Week 8: Nanotechnology + Art

 


The materials that most interested me this week were Dr. James K. Gimzewski’s YouTube videos entitled Nanotechnology for artists (1). My favorite part was the images shown below of shapes made by Don Eigler using Scanning Tunneling Microscopy which uses a needle whose tip measures about one hundredth of an atomic diameter. The needle rasters across surfaces to make images, in a similar process to the one used in a cathode ray tube, the original type of television (2).

Patterns created using the Scanning Tunnel Microscope

Even more powerful is the Atomic Force Microscope which is able to image molecules in a way that hadn’t been achieved before with the Scanning Tunnel Microscope (2). Today there are thousands of nanotechnology products on the market and many of them are invisible. 

Atomic Force Microscopy

Nanoparticles are sized between 100 and 1 nanometers, and they have existed for a long time. In Roman times they were used to make pottery out of gold that looks one color in daylight and another color when lit from inside. In the 15th and 16th centuries, pottery in Italy had chemical type glazes with nanoparticles. Another great example of nanoparticles used in ancient art is stained glass. The pigments were made from nanoparticles.

Stained Glass Windows

Self-organization of nano particles is found in nature. The nano structure of the blue in the wings of the blue morpho is caused by self-organization of nano particles (3). Light is manipulated on the nano scale such that the particles reflect back the very bright blue color, more effectively than any pigment can do. The cells of the butterfly wings are restructured into this nanoform.

Blue Morpho Butterfly

There are nanotechnologies that can acquire images at a rate of 2 frames per second, according to David Pogue in his video, Making stuff: Smaller (4). Nanotechnology has been growing exponentially for almost 20 years, and many leaders in technology are endeavoring to use it to solve social issues, such as Ray Kurzweil. He mentions this in his TED Talk, A university for the coming singularity (5)

Works Cited

1. Gimzewski, J. K. (2012, May 21). Nanotech Jim Pt1. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7jM6-iqzzE Accessed on May 25, 2024

2. Gimzewski, J. K. (2012b, May 21). Nanotech Jim PT2. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEp6t0v-v9c&t=866s Accessed on May 25, 2024

3. Gimzewski, J. K. (2012c, May 21). Nanotech jim PT5. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OWc8nmHJmY&t=114s Accessed on May 25, 2024

4. Pogue, D. (n.d.). Making stuff: Smaller. PBS. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/video/making-stuff-smaller/ Accessed on May 25, 2024

5. Kurzweil, R. (n.d.). A university for the coming singularity. Ray Kurzweil: A university for the coming singularity | TED Talk. https://www.ted.com/talks/ray_kurzweil_a_university_for_the_coming_singularity?language=en Accessed on May 25, 2024

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