darling: 03.12

Mar 27, 2012

Mar 16, 2012

Mar 12, 2012

2011 princeton art & science awards

Nature's Abstract Art
Anna Hiszpanski (GS) and Yueh-Lin (Lynn) Loo (fac)
Dept. of Chemical and Biological Engineering

Pictured is a crystalline thin film of contorted hexabenzocoronene (HBC), a semiconducting small molecule. Given the molecule’s highly conjugated nature, HBC tends to self-assemble into micron diameter-sized wires when the molecules are afforded some mobility. Originally, this ~120 nm thick film was amorphous and uniformly bright pink. This film crystallized when it was dabbed with a small amount of silicone oligomers, which diffused through the film and enabled the HBC molecules to self-organize into the beautiful and colorful crystals seen in the image. Learning to manipulate and control this natural self-assembly in order to improve charge transport in HBC electronic devices is the aim of our work.

This image of irrigated agriculture in the deserts of central Saudi Arabia, 450 km west of Riyadh, was taken by the Landsat 7 satellite on February 5, 2000, while orbiting 700 km above the surface of the Earth at a speed of roughly 26,000 km/h. The Saudis manage to make the desert bloom by pumping fossil water from deep below the Earth’s surface. A well at the center of each of these fields feeds a center pivot irrigation system which spreads water in large circles up to one kilometer in diameter. The aquifers which supply these fields are ancient and finite. When the fossil water runs out, the desert sands will return. Like the irrigation projects of many arid regions, the Saudis’ desert jewels will soon fade.

Simulated black-hole outflow powered by magnetic fields, which obstruct matter infall onto the hole. Here we see a meridional slice through the time-averaged flow. The black dot in the center shows the black hole horizon; grey lines show matter streamlines; red lines show field lines; and green lines show the boundary between the inflow and outflow.
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