Watch four short videos, based upon radio segments from Earth & Sky, that tell stories about nanotechnology and the researchers that develop it for real-life applications: using carbon nanotubes to target tumors and kill them using infrared irradiation; the discovery of atomic-scale magnets that behave like larger magnets; using quantum dots (artificial atoms that fluoresce) to make more efficient solar cells; and the outstanding material properties of carbon nanotubes.

See the hidden details of a computer chip and a butterly wing! Using a turn wheel, you can control the magnification from 1X, where you can see the objects as you would in real life, all the way down to 100,000X, where you can see the hidden structures at the nanoscale. This seamless series of images are made using two different kids of microscopes: optical (or light) microscopes and electron microscopes. As the images transition between the optical and the electron micrographs they go from color to black and white, because electron microscopes use electrons instead of light so there is no 'color'.

Use a light microscope to see things that are too small to see with your eye! Using the Rope Scopes, you can look at a butterly wing, sandpaper, moondust, and other samples provided in this station. But don't stop there! There are hidden patterns all around us - the weave of a shirt, the gemstone in jewelry, the blood vessels in your eye! Your eye can see objects as small as 100,000 nanometers, but using these microscopes you can see objects as small as 10,000 nanometers - that is 10 times smaller!

Unleash your hidden architect! See how high you can build a carbon nanotube using molecular models. Carbon nanotubes are made entirely of carbon atoms and are extremely strong. The models use black wood balls to represent carbon atoms - but they are 100,000,000 times larger than real carbon atoms! Carbon nanotubes are now put into a number of materials that are used to make tennis rackets, bicycles and other products where strong yet light materials are desired.

Build molecules that you come into contact in every day life! Use molecular models to build a glucose molecule (sugar, like you put on your cereal), asprin (that you take for a headache) or tryptophan (the amino acid that is in turkey that makes you sleepy). There are three different colors of wood balls that represent atoms of three different elements (carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen) - but they are 100,000,000 times larger than atoms in real-life!

Discover how scientists move individual atoms!! Atom Transporter is based upon the work of Don Eigler and his colleagues at IBM. In 1989, they moved individual xenon atoms to spell out IBM. Eigler used a 'scanning probe microscope' that has a very sharp needle that can be moved with nanometer precision to individually move the atoms. To do this Eigler needed to cool the sample down to almost absolute zero (or -460°F) in order to decrease the motion of the atoms. The video is based upon footage shot in 1990.

Stir the salt and dissolve a salt crystal! Located in the Molecules in Motion theatre, you will see a projected image of a molecular model of a salt crystal. Movement near the crystal is translated into 'heat', which causes the atoms in the crystal to vibrate. As the atoms vibrate they release from the crystal and disappear by virtue of their rapid movement. Stop moving and the atoms in the crystal return.