Madison, Wis. - As part of a
new National Science Foundation-funded network, University of
Wisconsin-Madison engineering faculty, staff and students will work
with some of the nation's top science museums to create hands-on
exhibits about technology so small that even the tiniest human fingers
can't touch it.
The Museum of Science, Boston, the
Science Museum of Minnesota, and the Exploratorium, San Francisco, are
leading the $20 million Nanoscale Informal Science Education (NISE)
Network, which aims to develop innovative materials and vehicles for
increasing Americans' knowledge about and understanding of
nanotechnology. UW-Madison will be a direct partner with the Minnesota
museum in developing publicly accessible nanotech exhibits.
It's science at the scale of atoms and molecules, where
researchers measure devices and materials in billionths of a meter and
view their work through some of the most powerful microscopes
available.
Translating that scientific research
into something museum visitors can see, touch, do-and comprehend-is no
small feat, says Wendy Crone, a UW-Madison associate professor of
engineering physics and director of education and outreach for the
university's NSF-funded Materials Research Science and Engineering
Center (MRSEC) on Nanostructured Materials and Interfaces.
"We're learning a lot about what works and what doesn't, how
to talk to general audiences about these topics and what kinds of
interactives - things you can do with your hands - will help people
understand the nanoscale," she says. "Nano is so small, you have to
work with analogies."
In November of 2004, Crone
and her staff and students unveiled the Nanoworld Discovery Center, an
interactive public exhibit about nanotechnology that resides on the
UW-Madison campus in the Engineering Centers Building. The exhibit was
the result of a partnership between MRSEC and Discovery World Museum,
Milwaukee.
In one aspect of the exhibit, visitors
can relate the absolutely tiny scale of nanotechnology to their own
lives. "In the time it takes you to read this sentence," the exhibit
reads, "your fingernail will have grown one nanometer."
Among the exhibit's features is a segment about ferrofluids,
which are tiny magnetic particles covered by a surfactant. Visitors can
use magnets to manipulate these particles that flow like liquid; in
real life, ferrofluids damp vibrations and eliminate excess energy in
high-end stereo speakers and are useful as liquid O-rings in situations
where the friction generated by standard rubber rings is an issue.
Explorers also can interact with life-sized
traffic lights to compare incandescent bulbs to light-emitting diodes
to learn how nanomaterials can help conserve energy and reduce
traffic-light maintenance. In addition, aspects of the exhibit
highlight other applications of nanotechnology, including
stain-resistant clothing and the tools that scientists use to work on
this small scale.
Building on these ideas and
topics from MRSEC research, Crone's group will work most closely with
the Science Museum of Minnesota, which under the NSF grant will lead
the Center for Exhibit and Program Production and Dissemination. "Each
museum will draw on the technical expertise available in various
partner institutions," she says. "Our expertise is providing publicly
accessible science for museum exhibits."
