Have you ever closed your eyes and tried to identify an object by running your fingers over it? This is what an atomic force microscope does but on a very small scale...

Episode 055 DNA is the blueprint of life – the genetic code that shapes every living organism. But beyond genetics, DNA can be used not just for making humans: it can also be used for making tiny machines, such as turbines...

Episode 054 Doctors know that a treatment for cancer is probably working if the tumor shrinks in size. Today, tumor size is usually measured every couple of months or so, but it would be useful if the size could be monitored continuously...

Episode 053 Scientists and engineers are always trying to develop better ways to make patterns on surfaces. Such patterns are the basis for how lots of things work....

Episode 049 Everyone – especially teenagers – hates spots caused by acne. The bacteria that cause acne can be killed by antibiotics, but a big problem is the eventual development of antibiotic resistance...

Episode 046 Spray-on windshield coatings that repel rain are really slick: they consist of a thin film of silicone, the same rubbery material used as caulking around the home. Silicones are hydrophobic, which means that they repel water, but some materials repel water so strongly that they are called superhydrophobic....

Episode 045 In nanotechnology, the big ideas involve really small things, such as quantum dots. Quantum dots are very small chunks of matter that can be tuned to absorb or emit light of different colors simply by changing the size of the dot...

Episode 044 Making beer by fermentation of barley and hops has been around for centuries. But could nanotechnology improve the process? Recently, to help with making beer, scientists have developed nanostructures called BioBots...

Episode 043 Have you ever wished you could get needed medical injections without being poked with a needle? Well, instead of using needles, hand-held devices called jet injectors use high-pressure puffs of gases or liquids to deliver medicines just under the skin...

Episode 042 Skinned knees are bad enough, but why is taking a bandage off sometimes as painful as the original accident? Well, when moms (and doctors) treat a large skin wound...

Episode 041 Cleaning up environmental pollutants is a big problem that needs "out of the box" answers. Recently, scientists have been investigating a new kind of material called a metal-organic framework or MOF for water purification.

Episode 040 When scientists take pictures or movies of atom-sized objects, they often use a T.E.M. a type of electron microscope that transmits an electron beam through the sample. At first, however, only solids could have their picture taken, because liquids tend to evaporate into the vacuum that the electron beam needs to travel through.

Episode 039 If you enjoy comics or superhero movies, you've probably heard of someone who's just a genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist when you take away his metal suit. But our superhero admitted that he liked the name iron man, even though the fictional suit was actually made of gold-titanium alloy.

Episode 037 You can light fires with wood, but how about wood that emits light without burning? Scientists from New Zealand recently took thin sheets of balsa wood and extracted them with a solvent to dissolve away some of the more soluble components. They then filled the holes in the resulting porous, spongy solid with nano-sized luminescent quantum dots.

Episode 036 To satisfy our future need for energy, it will be increasingly important to use renewable energy sources, such as sunlight. Plants have been using sunlight as an energy source for millions of years. In a process called photosynthesis, plants use the sun's energy to make cellulose and other chemicals they need.

Episode 035 Nanotechnology is considered an example of the latest in modern science. But you might be surprised to know that one particular kind of nanotechnology has been around for a very long time. The Lycurgus cup is a small glass goblet decorated with an image of the mythical king Lycurgus. It was made around 300 AD, possibly in Rome, and today is owned by the British Museum in London.

Episode 033 Looking for a new way to kill germs? Nanotechnology might hold the answer. Bacteria are becoming more resistant to current drugs, making it harder to treat diseases caused by them. There is constant research into making new molecules to fight these more resistant pathogens, however there is always the chance that the bacteria will eventually adjust to new drugs in turn. Nanotechnology offers a different approach and recent advances are starting to bring their use closer to reality

Episode 032 Chemical bonds are small, so small in fact that we can't see them with the most powerful optical microscopes. That's because the wavelength of visible light is about 400 times larger than the usual bond length. That's where electrons come in. Electrons are wave-like particles that are tiny, just like bonds, and can be used instead of light. When the sample is thin enough, electrons travel through the material and are collected on the other side by a detector that produces an image.

Episode 029 Got the blues? Well, someone who's really blue -- but likes it -- is the cobalt blue tarantula. This large spider gets its color not from a pigment, but from tiny structures in its hair, which cause the reflected light to display an effect called interference. The same interference effect causes soap bubbles, opals, and butterfly wings to display many different colors depending on what angle you view them from. What is remarkable about the cobalt blue tarantula is that the color doesn't change in this way, but stays the same.

Episode 027 Batteries are an amazing technology. Each battery is a little chemical reactor: when power is needed, the chemical reaction proceeds, and electricity is generated. When the chemical reaction ends, the battery is dead. Of all the kinds of batteries, lithium-ion batteries have the greatest energy per unit weight, which is why they are used in such things as laptop computers.