Tag Archives: Mountains of Organic Crystal Snow

More nano art from the Materials Research Society (MRS)

The Materials Research Society has two major meetings in the year, Spring and Fall. At each meeting, there is an art competition and I think much of it could be classified as nano art. Michael Berger over at the Nanowerk website is featuring several pieces from the Spring 2012 and earlier meetings in an April 26, 2012 news item.  (Nanowerk has a library of nano art here.)

Here’s a sample (A Dendritic Baby Giraffe Born Inside Ni-Al-C Melt) from the MRS 2012 Spring meeting (more here),

Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) image depicts a baby giraffe formed within a jungle of Ni-Al-C dendrites. As the molten alloy was being solidified inside a graphitic crucible, the melt was decanted, leaving behind a little dendrite wetted by a thin molten blanket. As the jungle got colder, the blanket froze and rejected carbon which eventually crystallized as a graphite cover. Upon further cooling, the graphitic cover wrinkled, due to its thermal expansion coefficient mismatch with metallic substrate, creating a faceted network of creases resembling the familiar skin patches of a giraffe. - Shaahin Amini and Reza Abbaschian, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of California Riverside

And there’s this one (Mountains of Organic Crystal Snow),

A stunning visual pattern of high-performance organic semiconductor crystals obtained using cross-polarized optical microscopy. The image is completely original without editing. The nucleating point shows a pattern that resembles a lone man wearing a curious hat on top of a mountain made from organic crystals amid a sea of other crystals. The cross-polarizer modulates the brightness of the different mountain top, providing a perspective of depth. The Haiku was inspired by the man-like figure: " The scientist sits atop, Mountains of organic crystal snow, Yonder the electrons flow? - Benjamin Tee

I see some samples of creative writing as per the captions written by the scientists, as well as, their nano art.