A team of researchers at the University of Michigan has created carbon nanotube images of President-elect Obama.
Details can only be seen with optical and electron microscopes.
I guess these guys don't have much else going on in their lab.
“I really didn't mean it in a political way,” said John Hart, assistant professor in mechanical engineering and leader of the research team at Michigan. “It was really for fun. It was a basic demonstration of what we can do with nanotubes.”
Hart said he hopes the interest in “nanobama” gives the public a better understanding of nanotechnology research and its applications.
Click here to check out the images.
Each of the millions of hollow carbon cylinders that make up the incoming president's image is tens of thousands times smaller than a human hair, but stronger than steel.
Patterns arranged in the shapes of Obama face are made of metal catalyst nanoparticles. The nanotubes are “grown” like forests of trees on the patterns by 1,000
degree-plus heat in a chemical reaction.
The images include a “nanobama” flag and “nanobama” blocks. There's even a “nanobiden” image of the incoming vice president, Joe Biden.
The idea behind “nanobama” came to Hart about six months ago, but he and his team didn't do anything with it until just before the election. It took about two days of work on their off-time to “grow” and photograph the nanotube images, and download them onto his Web site, www.nanobama.com, Hart said.
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