Nanoscience for Energy Research and Development
Dr. Steve Smith
Department of Physics, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology
June 12th, 2008 at 8:00 p.m.
Abbot Hall Room 138
University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, ND
Modern science is increasingly called on to engage in research with significant impact on the needs of society at large. One area which seems to occupy the minds of most people today, and is agreeably of high importance, is the cost-efficient production and storage of energy. Unfortunately, most technologies relating to this are well developed, and engineering breakthroughs in the cost and/or efficiency of energy sources do not appear forthcoming. Of the current energy technologies, solar energy and bio-fuels are the least developed, and therefore may have the greatest potential for significant advances. However, significant gains in our understanding of the processes involved, and in our ability to construct new materials and devices, will be required. In this talk, I will describe how nanoscience and nanotechnology may play an important role in furthering the development of these technologies. I will survey some of the accomplishments of nanotechnologists in imaging and manipulating matter one atom at a time, and how these accomplishments may lead to cleaner, cheaper alternative energy in the future.
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From the Nanoworld to the Real World: Using Nanoscience to Teach
Dr. Leigh M. Smith
Department of Physics, University of Cincinnati
June 7th, 2007 at 8:00 p.m.
Abbot Hall Room 138
University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, ND
The very new and very interdisciplinary field of Nanoscience studies new structures on the scale of a nanometer (1/100,000 the width of a human hair). For the first time humans are building man-made structures on the same size scale as the internal workings of cells or viruses. At such length scales, the properties of everyday materials can become excitingly different, opening vast new opportunities for scientists and engineers to create new technologies which could better the human condition. The emergence of this new field has been compared to the major paradigm shifts which occurred in the past during scientific revolutions. For the teacher, examples from current nanoscale research and technologies provide many opportunities for teaching students and the public about the nature of quantum mechanics, light, materials and the natural progression of scientific revolutions.
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A Glimpse Into the Nanoworld
Dr. Kristen Buchanan
Materials Science Division and Center for Nanoscale Materials, Argonne National Laboratory
June 14th, 2006 at 8:00 p.m.
Abbot Hall Room 101
University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, ND
When you reduce the dimensions of everyday materials down to nanometer sizes (a nanometer is roughly a hundred thousand times smaller then the width of a human hair), ordinary materials often take on extraordinary properties. Nanoscience explores the unusual properties of nanoscale materials, leading to insights that are both scientifically fascinating and potentially useful. Nanotechnology promises advanced information processing and storage, new medical treatments, and much more. While some technologies exist only in the movies and novels, there are already a surprising number of products on the market that exploit nanoparticles, for example, computer hard drives, sports equipment, clothing ... This talk will provide an overview, directed towards the non-expert, of some of the interesting phenomena that are observerd at the nanoscale and the tools that allow us to "see" into the nano-world.
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Some lectures are available in DVD format upon request.