Transcript Slide 1

Copycat!
By Jeannie Nye and Andrew Greenberg
Lake Mills Middle School
And University of Wisconsin-Madison
Nature has Some Amazing Nanoscience Feats
…or Should We Say ‘Feets’.
Studying the water strider’s
nanogroovy setules on its toes has
inspired scientists to design
miniature aquatic devices and nonwetting materials.
Water strider leg hairs and grooves on one hair.
Help, my pads
are stuck!
Eight-Legged Note Pads
• The strength of the suction in a spider’s foot is due
to all of the small van der Waals forces at the
nanoscale pulling at the same time.
• So, why isn’t it stuck in one place? It lifts its leg so
that the setules lift successively, not all at once.
• This suggests to scientists that, in the future, superstrong Post-it® notes, modeled after the
nanoscience of spider toes, will need to be pulled
off very slowly, a little at a time.
My pads are
stuck, too!
Hairy spider toes
Setules on hairs
And..
Using nanoscience and the van der Waals
force, future Post-it® notes won’t just be
strong, they’ll even stick if they got wet
or greasy.
Imagine astronauts using the same idea for spacesuits
that help them stick to the walls
of a spacecraft,just like a spider
on the ceiling."
I hope they
invent that
suit soon!
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2004-04/iop-smb041504.php
Clean as a…
• Gecko feet can stick to
seemingly smooth
surfaces thanks to
nanoscale setules on
their feet; and the setules
are self cleaning.
Gecko?
• This bonding capability is
inspiring scientists to
develop a synthetic
adhesive that is both dry
and self-cleaning.
http://pubs.acs.org/cen/critter/gecko1.html
SEM image of the polymer fibrillar adhesive fabricated at the NanoRobotics
Laboratory, CMU
A Material Stronger than Steel
and More Elastic than Nylon?
For 450 million years, spiders have made silk, proteinbased nanomaterials that self-assemble into fibers and
sheets.
•If we figure out how to copy this nanscience feat,
scientists would like to use the material to create an
elevator to space.
•Does that sound like a good idea to you?
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn3522
Color in Butterfly Wings
Butterfly wing scales in increasing magnitude
Butterfly wings are layers of nanoparticles seperated by
layers of air. The thickness of the layers changes the
colors that we see.
http://www.ntcresearch.org/pdf-rpts/AnRp05/M03-MD14-A5.pdf
http://pubs.acs.org/cen/critter/butterfly.html
http://jbe.jlu.edu.cn/free/v1/i4/207.pdf
How Do We Mimic
Wing Colors?
The layered nanostructure of the butterfly
wing inspires scientists to develop textiles
by assembling nanoparticles into layers
from the ‘bottom up’.
Living LED’s
Butterflies figured out how to
emit light 30 million years ago.
Fluorescent patches on the wings of this
African swallowtail butterflies work in a very
similar way to high emission light emitting
diodes (LEDs).
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4443854.stm
Butterfly Nanostructure Inspiration
Depending on what you need, these nanoparticles might be
made into flourescent proteins, DNA, viruses, or dyes. The
ideas are endless!
These flourescent nanoscale polymer fibers might be used to
reflect visible, UV and IR radiation for cooling or transmit certain
wavelengths of light for warming.
If made into optical chemical or stress sensing nanofibers, they
can be added into other materials and structures.
They can also used for bar coding or other functions.
http://www.ntcresearch.org/pdf-rpts/AnRp05/M03-MD14-A5.pdf
Look,
Mom,
I’m dry!
Wings are Colorful
and Hydrophobic!
Water droplet
Notice the butterfly’s wing
in the picture isn’t getting
wet?
The butterfly can thank its
lucky stars or, better yet, its
nanoscales.
More information can be found on the web at http://www.exploratorium.edu/ronh/bubbles/bubbles.htm .
Activities can be found at http://www.lessonplanspage.com/ScienceExAddPenniesToFullGlassMO68.htm or
http://www.iit.edu/~smile/ph9205.html
http://jbe.jlu.edu.cn/free/v1/i4/207.pdf
As the Saying Goes…
“Like Water Off of a Duck’s Back…
Or a Butterfly’s Wing!
The white bar on this
picture of a butterfly wing
is 1mm long.
The white bar on this
nanoscopic view of a
butterfly wing is 1 µm.
http://jbe.jlu.edu.cn/free/v1/i4/207.pdf
http://nanotechweb.org/articles/news/1/11/5/1/0611102
This picture shows water
droplets on a wood surface
treated with "Lotus Spray“,
a nanotechnology product
modeled after the butterfly
wing and lotus leaf, which
has made the surface
extremely water-repellant
(superhydrophobic).
…and Dirt Off of a Butterfly’s Wing!”
Besides repelling water
(hydrophobic), the
nanoscales make butterfly
wings self-cleaning.
Water droplet
http://www.nanotechnic-germany.com/lotuseffect.htm
http://jbe.jlu.edu.cn/free/v1/i4/207.pdf
How These Surfaces Work
Because of the nanostructures on
a butterfly wing or other
hydrophobic surface, a waterdrop
forms into a ball, rolling from the
surface and taking the dirt with it.
This magnified image shows the
nanostructures on a wing surface. Because of
the waxiness of the surface, the waterdrop
rolls – rather than slides – down the surface
with little friction. The drop collects dirt and
bacteria on its way, and in effect cleans itself.
Nanostructures, (tiny waxy "spikes“), on the
surface prevent a water droplet from reaching
the underlying material. It rolls off the waxy
tips which are very small compared to the
water droplet. The force of the rolling water is
greater than the force of attraction between
the surface and dirt or bacteria which allows
it to be washed away.
= water
= dirt
Science Copies Self-Cleaning Nanoproperties!
Scientists are copying this process
with self cleaning hydrophobic
micro-dots.
An excellent video demonstrates how
this works at
http://www.nanogreensciences.com/index.html
http://www.ntcresearch.org/projectapp/index.cfm?project=C04-CL06&topic=progress
Since I can’t
take a bath, it’s
a good thing I’m
self-cleaning!
Wouldn’t It Be Nice If…?
…more materials could be
self-cleaning?
water repellant?
Can you think of some?
Nanoscience Uses for
Bioluminescence
•Biological imaging
•Red is particularly useful
because it can transmit
through skin better than
green light.
Detection of cancers
Pathogen detection
Tracing tumor
growth
Drug screening
http://pubs.acs.org/cen/science/84/8414biolum.html
Measuring rate
of cell
multiplication
Food testing. Bacteria contain ATP that
accelerates the firefly’s
bioluminescence reaction. This makes
it especially good for quickly detecting
bacterial contamination in food.
Squid Lights
Remember those squid
belly nanoplatelets that
reflect the light of
bioluminescent bacteria?
Those Squid platelets inspire
nanotechnologists to include
such protein-based reflectors in
optical nanodevices.
http://pubs.acs.org/cen/critter/critterchemistry.html
Toucan Beaks
•The nanostructure of
toucan beaks inspires
automotive panels that could
protect passengers in crashes.
• And inspires construction of
ultralight aircraft
components.
http://pubs.acs.org/cen/critter/critterchemistry.html
Thirsty?
Living in the desert the thirsty Namib
beetle collects dew to drink using
nanodots on its back.
So What can Thirsty People Do?
Thirsty people in Chile and Haiti
go to ridgetops to collect fog on
large sheets on ridgetops.
But as we learn about
nanoscience in nature…
http://biomechanics.bio.uci.edu/_html/nh_biomech/namib/beetle.htm
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2005/04/clean_water_fro.php
We have Nanotechnology Solutions!
Scientists are modeling
water harvesting surfaces
after the Namib beetle’s
nanotechnique.
You’re
welcome!
The Namib Beetle’s design is also a model for other
nanotechnology:
1. controlled drug release coatings,
2. open-air microchannel
devices, and
3. lab-on-chip devices.
Patterned Superhydrophobic Surfaces: Toward a
Synthetic Mimic of the Namib Desert Beetle Lei
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2005/04/clean_water_fro.php
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2006/06/biomimicry_nami.php
Zhai, Michael C. Berg, Fevzi Ç. Cebeci, Yushan Kim, John M. Milwid,
Michael F. Rubner, and Robert E. Cohen Nano Lett.; 2006; 6(6) pp
1213 - 1217;
http://pubs3.acs.org/acs/journals/doilookup?in_doi=10.1021/nl0606
44q
` My Nanopowers?
Don’t You Want to Mimic
Ok, hippo sweat is
-a sunscreen,
-hydrophilic
-and antibacterial.
It sounds like promising nanoscience. But, personally, I’m
having a little trouble getting excited about smearing
something called hipposudoric acid on my body!
Can you think of interesting ways to use this
nanoscience or to make it sound more appealing?
http://pubs.acs.org/cen/news/8222/8222notw9.html
Nanoscience Biomimicry
We’ve looked at ways scientists are attempting to mimic the
wonders of nanoscience in nature:
•sticky “feet”
•strong spider silk
•self-cleaning light reflecting butterfly wings
•optical nanoscience
•water collecting beetle backs
•tough and light toucan beaks
•and the list could go on and on.
Your SuperPower Idea
These ideas have been copied
and modified by science fiction
and cartoonists for decades.
Now it is your turn to delve into
the world of superheros and
supervillains.
SuperHipp
o to the
rescue!
Take a nanoscience idea from nature.
Create a superbeing or supertool that has a
special power based on this nanoscience idea.
Develop a visual aid and presentation to share
with the class.
http://www.theforce.net/fanfilms/software/3dstudiomax/romanlasers_tutorial/index.asp
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4443854.stm
Superpower or Nanopower Copycats?
Spiderman uses the
nanoscience of spider silk. Is
this the only way that Spidey
uses nanoscience?
What other superheros could
be using some of these
nanoscience ideas to achieve
their feats?
A database of biomimicry may help you find ideas.
The following database includes some examples of
mimicry that are NOT nanoscale so be careful to
select an idea that is based in nanoscience.
http://www.biomimicry.net/case_studies.html
If you don’t feel you are ready to start on your project yet and
want more clarification or help. Click here for five more slides.