It's a Mountain...It's a Mushroom...It's a Nanostructure!
By Susan Reslewic
Michael Oliveri takes pictures of landscapes. But instead of brooks and streams, rolling hills and deep canyons, or prairies and thickets, his subjects are nanostructures grown from the vapors of metal and metal oxide powders heated in a low pressure environment. And his camera is a Scanning Electron Microscope.
At the University of Georgia in Athens, Michael, a professor of art and digital media, works with Zhengwei Pan, a professor of physics and engineering, to create these “nanoscapes”, recently the subject of an exhibit at the university called Innerspace.
For scientists, the nano-world is a new frontier, a world bridging the microscopic and molecular worlds. Materials exhibit different, and sometimes shocking, behaviors at the nanoscale (~1 – 100 nanometers), leading many to herald nanotechnology as a game changer in fields ranging from electronics to medicine to personal care. Think medicines made of molecules that build themselves in your body; think clothing that can’t get dirty.
But, in Michael’s pictures, the nano-world looks a lot like our own world. In a recent issue of Chemical and Engineering News, Michael likens himself to a “ landscape artist traveling across the Southwest”. Note the striking resemblance between the first picture below and a handful of root vegetables recently plucked from the ground. Or, the second picture below and a scene from The Grapes of Wrath.
It’s almost comforting to see that the nano-world, despite making opaque materials become clear, and inert materials become catalysts, looks so much like the world we know.
This posting was inspired by the article “Postcards from Innerspace” published in the November 24, 2008 issue of Chemical & Engineering News, published by the American Chemical Society.
You can read more about Michael’s work, and see more of his nanoscapes, at www.michaeloliveri.com
