Nanotechnology for the Masses -No, We’re NOT Kidding
January 30th, 2010 // 1:31 am @ admin
Unless you have been living on a deserted island for the past few years you have no doubt heard the media report on the impending promise that lies in the realm of nanotechnology. The problem is if you are like most people, you probably don’t really understand what that means exactly. A [...]
Category : Blog & Science Kits
Silica Dioxide Renews Kids Interests In Science
January 29th, 2010 // 3:25 pm @ admin
If you haven’t already heard, nanotechnology is getting ready to change the world. In fact, in many ways it already has. Just recently scientists were able to create a lithium ion battery using silicon that holds up to 10 times the charge of a traditional battery. So what could all of this [...]
Category : Blog & Science Kits
What Does a $200,000 Butterfly Wing & Photonic Crystals Have in Common?
January 28th, 2010 // 10:19 am @ admin
The Morpho butterfly has long been a fascination to scientists around the world. The dark blue hues of its wings are striking to anyone who has the good fortune to see one of these delicate creatures. This color however, is not generated from pigment. Nearly all colors that are produced in nature [...]
Category : Blog & Nanotechnology
A Surprising Little Trick to Get the Right Color From Your Photonic Crystals
January 26th, 2010 // 3:06 pm @ admin
How do your opal crystals look?
Here at NanoScienceKits.org, we have a really good lesson learned nugget to pass on.
When you set your opal science kit into motion and begin to watch your photonic spheres settle and the opal crystals start to grow in the bottom, it is really important to use the right light to [...]
Get Students Mesmerized With Photonic Crystals & Self Assembly
January 25th, 2010 // 10:01 am @ admin
Self-assembly alone is by no means a novel idea. Human beings are self-assembled for starters. That’s right, back when you were still in the womb your body, in a quite miraculous manner, simply knew how to assemble itself. And it doesn’t stop there. The earth is self-assembled. The universe is [...]
Category : Blog & Nanotechnology
How Can “Settling” Be Magic & What Does It Have To Do With Photonic Crystals?!
January 22nd, 2010 // 2:52 pm @ admin
“Opal is a crystal-like lattice of objects in space, in this case, silica microspheres”
One of the cool things about NanoScienceKits.org and our nano science kits is something called ‘natural order’ which is the way the photonic spheres settle into a lattice formation in the test tube. It is important for the nanospheres to be almost [...]
Category : Blog & Nanotechnology
What Is Scilica
January 20th, 2010 // 3:52 pm @ admin
Imagine a robot so small it can be intravenously introduced into the human body to detect and destroy foreign invaders; or a battery small enough to be used for a cell phone but powerful enough to start an automobile. Imagine a microprocessor that uses photons to carry information instead of electrons and doing it [...]
Category : Blog & Nanotechnology
How Big Is A Nanometer?!
January 20th, 2010 // 2:02 pm @ admin
Here at NanoScienceKits.org, we work at a very tiny level; the nano level. At the nano level, we work in a measurement called a nanometer. A nanometer is one billionth of a meter. A meter is about 39 inches long or 3.28 feet. If you were to write a billion as a number it [...]
Category : Blog & Nanotechnology
The Building Blocks of Opal Explained
January 15th, 2010 // 7:11 pm @ admin
Silicon Dioxide or “Silica” is an oxide of Silicon. Under a scanning electron microscope, silica looks like tiny spheres. Although they range in size and shape naturally, the image below shows silica that is extremely uniform. Imagine trying to stack these little spheres into a pyramid. Because they are the same size and shape it [...]
Category : Blog