Nanograffiti: Building from the Atoms Up

SmallTalk

Listen as we chat with Dr. Don Eigler, IBM Fellow at the IBM Almaden Research Center, who says that playing with atoms changed his views of the world. Dr. Eigler is a physicist who specializes in studying the physics of surfaces and nanometer-scale structures. In late 1989, using the liquid-helium-temperature scanning tunneling microscope he built, he demonstrated for the first time the ability to build structures at the atomic level by spelling out ???I-B-M??? with individual xenon atoms. Also, meet Tom Rockwell, Director of Public Exhibition at the Exploratorium, who describes, in an audio essay, how he imagines the land of the very small. Finally, take the Nano News or Nano Nonsense quiz! Your challenge: Listen to three nanoscience stories in the news then figure out which ones are real and which ones aren???t. See http://www.almaden.ibm.com/vis/stm/atomo.html for Don Eigler???s STM image gallery.