University of Michigan materials scientists boasted this month that they “fuse art, science, technology and politics.” DARPA and the National Science Foundation (i.e., you and I) helped pay for it. And this nanotech stuff ain’t cheap!
Photo: John Hart, University of Michigan
John Hart, an assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, made the mini-Barack Obama likenesses with his colleagues to raise awareness of nanotechnology and science.
Each one contains about 150 million carbon nanotubes stacked vertically like trees in a forest. A carbon nanotube is an extraordinarily strong hollow cylinder about 1/50,000th the width of a human hair.
“Developments like this are an excellent way to bring the concepts of nanotechnology to a broader audience,” said Hart, who made the portraits with his colleagues by working late on a Friday evening. “Also, we thought it would be fun.”