one long week over

So tonight was the end of the big nanotechnology conference (that was a pun if anyone caught it). The conference ran from about 8am to 6pm each night, after which we went and had dinner, usually at the hotel where most of the visiting speakers were staying. It was very interesting, and I met lots of interesting people, and learned lots of stuff. My role in presentation turned out to be pretty small, only about 15 minutes. In response to a comment, the research I do is debatably important, because it is being done by lots of other people with much better research labs than mine, but it definitely has the potential to change our lives (imagine shrinking your electronics to 1/10th their size for beginners). I don't think I'll be famous any time soon. Although this week I met and had dinner with Dennis Hastert (former speaker of the house), the head of the Drug Evaluation Research in the FDA, the Prime Minister of Jordan, and a number of high ranking scientists. Basically, I just act and talk like an important person, dress nice, and people pay attention...but the fact remains that I am really a nobody, and I am glad for it. I don't like playing pretend.

since the conference is over, and this photo was displayed I can show it. The picture you see is actually Copper metal particles under UV light (aka black light). The red dots are clusters of nanoparticles, which glow red under UV (which normal copper does not do). Pretty cool huh?