
Size matters - this illustration shows size comparisons,
from picometers and nanometers to decimeters and meters.

Transmission electron microscope images (lower resolution
on top, lattice fringe image below) of nanoparticles
that have self-oriented with respect to each other
and assembled to form an elongate single crystal.
This growth mechanism contrasts with the classical
atom-by-atom growth pathway (Penn and Banfield, Science,
1998).
Credit: Dr. Jillian Banfield, University
of of California at Berkeley

This photo is a scanning electron micrograph of frog
neurons on top of the world's first 4-Mbit DRAM integrated
circuit, produced at Texas Instruments in Dallas,
Texas in 1985. The image shows that semiconductor
technology is already reaching scales on the order
of biological elements.
Credit: Photo courtesy of Texas Instruments

An aluminum single-electron trap fabricated in the
laboratory of Prof. James Lukens (SUNY at Stony Brook).
The trap was successfully tested for capturing and
holding a single electron in a 30x40x120 nm^3 island
for at least 12 hours at low temperatures (below 1
Kelvin.) Single-electron circuits are considered the
most likely replacement of the mainstream CMOS (Complementary
Metal-Oxide Semiconductor) chips when nanometer-scale
VLSI (Very Large-Scale Integration) fabrication technologies
have been developed. For a review see, e.g., K. Likharev,
Proc. IEEE vol. 87, pp. 606-632, Apr. 1999.
Credit: Dr. Konstantin Likharev, State
University of New York at Stony Brook

Composite SEM images showing biological force microscopy.
Nanometer by nanometer, a mineral (or another surface)
approaches, makes contact with, and then withdraws
from a bacterium on a force sensing cantilever. The
cantilever bends due to attractive or repulsive forces
between the cell and mineral. This deflection is monitered
by reflecting a laser off the top of the cantilever
and into a detector. In so doing, nanoscale forces
can be measured in real time between a living cell
and another material in solution.
Credit: Steven Lower, Department of
Geology, University of Maryland

This representation of a DNA cube shows that it contains
six different cyclic strands. Their backbones are
shown in red (front), green (right), yellow (back),
magenta (left), cyan (top) and dark blue (bottom).
Each nucleotide is represented by a single colored
dot for the backbone and a single white dot representing
the base. Note that each edge of the cube is a piece
of double helical DNA, containing two turns of the
double helix.
Credit: Dr. Nadrian Seeman, Department
of Chemistry, New York University

The image is of a short length of a single walled
carbon nanotube, open at one end, closed at the other,
and wrapped with a solubilizing polymer molecule (polystyrene
sulfonate).
Credit: Dr. Richard E. Smalley, Nobel
Laureate for Chemistry, Professor of Chemistry and
Professor of Physics, Rice University

The image illustrates the manufacture of catenanes
that are sandwiched between two perpendicular electrodes.
Catenanes are nanostructures which can be electrochemically-controlled
to circumrotate.
Credit: Dr. Anthony Pease, Laboratory
of Professor Fraser Stoddart, University of California,
Los Angeles

The image demonstrates how silicon polymer nanowires
can detect trace amounts of explosives. The ticket
was impregnated with silicon polymer nanowires. The
ticket glows in ultraviolet light, however luminescence
is quenched where touched by a TNT-contaminated thumb.
Credit: H. Sohn, M.J. Sailor, and W.C.
Trogler, University of California at San Diego

The image demonstrates how silicon polymer nanowires
can detect trace amounts of explosives. The ticket
was impregnated with silicon polymer nanowires. The
ticket glows in ultraviolet light, however luminescence
is quenched where touched by a TNT-contaminated thumb.
Credit: H. Sohn, M.J. Sailor, and W.C.
Trogler, University of California at San Diego

The image demonstrates how silicon polymer nanowires
can detect trace amounts of explosives. The polymer
was sprayed onto paper, which glows green in ultraviolet
light. Luminescence is quenched where a TNT-contaminated
hand touched the paper.
Credit: H. Sohn, M.J. Sailor, and W.C.
Trogler, University of California at San Diego

Pictured are polystyrene nanoparticles dynamically
deposited into Poly (dimethylsiloxane) grooves.
Credit: Dr. Gilbert Walker, Department
of Chemistry, University of Pittsburgh

Theoretical flow of electrons in a two dimensional
electron gas away from an electron source at the center.
The same scattering that produces diffusion creates
static branches of electron flow.
Credit: Eric Heller, Lyman Laboratory
of Physics, Harvard University
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