microscopes used in studying items at the nanoscale:
scanning tunnel microscope (STM)-tip scans along and maps out surface
scanning electron microscope (SEM)-a beam of electrons scans a sample, the electrons actually go into the sample, and the topography is mapped out
atomic force microscope (ATF)- through tapping the surface with a cantilever, height variations are measured

I loved the discussion on the potential impact of nanotechnology: nano solar cells mixed in plastic and painted on objects, materials that resist stain, paint that doesn't chip, paint that reduces pollution, dvds that could hold a million movies. The implications in the medical field are the most fascinating for me: nerve tissue talking to computers, quantum dots injected to detect disease earlier, growing tissue to repair heart muscle, nanocoatings to prevent viruses. The potential for making repairs to the body is amazing!

This is the video we watched introducing us to nanotechnology: