Things I Like - Sciences

Phase-separated blend of two conjugated polymers.
Image by Ashley Cadby - University of Sheffield, UK

Nanotechnology is starting to get big. You don't hear much about it in the news - mostly because the work being done right now is too technical to make good news (case in point - the photo above, I have no idea what this is). But that is likely to change with the current focus on climate change and 'green' efforts. From UnderstandingNano.com:

Nanaotechnology is the study and use of structures between 1 nanometer and 100 nanometers in size. To give you an idea of just how small that is, it would take eight hundred 100-nanometer particles placed side by side to equal the width of a human hair.

Why is this tiny stuff so important? That photo on top depicts a composite material that creates an energy transfer (I think). Composite materials like this might be used in solar cells for the generation of relatively inexpensive energy. The applications of nanotechnology are broad with potential to impact development efforts in the space, medicine, food and energy industries as well as the drive to clean our air and water. See the site below for more.

The origin of nanotechnology is usually traced back to Richard Feynman,

...who in 1959, gave a visionary talk at Caltech in which he said "The problems of chemistry and biology can be greatly helped if our ability to see what we are doing, and to do things on an atomic level, is ultimately developed ---a development which I think cannot be avoided."

Looks like we've reached that point, a mere 40-some years after Mr. Feynman suggested it.

Applications for nanotechnology:
http://www.understandingnano.com/nanotech-applications.html

btw, Feynman (who died in 1988) was amazing. A brilliant physicist, teacher and writer who communicated complicated ideas in an entertaining and understandable manner. I highly recommend reading the lecture referenced above as well as "The Pleasure of Finding Things Out", a collection of his best short pieces published in 1999.