20,000 Nanoleagues Under the SEM: Exploring the Power Within
20,000 Nanoleagues Under the SEM: Exploring the Power Within
Collections: Image Award Winners
2020 Award Winner
Paramesh Karandikar, Rameen Shakur, David Mankus, Margaret Bisher, Abigail Lytton-Jean, Robert Langer
Koch Institute at MIT
Dive down deep to a crystalline garden of zinc oxide nanoflowers, growing on a polished metal plate. The anemone-like blossom near the middle forms from fragments that have fallen off the surrounding spikes, mirroring their structure in miniature.
The Langer Lab is working to shepherd the crystals into uniform fields and use the smooth conductive structures to create energy-harvesting nanowires for implantable biosensors. Images like these allow them to evaluate their designs and iterate on new ideas for their technological vision.
Video
Rameen Shakur shares the story of his award-winning image.