New Vistas in Education

Mumbai: We are all blind at the Nanoscale

When it comes to research at the nanoscale, vision is not necessarily an advantage. The subjects are so small, no one can see them. To encourage people with visual impairments to pursue fields in nanotechnology, educators have developed a way to craft accurate, detailed and touch-friendly models of nanoscale objects like carbon nanofibres, allowing the students to “see” those objects for the first time.

While students have learned from abstract models of chemical structures for decades, the new technique creates 3D version of objects as they actually are. “The fact is, we’re all blind at the nanoscale,” says US-based Andrew Greenberg, education and outreach coordinator for the University of Wisconsin-Medison Nanoscale Science and Engineering Centre and the Institute for Chemical Education.

“So the message to blind students is, “This is something you can do, this is a field you can enter. You have the ability to understand what’s going on at the nano-scale just as much as anyone else” he adds.

What are they doing?

To give blind students a feel for nanoscience and technology, Greenberg and Mohammed Farhoud - a biochemistry student working with UW-Madison Center for Biology Education are building physical 3D models of nano-surfaces that are large enough to be explored with the hands. Using an engineering tool called rapid prototyping, their first attempt replicates “NanoBucky” a nanoscale version of the University’s mascot, Bucky badger made from tiny carbon nanofibre “hairs”.

The models are about the size of a textbook and are formed using rapid prototyping, a process that “prints” 3Dobjects. Each model is a scale-up replica of tweaked data from a scanning electron microscopes.

Creating the model

Creating by UW-Madison chemistry professor, Bob Hamers, to demonstrate a method for controlling the growth of nanomaterials, the original NanoBuckey is so tiny that approximately 9,000 of him can fit on the head of the pin.

Using a 2D grayscale picture of NanoBucky, Farhoud calculated the heights of the carbon nanofibres and then sent this newly acquired data into the rapid prototyper, which lays down plaster layer-by-layer to “print” three dimensional models.

Though Greenberg and Ferhoud’s plaster 3D models are several inches long and tens of thousands of times larger, they aim to faithfully reproduce every last nonofiber of Bucky’s being.

“We want to get across that NanoBucky is made up of individual carbon nanofibres standing on end,” says Greebnberg. “If the students’ fingers were small enough, this is what a surface would feel like at the nanoscale.

Helping the visually impaired

Greenberg first conceived the models on seeing 3D models of molecules that blind students handled to learn chemical structures. He wonders whether 3D models might help sighted students or the public, for that matter also appreciate the nanoscale.

“A two dimensional image is great,” he says. “But if you can touch something, everyone enjoys that”.

Besides being fun to touch and handle, Greenberg hopes his models will encourage more blind and visually impaired students to pursue science, technology and engineering. Since the current learning and research tools don’t allow them to experience science on their own, many blind students don’t consider it to be an attractive career choice.

“One of the goals of our program is to blind diversity into science and engineering”, he says. “We really want to open these careers to anyone who is interested”.

Source: Blind to ‘see’ nano. Mumbai Mirror, Daily, Mumbai, 30 March 2007.