In Boston, hockey heads Nicholas and Jordan want to know more about how carbon nanotubes are used to make the latest Hockey Sticks. They head to Boston's Museum of Science to learn more about CNTs (that's short for carbon nanotubes) before putting different sticks to the test on the ice. Later, at Harvard, they compare the tensile strength of the sticks and use powerful microscopes to "see" carbon nanotubes. Talk about a power play--and all in the name of nanoscience!
And at the Museum of Life and Science in Durham, North Carolina, Emily and Julie head to the Magic Wings Butterfly House in search of especially colorful specimen. They learn that iridescence in some butterfly wings, like the iridescence of soap bubbles, results from the wings' structure. At Duke University, the girls learn how to determine whether colors in wings are the result of pigment or nanoscale structures.
Meet Lesley Hammond a scientist with interest in the sticky. That's right. Lesley studies mussels--a type of clam--at Northwestern University. Why? Mussels have the amazing ability to stick to almost anything, even in water. Scientists like Lesley are trying to create sticky substances that work just as well as the mussel glue, but that can be mass-produced in a lab.
Speaking of interesting nano-applications... take the Whiz Quiz, just to the right on this page, to ID the future of nano-space travel.
Then take a minute to tell us what you think in the Hey...Wait a Nanosecond feature: Should consumer products that are made with nanotechnology be labeled as such?
