Scientists at Advanced Materials and BioEngineering Research (AMBER) Centre in Ireland have etched a nanoscale shamrock in time for St. Patrick’s Day 2014 according to a March 17, 2014 news item on Nanowerk,
AMBER, Ireland’s national materials science centre based in Trinity College Dublin has etched a nano sized shamrock whose stem is approximately 200,000 times smaller than a grain of salt. The shamrock, 500 of which could fit side by side on a single human hair, has been etched on to a Trinity College silver lapel pin. The pin was presented to the recipient of the SFI [Science Foundation Ireland] St Patrick’s Day Science Medal in Washington DC on March 13th [2014] at The Wild Geese Network of Irish Scientists by Professor Michael Morris, AMBER Principal Investigator.
The shamrock was etched using the AMBER Helium Ion Microscope in Trinity which is the only one in Ireland and one of only a handful in Europe. The microscope enables very high resolution imaging of less than 1 nanometre and is used to image and pattern a range of materials. AMBER researchers use the microscope to image graphene and other 2D materials, bio-engineered scaffolds for tissue engineering and a range of polymer composites for research and industry purposes.
The scientists have produced a video describing their ‘shamrock’ achievement and their work on applications of Irish nanotechnology research,
You can find out more about AMBER on its website here.
As for my announcement, I’ve been given access to live feeds of the 2014 TED conference being held in Vancouver, Canada (March 17 – 21, 2014) and I will be covering those sessions this week. It won’t be live blogging but posts about the speakers who most interest me will be published as quickly as possible after the session and I may publish a few interviews too.