NanoVenture is a board game developed by the UW-MRSEC Interdisciplinary Education Group (IEG) to teach audiences about the connections between Nanotechnology and society. In 2012, with permission from the UW-MRSEC IEG, the Education Center Uchastie translated the game into Russian and they will be distributing it to schools in Russia as part of the School League of RUSNANO project.

Colloidal gels are formed by aggregation of particles into a percolating network in liquid media.  Although colloidal gels exhibit self-supporting, solid-like properties that underlie the design of a wide range of materials, how this class of soft solids forms is not yet fully understood.  In particular, the relative importance of thermodynamic and dynamic (non-equilibrium) phenomena underlying

Researchers in IRG3 of the Wisconsin MRSEC are studying bacteria to understand principles by which nature designs materials to achieve dynamic spatial targeting of molecules. Recently, the researchers have discovered that the spatial organization of phospholipids at the curved regions of bacterial cytoplasmic membranes has an important

What’s the Problem?   Macrophages are part of the innate immune system and will try to eat anything they don’t recognize as being part of the body — they’re like border patrol guards, checking everybody’s passports. If you’re a red blood cell, you have the right passport and get waved on. But if you’re a piece of dirt or a bacterium, you don’t have the right passport, and Macrophages get you. The problem is that there are some things we actually want to be in body, like drug-delivery particles, that get eaten by these

Discovery: Graphene-based plasmonic structures composed of graphene-insulator-graphene can provide gain at THz frequencies due to interplay between plasmons and resonant-tunneling.

Teaching the Teachers Electromagnetism at the Physical Sciences Inquiry Academy These fifth-grade teachers are building electromagnetic ping pong ball launchers to demonstrate electromagnetism to their students. Utah MRSEC leads lessons and activities for teachers, as well as provides educational kits which supplement curriculum andcoordinate with Utah Core Standards. Participants:

Northwestern MRSEC provides the physical and intellectual infrastructure to nucleate collaborative opportunities in materials research both on and off the Northwestern campus, and continues to leverage its diverse portfolio of research into new educational and commercial opportunities. Recent examples include:

Electron microscopy reveals the fundamental steps of bending An international team of Cornell researchers and collaborators was recently entered into the Guinness Book of World Records for fabricating the world’s thinnest pane of glass — only two atoms thick!

Spin resonance in diamond using a MEMS resonator