Week 8

Nanotechnology deals with things measured less than 100 nanometers, manipulating things on an atomic nanoscale. This scientific innovation dives into microscopic detail that humans can't sense or visualize on standard sensory scales. However, being able to measure atoms at nanoscales does far more than test the human potential attention to detail.

Being able to break down molecules and both see and manipulate atomic makeups is useful in the medical field. The ability to disect DNA and carbon, for example, at nanoscales, is the key to medicine and curing diseases, potentially such as cancer (according to lecture).

Nanoscales also relate to art and artistry. Lecture discussed the mathematical proportions of nanometers to calculate the amount of letters that need to be typed to compose thousands of pages of encyclopedia.

Binnig and Rohrer's Scanning Tunneling Microscope

Binnig and Rohrer's Scanning Tunneling Microscope (STM) was groundbreaking in nanotechnology and nanoart. This device gave humans the ability, as mentioned, to manipulate atoms at the nanoscale to, in turn, make items appear different visually. For example, they could mainpulate small parts  of  lines within a strucutre to create a new wave shape.

Wave patterns derived from atomic maniuplation

Lecture also mentioned how this miniscule attention to detail helped create self-cleaning fabrics and glass, which are based in science but artistically designed and used. Similarly the John Curtin Gallery tried to "present new ways of seeing, sensing, and connecting with matter that's miniscule and abstract," such as their bone speaker. These artists worked with "the piezolecetric nature of the bone matrix in order to cause bone to vibrate in such a way as to generate audible sound." This helped artists measure what is beyond the human senses while producing mechanisms to enjoy and hear sound.

Bone speaker

References:

Gimzewski, Jim. "Nanotech Jim pt1"YouTube, uploaded by UC Online, 21 May 2012. Web. https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=835&v=q7jM6-iqzzE

Gimzewski, Jim. "Nanotech Jim pt2"YouTube, uploaded by UC Online, 21 May 2012. Web. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEp6t0v-v9c

John Curtin Gallery. "art in the age of nanotechnology." 2010. Web. https://art.base.co/event/2104-art-in-the-age-of-nanotechnology#3

Gimzewski, Jim. "Nanotech Jim pt3"YouTube, uploaded by UC Online, 21 May 2012. Web. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0HCNiU_108

Gimzewski, Jim. "Nanotech Jim pt4"YouTube, uploaded by UC Online, 21 May 2012. Web. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHCuZetAIhk