October 4, 2025

“Seeing the Nanoworld” — MOSAIC Team at the 2025 South Side Science Festival

How can we see what’s too small for our eyes, like atoms, molecules, and nanomaterials?

At the 2025 South Side Science Festival, our MOSAIC team invited kids to explore “Seeing the Nanoworld”, a hands-on journey showing how everyday experiments reveal the hidden science of the nanoscale, seeing the principles of chemistry in action.

Our team presented interactive demos connecting everyday experiences to nanoscale phenomena:

• Soap Torpedo Boat: A drop of soap broke the water’s surface tension, propelling paper boats and demonstrating how molecular interactions drive motion.

• Fruit Battery: Oranges powered LEDs, showing how electron flow and chemical reactions generate energy, the same principles behind nanoscale devices.

• Electroplating: Kids plated coins with copper, learning how electricity can move metal atoms and arrange them to form shiny new surfaces.

• Pinhole Camera: Scientists built a tiny metal film aperture using lithography to create a simple camera that forms real images just like a Polaroid. Showing that controlled fabrication and light can make the invisible visible, enable seeing the materials at the nanoscale.

Students not only had fun but also glimpsed how chemistry helps us understand and see the invisible world that powers modern technology, from energy conversion to advanced materials.

View more event images on our Gallery page.

At UIC, during Spring 2025, a module on Liquid Phase Electron Microscopy was introduced, focusing on recent advances and future innovations in the fields of chemistry and catalysis by MOSAIC leader, Prof. Robert Klie.