Week 8: NanoTech + Art

Nanotechnology has advanced tremendously over the years. Many people may think that it is a relatively new innovation; however, examples of nanotechnology date all the way back to Roman times. The Lycurgus cup in the British Museum is a perfect example of the use of nanotechnology from that period. When you look at the cup in daylight, it appears to be green, but if you illuminate it from the inside, it appears to be red. This coloration is due to the fact that the Romans had found a way to introduce nano-sized gold particles in the cup. The Pottery of Deruta is also a great example as it contained copper and silver nanoparticles which gave it its beautiful coloration. Another example is stained glass, which depends on the form and type of the nanoparticles to give it its wide range of colors. The marvelous quality of these three pieces of art would be impossible to achieve without nanotechnology using regular pigments.

 The Lycurgus Cup

 The Pottery of Deruta

Stained Glass

A more recent advance in nanotechnology was the invention of the scanning tunneling microscope. With this microscope, scientists could bring the atom at the tip of the needle very close to another atom and they could actually tune a chemical bond. This allowed scientists to create partial chemical bonds and release those chemical bonds. This effect was used to manipulate atoms because if they got the tip close enough, scientists could drag an atom across the surface of an object. Don Eigler used this technology to make more sophisticated structures including a circle, square, and triangle. He used the atoms to manipulate the surface such that he could make standing wave patterns. Maybe this technology will be used in the future to make even more intricate designs and sculptures.







References:

Scanning Tunneling Microscopy. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 May 2017. <http://www.ieap.uni-kiel.de/surface/ag-kipp/stm/stm.htm>.

Britishmuseum. "The Lycurgus Cup." British Museum. N.p., 04 June 2015. Web. 29 May 2017. <https://britishmuseum.tumblr.com/post/120689869617/the-lycurgus-cup>.

"Italian Ceramics -." Italian Ceramics. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 May 2017. <http://www.italian-ceramics.net/>.

Hafiz, Yasmine. "The Most Stunning Stained Glass Windows In The World (PHOTOS)." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 03 May 2014. Web. 29 May 2017. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/03/stained-glass-windows-photos_n_5256052.html>.

"STM Image Gallery.” STM Image Gallery - IBM. N.p., 25 July 2016. Web. 29 May 2017. <http://researcher.watson.ibm.com/researcher/view_group_subpage.php?id=4252>.

Uconlineprogram. "Nanotech Jim Pt1." YouTube. YouTube, 21 May 2012. Web. 29 May 2017. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7jM6-iqzzE>.


Uconlineprogram. "Nanotech Jim Pt2." YouTube. YouTube, 21 May 2012. Web. 29 May 2017. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEp6t0v-v9c>.

Comments

  1. SZTMay 30, 2017 at 1:27 PM

    The electron microscope has much more applications than merely making patterns, in fact it is a crucial part in the advancements of nanoscopic robotics. The ability to arrange atoms into any pattern needed is the first step in being able to create nanoscopic robots. Currently, almost all our methods of synthesizing anything at that level of smallness involved chemical reactions and a great deal of unwanted by-products. Hence, with more research, this technology can change the entire manufacturing process especially in the bio-chemical field.

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