 "Photo: Bruno Morlan")
 "Photo: Bruno Morlan")
The first Summer Nanoscience Academy brought Austin-area high school teachers and their brightest students to the University this weekend to get some hands-on experience with nanoscience technology.
The academy began on Friday with a tour of the new Nano Science and Technology Building and the Microelectronics Research Center on campus. Saturday, both students and teachers put on their goggles, gloves and aprons to experiment with gold and iron nanoparticles.
Steve Bratteng, a Westwood High School science teacher, said that working with nanotechnology is like making music with different sized tubes. Every size of tube makes a distinct sound, just like the different sizes of a particle have distinct properties, he said. These new substances then have new uses.
They mixed a gold solution that was red because of the different size of the particles of gold they were working with. The optical properties are different for particles at that size, said Keith Stevenson, an associate professor of biochemistry.
"These are new materials with new properties," Stevenson said, "and we're trying to tailor the properties by controlling size and shape."
The experiments were simple enough for the teachers to perform in their classrooms.
Alex Rasche, a 17-year-old high school senior, worked at another lab station with iron. He was one of the 13 high school students invited by their teachers to participate in the academy.
"I want to be a physicist, but I'm not sure what field to get into," Rasche said, adding that the academy has definitely helped him narrow down some prospective fields.
The Nanoscience Academy was hosted by the Atomic & Imaging IGERT program, which aims to teach scientists to better deal with the future global issues in science.
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