The November 2014 issue of the Nano Bite (newsletter from the Nanoscale Information Science Education Network [NISENet]) makes note of an online brown bag lunch focused on the UN’s (United Nations) 2015 International Year of Light and Light-Based Technologies (from the newsletter),,

The International Year of Light 2015 – What’s Nano about Light?
Thursday, December 4, 2014; 3 pm – 4 pm ET
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Join us for a conversation about the International Year of Light (IYL) 2015 where you’ll learn about light-related activities, programs and videos developed by the NISE Network that are perfect resources for integrating IYL festivities into your programming. We’ll also discuss scientific organizations that would make great partners for International Year of Light events, should you want to host an event!

You can also find more information at the UN’s 2015 International Year of Light and Light-Based Technologies website where you can discover who your National Node Contact(s) might be. I didn’t find the map as helpful as I’m sure the organizers hoped but scrolling down the page to the list of countries and clicking on a country of interest will yield a list of events and participants while the left side  of the screen lists one or more contacts. For those interested in what’s happening in Canada, there doesn’t seem to be all that much at the moment but there is a listing of international events which might prove of interest.

There is another brown bag lunch I’d like to mention, largely because of the age range mentioned in regard to ‘younger’ audiences,

Engaging Younger Audiences with Nanoscale Science
Thursday, December 11, 2014; 2 pm – 3 pm ET
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When engaging different audiences, such as younger audiences including children ages 3-8, it is important to target your message in a language that is both understandable and engaging for that age group. [emphasis mine] Join us as NISE Net partners discuss their experiences working with younger audiences, which NanoDays activities they have found work best and why, how they’ve incorporated nano into their existing programming, as well as lessons learned while presenting on nanoscale science.

For anyone interested in other NISENet brown bag lunches and events, go here.

The newsletter also mentions an article about nanotechnology in food that seems to date from 2013,

→ Nanotechnology in Food: More than a Question of Taste
Ever growing populations, food production, and sustainability are issues that will require complex solutions. This article highlights two very different perspectives from experts on the use of nanotechnology in the food industry. From enriching foods with nutrients that could help with nutrient deficiencies in the elderly to making food packaging safer, nanotechnologies have made great advances in the past century. However, is nanotechnology being developed and implemented into our food products far in advance of public awareness or known consequence? These are the questions to be addressed and answered. One expert notes, “there has to be a rebalancing of the relationship between citizens, state, science, and food corporations.” Read more about nanotechnology in food.

Related NISE Network activities and resources:

• Exploring Fabrication – Gummy Capsules (NanoDays 2012, 2013) – a NISE Net short activity where participants make macrocapsules using self-assembly techniques similar to those being used in laboratories to make nanocapsules that can deliver medication.
• What’s Nano About Chocolate? – a NISE Net video shows the connection between chocolate and nano.
• Nano in Food – this recorded NISE Net online brown-bag conversation focuses on the intersection of nanoscale science and food.
• Kitchen Chemistry – a NISE Net stage program that explores the science of cooking, food, and our senses.
  
• Nano Ice Cream – a NISE Net long activity demonstrating how liquid nitrogen cools a creamy mixture at such a rapid rate that it precipitates super fine grained (nano) ice cream.

If you did click through to Read more about nanotechnology in food you’ll have found yourself on the Guardian (UK) newspaper website. While there doesn’t seem to be a date for the article, there is a comment dating from 2013.

Finally, the November 2014 issue focuses on US Thanksgiving mentioning turkey in a context new to me,

Nano Throughout the Year – Thanksgiving Ideas

→ Did you know that turkey breast feathers are iridescent due to nano-sized structures within the feathers? For more about iridescence as well as other Thanksgiving/nano connections, check out:

• Exploring Materials – Thin Films program
• Colors at the Nanoscale: Butterflies, Beetles and Opals program
• Butterfly Blues video
• Biomimicry: From Nature to Nanotech program
• Would You Buy That? stage presentation (related to shopping and Black Friday)

You can find the complete November 2014 issue of the Nano Bite here.