• Question: if you only had one fact to get someone interested in nanotechnology what is the one fact you would tell them?

    Asked by amcdonnell to Adam, Chris, Eleanor, Jessamyn, Sinead on 12 Nov 2013.
    • Photo: Eleanor Holmes

      Eleanor Holmes answered on 12 Nov 2013:

      One fact. One fact is against my nature, but I’ll try.

      OK. Imagine for a moment a football. Can you see it? Can you feel the size of it in your hands? Good. Now think about the Earth. The whole planet and think of the size of the football in relation to the size of the Earth. Pretty difficult? You could fit millions of footballs into the space taken up by the Earth. The sizes are hard to compare, aren’t they.

      Well now let me tell you that the size the football is compared to the Earth is the same as the size of a nano-particle compared to that football. So the nano-scale is just as hard to fathom as the astro-scale, but in the other direction!

    • Photo: Adam Murphy

      Adam Murphy answered on 12 Nov 2013:

      Just one thing? Aww.

      Probably that nanotechnology has already changed the way we live, and is one of the most promising areas in making life even more awesome!

      Nanotechnology has let us make microchips, so we have computers, and the internet (which I think is the one of the most important things we have) Who knows how good computers will be when we have flexible screens and other breakthroughs!

      There’s also nanotechnology in medicine already, we have nanoparticles that help fight cancer! And with my work, we’ll hopefully get better at detecting it early. Maybe one day we’ll have nanorobots that can cure you from the inside out!

      Nanotechnology has already saved the world, and if you get involved, who knows what else it could do!

    • Photo: Christian Wirtz

      Christian Wirtz answered on 14 Nov 2013:

      One thing is really hard to choose.

      I think I have to go with: There are microscopes used in nanoscience that can see atoms! The building blocks of the universe, visible to you!
      The first time I used such an instrument it completely blew my mind, I genuinely sat there gaping at the computer screen like an idiot.

    • Photo: Sinead Cullen

      Sinead Cullen answered on 16 Nov 2013:

      To tell someone only one fact is a really difficult thing to do. I’m sure you’ve heard the saying ” A picture paints a thousand words”.
      So imagine how many words you could fit into a video. And I would show them the video of A Boy And His Atom: The World’s Smallest Movie.
      It really shows just how amazing nanotechnology is.

      So cool 🙂

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