Secrets of the Nano- World: a new comic book tackles nanotechnology

How many nanometres does your hand measure? Why does nothing stand still in the nano- world? And what does atomic force microscopy allow us to do? This and more is revealed in the new comic book Secrets of the Nano- World, published by the Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences. The comic book introduces the frequently mentioned, but rarely taught topic of nanotechnology to (not only) students and teachers.

It was the end of 1959 when physicist Richard Feynman, in his lecture "There is plenty of room at the bottom", presented visions of the then-unimaginable miniaturisation and its consequences. Today, we encounter nanotechnology at every turn, often without realising it. How did we get here, how can we even imagine a nanoscale world, and where is nanotechnology heading? That's what Sofia and Alex, high school students on a science internship, find out in the comic, as they are mysteriously transported back in time to the very moments of Feynman's lecture and try to get back to their own present.

"Taking Sofia and Alex back in time allowed us to introduce the inventions that made the development of nanotechnology possible," explains Julie Nekola Nováková, the story's creator and a member of the outreach team at the Institute of Physics (FZU). "We would never have gotten to where we are without, say, the atomic force microscope. And how difficult is it to manipulate individual atoms? Readers can try that out on a larger scale with a little experiment!"

Prokop Hapala, who is involved in computational design of molecular machines at the FZU, consulted on the scientific and technical side of the comic. "I think it's important for students to think of molecules not as abstract formulas on paper, but real objects that can be touched, broken and built again," Prokop Hapala explains.

The comic was drawn by the artist Vojtěch Šeda, known mainly for his illustrations of historical books and comics. "What I enjoy about drawing comics is when I learn something new in the process," says Vojtěch Šeda. "In the case of the comic about nanotechnology, which was a big step into the unknown for me at the beginning, this was 100% true."

The authors have further plans for the comic book. "If you've had a chance to read it, you'll know there's room for a possible sequel... There are also plans for using elements of the comic in worksheets, infographics and physics-themed colouring pages," explains Julie Nekola Nováková.

The comic book is freely available under the Creative Commons license CC BY-SA 4.0, making it possible to translate it to other languages and otherwise use in science outreach and education across the globe.

Provided by Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences