Week 8 : I'm short and that is cool and useful

 I have always been teased about my size. I'm remarkably short, proudly standing at 5ft 1in and with the exact feisty demeanor that fits the stereotype. However it's no wonder I would pick a major like Materials Engineering that deals with manipulating things into the smaller scale, scales unfathomable to the human eye and visible only with specialized technology but that one can use to solve real-world problems to humans. 

Dr. Gimzewski's lecture touched on the advent of the bucky ball and the carbon nanotube, but  nanotechnology can also be used to restore objects that come from much earlier by using imaging and characterization techniques from nanotechnology. For example Nathalie Boucherie, Witold Nowik and Nathalie Pingaud used Raman Spectroscopy, Electron Microscopy and X-Ray Diffraction to chracterize the pigments in Pre-Colombian wall paintings in Peru.  


Boucherie, Nathalie, et al. “Characterisation of Materials and Techniques in First Archaeological Findings of Nasca Wall Paintings - Heritage Science.” SpringerOpen, Springer International Publishing- Heritage Journal, 27 May 2021, https://heritagesciencejournal.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s40494-021-00535-y.


All three of these techniques rely on the way materials interact with light. Raman Spectroscopy chracterizes materials chemically by analyzing how much the wavelength of light shifts after interacting with a material and using that quantity to describe a material's chemical properties. Electron Microscopy and X-Ray Diffraction, mostly done using a scanning electron microscope (SEM) or an X-Ray Diffractrometer, rely on a similar idea by analyzing particles of light emitted by atoms when you bombard them with either a beam of electrons of a certain energy or with an electromagnetic radiation beam with a wavelength on the x-ray part of the light spectrum as shown below 



http://labman.phys.utk.edu/phys222core/modules/m6/The%20EM%20spectrum.html


From these techniques the investigators were able to tell a lot about the samples they found. From the thickness of the coating of the paint, to the exact ways each pigment was bound to the rock and what could be infered from that about the binder used for making , to the exact composition of the paint, which they found to be a mixture of iron oxides and copper based pigments, calcium sulfate, siliceous clay materials and graphite, as well as specific pigments which gave the paints their color. The image below shows both the  electron microscopy pictures used to determine the layers of paint, paint-rock connection and rock as well as four of the spectra used to identify pigment colors.

Boucherie, Nathalie, et al. “Characterisation of Materials and Techniques in First Archaeological Findings of Nasca Wall Paintings - Heritage Science.” SpringerOpen, Springer International Publishing- Heritage Journal, 27 May 2021, https://heritagesciencejournal.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s40494-021-00535-y.



Investigations like these connecting art and science are not only important to showcase how art was created and how people communicated with each other in the Pre-Colombian World in Peru but can and has been used to determine exact paints used by Micheangelo and new alloys used in aerospace industries, and even just how much you can redesign a necklace chain in order to not have it corrode every few months if you wear it to shower ( which is my senior design project). These techniques are incredibly useful and have real practical applications that should be empowered.


                                                                            Works Cited

1) “Prehistoric Pigments.” RSC Education, 1 Oct. 2015, https://edu.rsc.org/resources/prehistoric-pigments/1540.article.

2) Boucherie, Nathalie, et al. “Characterisation of Materials and Techniques in First Archaeological Findings of Nasca Wall Paintings - Heritage Science.” SpringerOpen, Springer International Publishing- Heritage Journal, 27 May 2021, https://heritagesciencejournal.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s40494-021-00535-y.

3) brukertv. “What Is X-Ray Diffraction?” YouTube, YouTube, 29 May 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHMzFUo0NL8.

4) MaterialsScience 2000 Textbook Youtube Channel. “The Scanning Electron Microscope.” YouTube, YouTube, 1 Mar. 2014, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GY9lfO-tVfE.

5) Yan, Di. “Guide to Raman Spectroscopy.” Bruker, https://www.bruker.com/en/products-and-solutions/infrared-and-raman/raman-spectrometers/what-is-raman-spectroscopy.html.


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