In something being described as a ‘reverse site visit’, Larry Bell and his colleague, Paul Martin, of the Nanoscale Informal Science Education Network (NISENet) gave a presentation to the US National Science Foundation featuring these statistics (from Larry Bell’s July 1, 2014 posting on the NISENet blog),
Since 2008, a total of 1400 NanoDays kits have been distributed to 439 different organizations. The kits have provided 121 different educational products as well as a wide range of support materials.
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The team reviewed answers to questions on the annual NanoDays reports and calculated an estimate of the number of individuals reached by the NanoDays kit outside of NanoDays events to be over 1,000,000. With the distribution of the last batch of Nano mini-exhibitions next year, a total of 90 mini-exhibitions will reach over 9 million people each year. So between NanoDays kits and mini-exhibitions, NISE Net resources reach over 10 million individuals each year!
You can read more about the ‘reverse site visit’ in the July 2014 Nano Bite or in Bell’s July 1, 2014 posting.
The newsletter, fittingly for this time of year, features some materials on nano and other sunscreens,
→ Five Things Worth Knowing about Nanoparticles and Sunscreen. As summer arrives and people start thinking about sunburns and sunscreen (and skin cancer), The University of Michigan Risk Science Center Risk Bite short video takes a look at five things worth knowing about nanoparticles in sunscreens and their safety.
Related NISE Network activities and resources:
- Exploring Products – Sunblock (NanoDays 2011 and 2012) – a NISE Net hands-on activity comparing sunblock containing nanoparticles to ointment.
- Invisible Sunblock – a NISE Net hands-on activity exploring how nanoscale particles are used in mineral sunblocks.
- A Little Bit of Sunshine – a NISE Net video in which Mr. O from the Children’s Museum of Houston compares sunblock containing nanoparticles to ointment.
You can watch the June 15, 2014 Risk Bites video about nanosunscreens now,
The July 2014 Nano Bite also features a partner institution’s latest project,
→ Mission: Nano
Author credit: Aaron Guerrero from Children’s Museum of Houston and Ennio Tasciotti from the Houston Methodist Research InstituteYour mission, should you choose to accept it, is to play the Mission: Nano game.
Funded by a NISE Network mini-grant, the Houston Methodist Research Institute (HMRI) and Rice University’s Center for Technology in Teaching and Learning (CTTL) in Houston, TX partnered to develop a nanotechnology-based multimedia game app. The product, Mission: Nano, educates players about uses of nanotechnology in medicine and inspires them to consider careers in the STEM sectors.
Mission: Nano consists of a series of four challenges to diagnose and treat a bone injury utilizing medical nanotechnology. Players can choose a “story mode” where they lead the doctor to complete all four challenges or a “practice mode” to complete the four challenges as quickly as possible. Mission: Nano is currently available in web and Android versions and is hosted on the Houston Methodist Research Institute’s website: http://www.houstonmethodist.org/mission-nano.
Mission: Nano was developed under the supervision of Dr. Ennio Tasciotti, Co-Chair of the Department of NanoMedicine, Director of the Center for Regenerative Medicine, and Scientific Director of The Surgical Advances Technology Laboratory…continue reading the full Partner Highlight.
Find out more about what the Houston Methodist Research Institute’s NanoMedicine department is doing by visiting, http://www.houstonmethodist.org/Nanomedicine or contact Aaron Guerrero of the Children’s Museum of Houston, the NISE Net South Hub and Children’s Museum Hub Leader.
That’s it for the tidbits from the July 2014 Nano Bite. If you want more, you can read the whole issue here.
Great post, Maryse – as always the sunscreen nano issue one that I zero in on. As you know, I’ve been using nano (Sisley) sunscreens for close to a decade and have had zero problems. This, for me, is a major deal as I have highly allergic skin and eczema. Ironically, I bought one of the new, broad spectrum chemical ones (spray – Neutrogena) billed as appropriate for “sensitive skin”. First the smell gave me a headache then, as the product sank into the skin my hands started to sting and turn bright red. I scrubbed it off but the problem with chemical sunscreens is that the absorption rate; once they’re on they’re hard to get off. Versus the zinc oxide ones that actually sit on the skin.
The point your man makes about your skin acing as a barrier is immunologically sound: the skin is actually your largest immune organ, acting as a border – for want of a better word – between you and the external environment. Without your skin keeping “you” intact … well, in theory there would be no you since you would simply morph into whatever you came into contact with (bacteria, viruses .. )
Weird but true. cheers, s
Hi Susan! Nice to see you back here. And, yes it is weird to think of just morphing into whatever you come into contact with (sorry for the awkward phrasing). Your story about the problems you experienced with a conventional sunscreen highlights at least one of Andrew’s points in the video and serves as a good reminder (I’m sorry you had to go through that unpleasant experience with the Neutrogena product) one needs to test everything, nano, conventional, natural, organic, etc. I assume you’re back to Sisley 100% of the time, eh? Cheers, Maryse