Mixing Science With Art

Nano [nan'oh]  – prefix meaning one-billionth.
Art [ahrt] - the products of human creativity

Look at the two guys below. Would you guess they are scientists or artists?

Alessandro Scali and Robin Goode (above) are Italian artists that work with a team of scientists to create “NanoArt”- a new artistic method.

NanoArt is a technique that brings the worlds of Art and Science together to create nano-landscapes (molecular and atomic landscapes which are natural structures of matter at molecular and atomic scales) and nano-sculptures (structures created by scientists and artists through the manipulation of matter at molecular and atomic scales using chemical and physical processes).

These structures are then visualised using either a Scanning Electron Microscope or an Atomic Force Microscope. The resulting images are then captured and further processed to convert them into artworks that are showcased for large audiences.

The depth and three dimensions achieved in NanoArt sets the process of electron imaging apart from Photography, where images are created by photons (particles of light) rather than by electrons (electrically charged particles). The electrons penetrate deeper into the selected structure creating images with more depth and a more natural 3D-look than the photographic images. You can see this in the examples below:

Looking like a tumor or the cross-section of a brain, this image of a polymer (never has art required me to look up so many words!) was created by Muruganathan Ramanathan at the Center for Nanoscale Materials at Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois. Ramanathan, who is a post doctoral scholar at the institute, made an ultrathin film of the beautiful substance and then “patterned it with oxygen-reactive-ion etching and used heat and solvents to make it more crystalline.”

Artist, Cris Orfescu created a nanosculpture by hydrolyzing a tiny drop of a titanium organometallic compound and coating the structure with gold in order for it to be properly visualised with a Scanning Electron Microscope. The monochromatic electron scan was then painted and digitally manipulated, and the final image was printed on canvas with archival inks.

After depositing some potassium niobium oxide onto a silicon surface, graduate student Michael Sygnatowicz used an optical microscope to take this photograph, which resembles a distant galaxy.


I realise not all of us have “Scanning Electron Microscopes” lying around at home but maybe focusing on the smaller things in life could give you some awesome ideas!