NSF Sponsors Nanotech Projects

NSF has announced a pair of initiatives to increase the public’s understanding of nanotechnology and its implications. The first, the Nanoscale Informal Science Education Network, is a $20 million, five-year effort that will disseminate nanotech information through science museums. Led by the Museum of Science in Boston, the Science Museum of Minnesota, and the Exploratorium in San Francisco, the network will be the cornerstone of the agency’s multidisciplinary Nanoscale Science & Engineering Education program. The second initiative, Nanotechnology in Society, is a combination of centers and projects that focus on research, education, and communication of nanotechnology. More than $11 million will be used to set up two new centers at Arizona State University and the University of California, Santa Barbara, to support research and education in this area. The University of South Carolina and Harvard University will also receive about $1.4 million and $1.7 million, respectively, in NSF funding to build on previous projects relating to communication and databank creation