From visualising microscopic cells to massive galaxies, imaging is a core tool for many disciplines, and it’s also the basis of a surge in recent technical developments – some of which are being pioneered in Cambridge. Today, we begin a month-long focus on research that is exploring far beyond what the eye can see, introduced here by Stella Panayotova, Stefanie Reichelt and Carola-Bibiane Schönlieb.
This alien glob is a piece of gum arabic from the hardened sap of the Acacia tree, most likely collected from a tree in Sudan. Rox Middleton explains how the electron microscope has changed the way we are able to interact with objects at the nanoscale, allowing us to enjoy a glimpse of the exquisite abstract forms around us.
This image shows a ‘forest’ of carbon nanotubes – thousands upon thousands of tiny rolls of carbon atoms, grown on a scrap of copper foil. James Dolan explains how easy it is to run across beautiful scenery such as this when attempting to fabricate new electronic devices for the first time.
These individual particles of cobalt oxide have been engineered to form a superlattice or 3D mesh structure to improve their chemical activity, explains Giorgio Divitini.
In this video we see an electron gun made of many thousands of vertically aligned carbon nanotubes, each more than 1,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair. Dr Matt Cole explains the technological importance of exploiting emerging nanomaterials to engineer functionally novel X-ray sources.
In this video we see a synthetic opal, which is made using polystyrene spheres surrounded by even tinier polystyrene spheres around 1,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair. Harry Beeson explains how it’s important to look at nanoscale structures like this to improve the efficiency of solar cells.
This electron microscope picture, reminiscent of man-made baskets or children’s blocks, shows cubic salt crystals that have been forced to form in spheres, as Rox Middleton explains.
Nanowires growing in real time. Each nanowire is roughly 450 atoms wide.
Dr Andrew Gillis shows us an elephant fish embryo, which live in their egg and feed off of their yolk supply for 7 to 10 months before hatching out as a completely self-sufficient juvenile.
Matthew Kuo tells us how tiny worm faecal pellets affect how oil pipelines sit on the seabed.
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