I volunteered at the Children's Museum of Houston for their NanoDays both Saturday and Sunday this weekend teaching kids about nano.

I probably said the same thing over and over all day...

"Do you know what nano means?"

"No"

"It means really, really, really, really small.  What is the smallest thing you can think of?"

Answers were: grain of sand, ant, or ball.

"Nano is a million time smaller.  I could fit a million nano grains of sand into one grain of sand.  There are a billion nanometers in one meter (the distance from your belly button to the tip of your fingers).  Could you image cutting a meter into a billion pieces?  Can you count to a billion?"

"No, I can only could to 100 (1000)."

"Can you imagine counting to 100 100 million times?  It would take you 32 years to count to a billion if you started today."

"WOW!"

"Do you think you can see something that is nano? We can't see it with our eyes, but there are tools we use to study nano things.  Did you know that smells are created by nano molecules?  Our noses are nano instruments!  They might not be able to detect just one nano molecule, but it can tell when nano molecules are present.  Scientist have to rely on different tools when looking at anything nano.  If you want to see a butterfly what do you use?"

"Eye"

"If you want to see the details on the butterfly wing what do you use?"

"Magnifying glass"

"If you want to see the scales that make up the wing what do you use?"

"Microscope"

"If you want to see the nanoscopic filaments that make up the scales that make up a wing you have to use an even more powerful microscope called an electron microscope."

The three take home messages were:

Nano is really, really, really, really small.

Scientist have to use special equipment to "see" anything nano.

Nano sizes make things different and that is COOL!

We had florescent quantum dots, carbon nanotube models, a giant nanotube balloon, ferrofluid demo, smelly solutions, liquid crystals, nanoproducts (stain resistant pants), nanomedicine demo, molecule kits, build your own buckyball and so much more. 

It was a lot of fun, but at the end of the day I had a headache and my throat hurt from talking so much!  Don't think I could work at a Children's Museum all the time.

One of the kids said to me, "This is an easy job."  I said, "This isn't my job.  I am a scientist at Rice University."  Her mouth dropped open and she said, "You can't be a scientist!"  I smiled and she said, "Your too young!"  I was just really glad that she didn't say it was because I am a girl... maybe we are making progress!