From the invisible to the visible world and back

Do not feel lonely, the entire universe is inside you. 

Rumi

From  the minute we are born, we  increasingly  receive  novel  information about the world we shall live  in: louder  sounds  find  their way to  fully functional ears; our eyes receive  light  from the wild world and  blurred-to-clear  images  are  processed by  a brand-new  brain; our soft skin feels the gentle  touch of  air and the warm contact of familiar hands....

The newborn brain grows incredibly fast up to the third month and then adapts to an adequate rhythm... The infant, once almost invisible in the womb of his mum, observes with an inquisitive mind the objects around him... he grasps them, tastes them, and observes them... He repeats this routine time and again as if it were the first time... he giggles... At times, he seems to comprehend the nature of them, as if the objects were his old friends.

Yet, neither he nor we probably think of the actual nature of his "friends". A plastic ball, for example, is, to our touch and sight, a solid of a certain shape and colour with mechanical properties that make it roll easily on a flat floor... Kids, dogs, and cats feel compelled to run happily and nervously after a rolling ball... and that's enough for us...

I'm watching you...!

But the ball is not the same for all of them. While humans have a considerable number of red, green and blue cone photoreceptors to process colours, cats and dogs may have them, but in lower amounts, different densities, having problems to receive red light and distinguish the wide array of colours of visible light, particularly the "red" colour of the ball. 

And the colour of the ball is elusive to humans as well... it will depend on several factors, such as light intensity and a sound number of healthy blue, green and red photoreceptors able to convert light into electrical impulses that will reach the brain for color processing... Thus, we might fairly say that the ball is "red", but that we all perceive particular shades of such a color.

Can you actually believe your eyes? Of course, we can, they give us valuable information about the world we live in. However, there are instruments that detect signals that the human eye cannot notice... devices that "see" the invisible world.... out there and in here...

Probing the Outer Space

While powerful telescopes scan the sky, sophisticated satellites are our eyes that travel, "see" and give information about the piece of the universe that is at hand. In here, on the other hand, the micro and nano world is gaining interest in all of us, when we see how powerful electron microscopes are used to understand the "invisible" world... when complex devices are used to obtain MRIs and thus understand what goes on in our body... when gold nanoparticles are used to treat  cancer... when the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is used to understand unsolved physical laws and mysteries of life ... and the traveling into the micro and nano world has just started and has a long way to go ...

By the way,  nanobots are currently being tried in humans to seek out and destroy cancer cells... the present and future of nanomedicine are becoming apparent and unavoidable to scientists.

Diverse disciplines and products receive the benefits of research and development in this micro and nano world: gene therapy, cloning, miniaturization, nanotechnology, telecommunications, genetically modified foods (GMF)....

Sooner rather than later, we realize that life is deeper and, like an onion, has different layers... Meanwhile, the kid, the dog and the cat will go on playing happily and nervously with no further concern.

Now, it's your turn:

Tell me about materials (eg gold nanoparticles), instruments (eg LHC) and/or techniques (eg cloning) that are important in the micro or nano world and have or might have a promising use in your career.

What they are used for

What importance they have in your career

Why you chose them

What future use they may have

When you learned about them

What impact they may have in human welfare
What advantages/disadvantages they may have

Minimum number of words : 200

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