Communicating Nanoscale Science and Engineering to the General Public
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1105-OO02-06
Communicating Nanoscale Science and Engineering to the General Public Carl Batt Food Science, Cornell University, 312 Stocking Hall, Ithaca, NY, 14853 Fundamental challenges to size and scale One of the fundamental challenges in communicating discoveries in nanoscale science and engineering is the simple concept of scale. A grasp of scale is important when describing these discoveries to the general public especially if this effort is to successfully inform them how to distinguish reality from science fiction [2]. The simple authentication of imagery requires the observer to verify that an object at the proposed scale is even possible. Small mechanical devices that are purported to be at the atomic scale would be understood to be science fiction if the observer was cognizant of that particular scale. The behavior of mechanical devices at this size is a more complex issue, but for the purposes of creating a more scientifically literate public, the ability to scale is important. Scale is used in a wide variety of scientific fields ranging from astronomy to nanotechnology. In all of these fields there is a need to project the observer to a scale that is far beyond their visual reach, referencing either significantly larger or in the case of nanotechnology significantly smaller units of measure. The question is what capability do most individuals have to project or embrace that scale and demonstrate a meaningful level of comprehension? Few studies have probed the ability of individuals to scale especially to smaller dimensions well beyond visual observation. Most of these efforts have focused on numerical estimations including the ability to estimate fractional populations. Estimating the scale of physical objects has mainly been explored with objects at a distance. The progression to a more complete understanding of the nanoscale may not be incremental or a result of some learning activity. More likely scientists gain an understanding of the nanoscale driven by an acceptance of inferential scientific data that over the past 100 years has laid the foundation for the field. Few efforts have been reported to determine the ability of the general public to assess the differences in scale using objects. Most studies have focused on astronomy, the differences in scale between very large objects being assessed. Attempts to use analogies of the macroscales of astronomy to help understand the fundamentals of the nanoscale have been instructive but not highly educational [3] Instead of objects, most of our understanding in the field of scale estimation involves the use of numbers. The ability to comprehend numbers over a large order of magnitudes and scale would seem to be an important element for Figure 1. The effect of think score on a subject’s ability to appreciating the nanoscale and extrapolate the size of an object increased by 100,000,000. nanotechnology. The prefix nano is Two objects were selected, a golf ball and a head of a pin. defined as one-billionth and a From [1] nanometer is therefore one-billionth
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