Mike Hochella, distinguished professor at Virginia Tech, answers questions from UNL students and faculty after his presentation on nanogeosciences. Photo: Karoline Kastanek, NewsNetNebraska
Then take that cat and break it down again and what do you get?
A dog.
Mike Hochella, a distinguished professor at Virginia Tech, used this analogy to describe nanogeoscience to a group of University of Nebraska-Lincoln students and faculty who gathered this week in Hardin Hall on UNL's East Campus.
Nanogeoscience, the study of nanoscale phenomena related to geological systems, takes that cat principle and applies it to breaking down atoms. Eventually after an atom is reduced to nanoparticles, the particles start to show different properties. Scientists are discovering that these nanoparticles have properties totally different than the parent atom's properties. When you break water down, Hochella said, water is not water because nanowater dissolves differently than water molecules.
While nanotechnology can have a positive influence, other factors must be considered. Bruce Dvorak, interim director for the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's Water Center, worries that there are potential threats to the environment.
"Researchers are finding that nanoparticles can travel very far into an aquifer," he said while discussing the pros and cons of nanoparticle characteristics. Nebraska is home to the Ogallala Aquifer, one of the world's largest aquifers. The use of nanotechnology in ground water projects can have dramatic effects on the water supply - good and bad.
Some nanoparticles are being tested at the Center for the Environmental Implications of NanoTechnology, which is headquartered at Duke University, to determine how their unique properties can be applied to current problems with water resources, pollution control and even in the medical field. The center receives approximately $40 billion in research support from the National Science Foundation, which recently granted funds to the UNL's Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources for graduate studies in water research. Hochella said that even though $40 billion seems like a large amount of funding, it is still not quite enough to fully research the capabilities of nanotechnology.
Hochella anticipates that nanogeoscience will be to future generations what the catalytic convertor was to his generation.
"You can do great things with small packages."
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