STEM Café: Into the Nanoworld: Enabling Technologies of the Future

Nanotechnology is changing the face of science and engineering, as the study and manipulation of matter at the level of the individual atom or molecule becomes possible.

How small is nanotechnology, exactly? Well, a nanometer is one billionth of a meter, but in case that’s hard to imagine, picture this. There are more than 25 million nanometers in an inch. A single sheet of newspaper is about 100,000 nanometers thick. And a human hair is about 75,000 nanometers in diameter.

At the next STEM Café, get an introduction to the what, why and how of nanotechnology with NIU Associate Professor of Engineering Venumadhav Korampally. He’ll discuss the latest methods of synthesizing and creating nanoparticles and nanostructures, and he’ll provide examples of exciting nanotech applications, including cloaking – which could make 3D objects disappear from plain sight – and nanotech lubricants that make friction disappear. With advances in nanotechnology, sci-fi concepts are closer to reality than ever.