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.

cluster of small spike sitting on larger spikes

Video

Rameen Shakur shares the story of his award-winning image.