It’s tough to wrap your brain around something so miniscule it’s a thousand times smaller than a human hair. But when it comes to these nanoparticles, visualizing and measuring them can be a matter of life and death. That’s where a company based at the University City Science Center comes in. “One nanoparticle in your hand would be about the size of, say, a tennis ball on the surface of our planet,” explains Rob Hart. To see and analyze it, “the core technology is a tiny little fiber optic,” says Bernardo Cordovez. “They’re so small that they’re actually made using the same technology that make transistors and microchips.” Hart and Cordovez run Optofluidics. Their innovation — nanophotonics using chip-based fiber optics — grabs the nanoparticle, measures it, and gleans scientific data. It’s necessary, since you’d be out of luck if you tried to see these things with a normal microscope. Click here to read more.
04/25/15 | Science Center Companies
