NISE Network’s redesigned website for education professionals and scientists

Check out NISE Network’s redesigned website for education professionals and scientists, which has a fresh new design with many great features including faster load times, more intuitive site navigation, catalog content presented front and center, straightforward filtering to help you find what you’re looking for with less hassle, a responsive design for a variety of technology devices and screen sizes, and so much more. Read more about website changes here.

Nano Material: Friend, Foe, or Still Unknown?

→ Silver Too Small to See, but Everywhere You Look. Silver has historically been used as a way to prevent bacterial infections. A biomedical engineer from North Carolina State University decided to test a new bandage coated with silver on herself after suffering from an infected wound refusing to heal. Although the bandage wasn’t using silver on the nano scale, many products being developed and on the market today are manufactured with silver nanoparticles including clothing, linens, stuffed animals, and food containers. Nanotechnology in materials research is improving the durability and functionality of many products; however, some scientists worry about evidence that the nanoparticles may cause unexpected environmental harm and possible health issues. The ultimate goal is for scientists to figure out the best way to use nanosilver and protect the environment at the same time.

See NISE Net video “Does Every Silver Lining Have a Cloud?”
See NISE Net stage presentation “Would You Buy That?”
See NISE Net short activity "Would You Buy That? (NanoDays 2014)"
See NISE Net stage presentation “Nanosilver: Breakthrough or Biohazard?”
See NISE Net Linked Product K-12 lesson plan “Silver Nanoparticle Socks”
See NISE Net Linked Product K-12 lesson plan “Silver and Bandages”
See Dragonfly TV video episode “Nano Silver”

→ Can a “Drinkable Book” Solve the World’s Water Crisis? Can you really pour contaminated water through paper and produce drinkable water? Scientists and engineers from Carnegie Mellon and the University of Virginia have worked to develop a drinkable book that not only teaches people about water contamination and diseases but also serves as a tool to provide clean drinking water. Each book is printed on advanced filter paper coated with silver nanoparticles giving the paper its orange coloration, which is capable of killing waterborne diseases such as cholera, typhoid, and E. coli. Costing only cents to produce, each filter (a single sheet of paper) is capable of filtering water for up to 30 days and each book can provide up to 4 years of safe drinking water.

See NISE Net stage presentation “Cleaning Our Water with Nanotechnology”
See NISE Net Linked Product K-12 lesson plan “Nanotechnology Class Materials – UMass Nanotechnology Summer Institute”
See NISE Net Linked Product K-12 lesson plan “NanoSense”
See NISE Net online game “NanoBuzz Online Puzzle Games”

→ New Mechanism Discovered for Gecko Adhesion. Research into materials that mimic the adhesive properties of the most adept climbers, the gecko, have previously incorporated the feature of tiny cilia-like hairs, or nanofibers, to copy the surface of geckos’ feet. While the idea of these hairs worked well for adhesion to certain surfaces like glass, the adhesive did not work well for all surfaces like drywall or brick. Researchers from the University of Massachusetts Amherst decided to “go back to the gecko” to investigate what was under the skin of geckos’ feet and found that their tendons connected directly from the skin to the bone, unlike humans, allowing them to maintain stiff connections on surfaces. With this new understanding of gecko anatomy, researchers integrated both soft elastic material and stiff fibers of glass or carbon fiber to create an adhesive material that can stick to any surface that is perpendicular to the floor, maintains a high stiffness, and just like the gecko, releases easily when pulled directly away from the surface.

See NISE Net long activity “Biomimicry: Synthetic Gecko Tape through Nanomolding”
See NISE Net Linked Product video “Curiosity, Discovery and Gecko Feet – Robert Full TED-Ed Talk and TED-Ed Lesson”
See NISE Net Linked Product scientific images “Scientific Images of Gecko Foot and Toe”
See NISE Net short activity “Biomimicry: From Nature to Nanotech”
See NISE Net "Nano Museum Labels (Graphic Signs) (NanoDays 2013)"

NISE Network’s redesigned website for education professionals and scientists

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