NISE Network Blog

Just about a year ago NISE Net launched an expanded collaboration with the Center for Nanotechnology in Society and you'll hear more about upcoming activities in the months ahead. The conversation started when staff from seven science centers brought cart demos and stage presentations to the S.NET conference in Seattle on Labor Day weekend last year. S.NET is a new professional society for the study of nanoscience and emerging technologies in areas of the social sciences and humanities.

Summer may be drawing to a close, but the NISE Network is already gearing up for NanoDays 2011. While the finishing touches are put on some new activities and kit contents, I’d like to share some of the feedback collected from NanoDays 2010.

Forty years ago the Crab Nebula changed my life and now nanotechnology is doing the same thing, not just for me but for many people in the NISE Net. Here's my story; share yours by leaving it in a comment below.

How often do you think about whether your water will make you sick?  I almost never do, but for many people, lack of access to clean drinking water is a huge problem.

Frank Kusiak of the Lawrence Hall of Science recently posted this link to the Southwest NISE Net hub facebook page:

Nanotech tea bag creates safe drinking water instantly, for less than a penny

Check out the article if you have a chance.

New nano looks at
structures barely hundredths of
visible wavelengths

Haiku by Luke Donev of the Museum of Nature and Science in Dallas, TX

Nano sized silver?
It’s antibacterial.
And won’t turn you blue.

By Leigha Horton of the Science Museum of Minnesota.

Check out the NISE Net's Nanosilver: Breakthrough or Biohazard stage demonstration here or watch Alex Fiorentino presenting the program at the Museum of Science here.

Itty-bitty gold,
you hold profound potential.
Stained glass is cool, too.

By Leigha Horton of the Science Museum of Minnesota.

Two NISE Net activities that touch on stained glass and/or gold nanoparticles:

I have a well-documented soft spot for nano-themed poetry, so I was excited to find this haiku on Haiku News, a blog that posts news headli

The legislation prohibiting discrimination on the basis of disability was signed into law on July 26th twenty years ago.

The NISE Net has worked to create products that meet the needs of a diverse group of visitors, including people with and without disabilities, and through that work has developed universal design guidelines for both exhibits and public programs.  You can find the guides in the Tools and Guides section of the NISE Net catalog (http://www.nisenet.org/category/catalog/tools):

Surface to Volume
new science with a nano
Golden Ratio

Haiku by Luke Donev of the Museum of Nature and Science in Dallas, TX

More information and activities related to surface area: