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National Nanotechnology Day is an annual event featuring community-led events and activities on or around October 9 to help raise awareness of nanotechnology, its use in products that enrich our daily lives, and the challenges and opportunities for the future. This date, 10/9, pays homage to the nanometer scale, 10 –9 meters.
In celebration of National Nanotechnology Day and National Chemistry Week, the National Nanotechnology Coordination Office (NNCO), on behalf of the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI), along with the NSF-funded UC San Diego Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (UCSD MRSEC) and the American Chemical Society (ACS), hosted a joint image contest. This image contest was an opportunity for people to explore the beauty of the nanoscale and learn the value of working at fundamental length scales. The three winners of this image contest were:
First place: James Surjadi Three-Dimensional Nanoarchitected Hexagonal Boron Nitride | Second place: Caleb DeWitt Micro-Broccoli | Third place: Matthew Hershey Landscape of Nanospheres |
Additional details about these images are available here.
The American Chemical Society (ACS) awarded monetary prizes of $1,000, $500, and $250 to James Surjadi, Caleb DeWitt, and Matthew Hershey, respectively.
Whether at home, at school, outside, or in a science museum, there are many ways to explore advances in nanotechnology and how it is impacting our everyday lives!
Here are a few suggested activities:
- Host image, video, or illustration contests that highlight nanotechnology advances or the impact of nanotechnology on society.
- Organize lab tours and open houses.
- Coordinate outreach events with demonstrations about nanotechnology. Check out some resources here.
- Create and share an image, video, illustration, or infographic about nanotechnology: what it is, why it is important, and examples of nanotechnology applications.
- Sign up for free remote sessions to see nature at the nanoscale using nanotechnology tools, such as a scanning electron microscope. With the assistance of an experienced engineer, you can control these tools over the Internet in real time!
Imagine nanotechnology’s role in enabling ongoing revolutions in technology and industry that benefit society:
- Play the Nano around the World card game, from the National Informal STEM Education (NISE) Network, and reflect on the potential uses of nanotechnology across the globe.
- Discover how nanotechnology is already improving your life using a scavenger hunt. This scavenger hunt for kids, organized by the Southeastern Nanotechnology Infrastructure Corridor at Georgia Tech, highlights some examples of household nanotechnology-enabled products. Post on social media about nanotechnology-enabled products that you find in your home!
- Watch this Wired video, in which nanotechnology researcher George Tulevski, from IBM Research, explain what nanotechnology is and how it’s applied to make high-performance electronics and more efficient batteries to five different people; a child, a teen, a college student, a grad student, and an expert.
- For the past 20 years, so many nanomaterials have been characterized and investigated: two-dimensional materials, quantum dots, carbon nanotubes, nanocellulose, and many more. Learn about any of these materials online, and let us know what you find out on social media (with #NationalNanoDay)!
- Curious about a nanotechnology-enabled product you’ve seen in a movie, TV show, cartoon, or comic book? Post about it on social media (and use #NationalNanoDay), and we’ll try to figure out if it could actually work in the real world. What did you think was appealing about these products?
- Learn about the many ways nanotechnology is helping us to address climate change, for example by watching this video produced by NNCO for K–12 teachers in April 2023: Confronting Climate Change with Nanotechnology: Solutions-Based Learning – NanoEd Quarterly Forum.
- Watch this short video (from PBS NewsHour) on the critical role of lipid nanoparticles in mRNA vaccines that protect us against COVID-19; what other diseases could be addressed with lipid nanoparticle vaccines? Let us know on social media (and use #NationalNanoDay)!
- How do you think nanotechnology will improve our lives in the future?
Try these fun activities:
- 100-Billion Nanometer Dash: Run #100BillionNanometers (100 meters) and share your pictures and videos on social media with #NationalNanoDay! Print a Certificate of Achievement and a Gold Medal for you or anyone who runs with you.
- Sizing up Nano: How do you explain what a nanometer is? Or what a nanoparticle or a nanodevice look like? We welcome your thoughts! Send us your explanations, pictures, and videos to nnd@nnco.nano.gov, or send a Tweet by using #NationalNanoDay!
If you have other ideas for activities in celebration of National Nanotechnology Day, we’d love to share them. Please let us know at: nnd@nnco.nano.gov. Also, if you have questions about National Nanotechnology Day, please feel free to contact us at: nnd@nnco.nano.gov.
Information about previous National Nanotechnology Days:
