Posted: April 1, 2010

Discovering new tools for nanoscience and nanotechnology

(Nanowerk News) In nanoscience, researchers are truly limited by the technology of their field, needing increasingly more advanced tools for studying, analyzing and manipulating objects and systems at the scale of individual molecules and atoms.
To expand the boundaries of nanoscience, the Kavli Institute at Cornell for Nanoscale Science is now devoted to the development and utilization of next-generation tools for exploring the nanoscale world. In a recent, in-depth interview, the Institute's new leadership – Director Paul McEuen and Co-Director David A. Muller – discussed the Institute's new focus, as well as the need for advanced technology in nanoscience. According to McEuen, existing tools "are still an enormous limiting factor in what we can do at the nanoscale world. We don't have eyes and hands at the nanoscale to see and control things the way we're used to at the milli-, micro- or macro-scale."
KIC Director Paul McEuen (left) and Co-Director David A. Muller
KIC Director Paul McEuen (left) and Co-Director David A. Muller.
Because of this, the institute will begin focusing on "high-risk, high-payoff" projects with the potential of changing the way scientists work worldwide; or in McEuen's words, "we're looking for projects where you could say, 'If I succeed, suddenly everybody's going to want one of these.'"
In addition to discussing the quest for new nanotechnologies, McEuen and Muller share the impact of technology on their own research, and how new technologies could not only lead to visionary advances, but how other sciences are perceived.
The directors of the Kavli Institute at Cornell for Nanoscale Science, Paul McEuen and David A. Muller, talk about their mission to push the technology of observation, measurement and control to ever-smaller dimensions. Read the transcript here: http://www.kavlifoundation.org/Cornell-mceuen-muller-interview.
About the Kavli Institute at Cornell for Nanoscale Science (KIC)
KIC is devoted to creating new techniques to image and dynamically control nanoscale systems, and using these techniques to push the frontiers of nanoscale science. KIC is a member of Cornell's renowned community of research and facilities in nanofabrication (Cornell NanoScale Science & Technology Facility and National Nanotechnology Infrastructure Network), nanoscale materials (Cornell Center for Materials Research), and mission-oriented centers (Center for Nanoscale Systems, Energy Materials Center at Cornell, KAUST-Cornell Center for Energy and Sustainability and the Nanobiotechnology Center). KIC Director: Paul McEuen, Professor of Physics; KIC Co-Director: David A. Muller, Associate Professor of Applied and Engineering Physics.
Source: The Kavli Foundation